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[Public Policy Workshop archives]   [Workshop recordings]

THE HARVEY J. LEVIN PUBLIC POLICY WORKSHOP

An enduring legacy of Dr. Levin is the Public Policy Workshop, which he founded at Hofstra University in 1975 and directed until his death in 1992.  The Workshop has brought together a vast array of public figures and scholars of international reputation with the Hofstra and Long Island communities to dialogue on important policy issues facing society.

As the Workshop's director, Dr. Levin served as an organizer as well as its chief advocate, and ensured that it presented balanced and opposing views on the issues, in the tradition of academic and research integrity that was his hallmark throughout his career.

Upon his death, the Workshop was eliminated from Hofstra's budget but saved by his colleagues, friends and family through ongoing fundraising efforts, and renamed in his memory.

The Workshop's coordinator is Martin Melkonian, Professor of Economics at Hofstra and Research Associate at the Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy.

Writer/lawyer Richard Goodwin, one of the Workshop's many distinguished participants (with Robert Kennedy in 1968.) The author of Remembering America, Goodwin was a former aide to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy, and the Congressional investigator of the 1950s quiz shows scandal (as portrayed in the film Quiz Show.)  It was Goodwin who, as Johnson's presidential speechwriter, coined the phrase "The Great Society", as Johnson's domestic agenda came to be known. Goodwin was a featured speaker at Dr. Levin's last Workshop on April 3, 1992, entitled Working Conference on Revitalizing Democracy: Engaging Citizens in Public Life.

Partial list of featured speakers and participants, 1975-92

Alan Campbell, Chair, Civil Service Commission, Dean, LBJ School of Public Affairs, on Civil Service Reform

CED Panelists, on CED policy report on broadcasting and cable TV

Noam Chomsky, MIT, on (1) the nuclear arms race as a form of collective suicide, and (2) the Mideast the New World Order

Richard Cottam, University of Pittsburgh, on U.S. Middle East Policy

Robert Crandall, Brooking Institute, on (1) the break-up of AT&T and (2) steel trigger prices

Doudou Dienne, on U.S. and UNESCO

George Eads, CEA/University of Maryland, on inflation and environment

Richard Falk, Princeton University Center for International Studies, on postmodernism, politics and public policy

Robert Frank, CAB/Cornell University, on airline deregulation

Henry Geller, Duke University Washington Center/NTIA/FCC, on (1) international communications policy and (2) alternatives to deregulation in broadcasting (Hofstra TV Institute Inaugural Conference)

Richard Goodwin, author of Remembering America, on Revitalizing Democracy: Engaging Citizens in Public Life

Mark Green, NYC Consumer Affairs Commissioner, on Revitalizing Democracy: Engaging Citizens in Public Life

Thomas Hazlett, University of California-Davis, on Resisting the Governmental Habit: Reflections on the Interest Group Hijacking of Public Policy

Herbert Kelman, Harvard University, on ethics in social research and bio-med model

Michael Klare, Professor of Peace and World Studies, Hampshire College, Beyond Desert Storm: U.S. Defense Policy in the Post-Cold War Period

Everett Ladd, Roper Center/University of Connecticut, on general election (1980)

Stephen Lukasik, Chief Scientist at FCC, on international communications policy issues

Martin Malsch, NRC Deputy General Counsel, panel on nuclear accidents

William Niskanen, CEA/Berkeley/Cato Institute, on federal automotive regulation

Glen Robinson, FCC/University of Virginia Law School, on broadcasting and first amendment

John Ruggie, Columbia University School of International Affairs, with panelists from UN Secretariat and US Mission, on US and UN on its fortieth anniversary

James Rule, SUNY-Stony Brook Sociologist, on Orwell in year 1984

Mark Sakitt, Senior Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, on arms control issues

Murray Sidman, Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, on Orwell in year 1984

Lester Thurow, MIT Sloan School, on Zero-Sum Solution

William Vickrey, Columbia University, on multiple externalities of highway usage

Aaron Wildavsky, President of Russell Sage Foundation, Dean of Graduate School of Public Policy at Berkeley, on constitutional amendment to limit federal spending

"United States Ocean Policy in the 1990s: Straits, Minerals, Fisheries and Waste-Dumping", panel discussion on Law of the Sea issues

"Living Wills and the Right to Die" (with J. Regan, Hofstra Law School)

"Towards a New Policy on Hazardous Waste Disposal" (with Bill Ginsberg, Hofstra Law School)

Public interest lawyer, writer and consumer advocate Mark Green, a featured participant at Dr. Levin's last Workshop on April 3, 1992, Working Conference on Revitalizing Democracy: Engaging Citizens in Public Life. Then New York City's Consumer Affairs Commissioner, Green was former Director of the Democracy Project and Public Citizen's Congress Watch, and former presidential campaign speechwriter for Senator Gary Hart. After running for U.S. Representative and as Democratic nominee for Senator against incumbent Alfonse D'Amato, Green was elected to two terms as New York City's first Public Advocate, and as Democratic nominee for Mayor against corporate billionaire Michael Bloomberg. The latter campaign partially inspired Green's seventeenth book, Selling Out -- How Big Corporate Money Buys Elections, Rams Through Legislation, and Betrays Our Democracy.

Partial list of featured speakers and participants, 1992-present

Phillip Berrigan, antiwar activist and peacemaker, Reflections on War Today

Frederick Brewington, civil rights attorney, on Long Island peace efforts, costs and consequences of war and its impact on Long Island

Daniel Ellsberg, Director of Manhattan Project II at Physicians for Social Responsibility, on Stopping Nuclear Proliferation

Richard Falk, Princeton University Center for International Studies, on Resolving Conflicts in the Post-Cold War Era: The Role of Civil Society

William Hartung, World Policy Institute, Armed for Profit: the Selling of U.S. Weapons

Robert Heilbroner, New School for Social Research, on Balanced Budgets and America's Future

Mary Kaldor, University of Sussex and Helsinki Citizens Assembly, on Resolving Conflicts in the Post-Cold War Era: The Role of Civilized Society

Al-Haaj Ghazi Khankan, Islamic Center, on Long Island peace efforts, costs and consequences of war and its impact on Long Island

Jim Kiurfeld, editorial page editor for Newsday, The Gift of Time: The Case for Abolishing Nuclear Weapons Now

Rev. Mark Lukens, Interfaith Alliance, on Long Island peace efforts, costs and consequences of war and its impact on Long Island

Robert Manoff, NYU, Center for War, Peace and the News Media, on Resolving Conflicts in the Post-Cold War Era: The Role of Civilized Society

Don Rojas and Bernard White, WBAI Pacifica Radio, on Long Island peace efforts, costs and consequences of war and its impact on Long Island

Jonathan Schell, editor for The Nation, columnist for Newsday, on Global Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons

Jonathan Schell, writer, The Gift of Time: The Case for Abolishing Nuclear Weapons Now

Victor Sidel, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTB)


Marchers for peace in Memorial Day Parade, Garden City, New York, May 1972
(Photos: Harvey J. Levin)

 
[Public Policy Workshop archives]   [Workshop recordings]

 

THE WORK
HJL Collections

Bio

Papers & Publications
THE VISION
Main Page

Invisible Resource

Harvesting the Invisible Resource
THE MAN
HJL Collection Exhibit

Guide to HJL Collection

Obituaries
THE LEGACY
Tributes

HJL Public Policy Workshop

Additional Personal Materials
Related…
Issues & Events

Groups

Colleagues