I think, it went very well. The organizers were pleased and all that. It was just a very, very quiet — and a bit small — audience (until the Q&A portion). Many of my standard self-deprecating jokes were greeted with hard stares. I was tempted to say “These are the jokes, people.” I think the quiet was largely because the topic — diversity — is an uncomfortable one in an ideologically and racially mixed audience. Also, I get the impression that Ithaca College (which my brother briefly attended) is a really, really, liberal school. Nonetheless, I think it was a good event. I had a great time at dinner arguing with a serious lefty professor who has many of the same problems with contemporary liberalism that many of us on the right have. He was also very impressive because he’d actually read and taught conservative books. Usually, I find lefties who get their understanding of conservatism second or third hand (this is also true of many conservatives who do little reading of what the serious left is saying). I also spent some time with an old professor of mine who’s now the provost at Ithaca and much more entertaining to talk to than I remembered him being. Most of what I remember from college are the eye rolls when I would bring up Paul Johnson in class.

Highlight of the speech: A writing professor in the audience who clearly took a deep dislike to me kept wanting to debate this or that from my talk. Toward the end he told me in the tone I associate with aristocrats who toss a small bag of coins to the tavernkeeper, “you should read Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities, you may find it leaves you enlightened.” Translation: until you agree with me you shall remain a lumpen-troglodyte.