Thomas Lindsay (academic)

Thomas K. Lindsay is an American educator and academic who briefly served as President of Shimer College. He was the Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities until December 2008. He was also the Director of the NEH We the People initiative, which funds programs, research and other activities that explore significant events and themes in U.S. history and culture, and advance knowledge of the principles that define America.

Lindsay received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His research has focused largely on the relation of democracy and education. His articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics and the American Journal of Political Science.

Lindsay was a professor of Political Science at the University of Northern Iowa and won the Pi Sigma Alpha/American Political Science Association Award for Outstanding Teaching in 1999. The same year, he was appointed dean of the graduate school and director of the Institute for Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas, and subsequently was promoted to provost.

In 2005, Lindsay briefly became provost and executive vice president of Seton Hall University.

Thomas Lindsay became president of Shimer College, a Great Books college with an enrollment of approximately 150 students, in January 2009. His short tenure was attributable to his controversial tactics and questionable long-term plans for the school. Controversy first broke out when Lindsay abruptly fired the Director of Admissions, subsequently replacing her with a candidate who had been twice rejected by the search committee. According to Shimer Professor Albert Fernandez, Lindsay's actions were undertaken unilaterally, "without any internal consultation whatsoever". He soon acquired the title, "The Enemy of Democracy at Shimer College" as reported in the Student Newspaper of the Illinois Institute of Technology (Shimer had relocated to the IIT Campus in 2006).

...
Wikipedia