Past Lectures

The Bollens-Ries-Hoffenberg Lecture Series


2008
California Government: What's Wrong & How to Fix It
Bill Boyarsky, George Skelton, and Bill Stall
Master of Ceremonies - Edmund D. Edelman
Lecture Moderator - Bill Parent

2007
Million-Dollar Murray: The Costs of Homelessness in America
Malcolm Gladwell

2005 - 20th Anniversary Lecture
How Can California Government Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century?
Former Governors Jerry Brown, Gray Davis, George Deukmejian
Moderator - Kevin Starr, Professor, History, University of Southern California, and California State Librarian Emeritus

2003
California's Crisis: Budgeting in a Strait Jacket
Robert M. Hertzberg - Speaker Emeritus, California State Assembly, and Partner, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw

2002
Borough, Si! Secession, No!: Or, It's Time to Start Thinking about a Borough System for Los Angeles
Kevin Starr, Ph.D. - California State Librarian

2001
The State of Los Angeles: How Can Our City be Improved?
Genethia Hayes - President, Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education
Angela Oh - Member, Los Angeles Human Relations Commission

2000
Budgets, Taxes, and Spending: The Promise and the Challenge in California
Elizabeth G. Hill - Legislative Analyst, State of California

1999
Can the Rainbow Hold Together?: Racial and Ethnic Coalitions in a Diversifying Nation
Jennifer L. Hochschild - Professor, Government, Princeton University

1998
Politics and Ethnicity
James Q. Wilson - Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, UCLA

1997
Government's Role in the Arts: What Is It? What Should It Be?
Andrea Rich - President and CEO, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

1996
Should We Hate the Media?: The Responsibility of the Press in the Decline of Public Life
James Fallows - Washington Editor, Atlantic Monthly

1995
The Current Health of State and Local Government in California: What Prescriptions are Needed?
Edmund D. Edelman - Former Member, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors

1994
Economic Security in a World of Change: Can We Have Both?
Michael Dukakis - Former Governor, Commonwealth of Massachusetts

1993
Building and Rebuilding Los Angeles: How the City's Development Agencies Shape Regional Growth
Steven P. Erie, Ph. D. - Professor, Political Science, University of California, San Diego

1992
End of the Cold War: New Challenges for Governing
Walter F. Mondale - Vice President, United States of America

1991
New Directions for California
Carl Covitz - Secretary, Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, State of California

1990
Some Promising and Dismal California Political Participation Trends
Mervin Field - President, Field Institute, and Director, California Poll

1989
Military Spending vs. Social Spending: Can We Afford Both?
Dale Bumpers - United States Senator, State of Arkansas

1988
The Welfare State and Local Government
Dr. Theodore J. Lowi - John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions, Cornell University

1987
Plebiscitarian Democracy in California: The Initiative Process
Dr. William Hamm - Vice-President, World Savings

1986
State and Local Government: Where the Action Is
Dr. Hale Champion - Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

1985 - Inaugural Lecture
Strategic Decisions That Molded Los Angeles: Could They Be Made Today?
Dr. James Q. Wilson - Professor, Graduate School of Management and Department of Political Science, UCLA