These are the places to make mistakes and to take intellectual risks.

Robert L. Belknap

Every Seminar evening produces a renewal of intellectual curiosity and energy and a surge in the power of thinking.

Lisa Keller

The University Seminar is an independent universe.
Its boundaries are limited only by its horizons.

Frank Tannenbaum

I have always been a great admirer of this institution, which to me looks like an authentic republic of letters…

Hannah Arendt

The strength of its structure lies in the very multiplicity of its forms;
each a small living world in itself…

Margaret Mead

…Seminars provide a haven for the expression of the partly-baked
idea:
‘a speculation, a question of some novelty…

Robert K. Merton

We have to some extent learned each other’s language… to talk together more profitably.

Horace L. Friess

These seminars let participants combine what they worry about as
members of the academy, with what they worry about when they
read the morning paper.

Sidney Morgenbesser

The Seminars are one of the few places on campus where faculty, from different disciplines, across the NYC area, can come together for open, honest, and sustained dialogue…

Paige West

…Seminars provide a brilliant system for faculty and graduate students of the greater New York area to discuss topics that fall outside the traditional confines of departments.

Herbert Terrace

Because the idea is still alive…it is still a movement. Because it has assumed a shape, it is a community of scholars.

Joseph Maier

Since their inception in 1944, the Seminars have provided a place to experience the simultaneous loss of innocence and prejudice.

Robert Pollack

The Seminars bring together three generations of scholars and nonacademic members: young professionals, persons in the prime years of their careers, and emeriti.

The University Seminars