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Hayward Picked As CU's Visiting Conservative

DENVER (AP) - The University of Colorado announced Wednesday that a government and history professor at Ohio's Ashland University and former think tank fellow will be the resident conservative at its Boulder campus.

Steven Hayward will serve as the school's first visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy, a temporary position paid by more than $1 million in private funds.

The university, long considered a liberal stronghold, first unveiled plans to establish a visiting scholar endowment in 2007, but the economic downturn forced the school to scale back the plan to a three-year pilot program. Hayward, the author of books on Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill as well the Biblical perspective on nature, has signed on for one year.

"Dr. Hayward brings an impressive breadth of knowledge to this position, having researched a range of environmental, historical and political issues," Steven R. Leigh, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said in a statement.

Hayward will teach three political science classes and one in environmental studies about free market environmentalism. He wants to include the conservative perspective but said he won't advocate for conservatism in the classroom.

"I'll teach the whole spectrum, from blue to red," he said.

Hayward said the lack of conservatives at large research institutions like CU is partly due to self-selection by conservative scholars, who usually dislike the narrow specializations that such schools require. He said he took an untraditional path into academia from think tanks, including The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, and prefers a "wide gauge" approach to subjects.

While he expects to invite speakers to campus and hold conferences during his time in Boulder, Hayward doesn't think he'll be engaging in debate on "front page issues," like gun control and civil unions, which lawmakers have been debating in the swing state lately.

- By Colleen Slevin, AP Writer

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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