Jason Riley, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, will give the BB&T Distinguished Lecture on March 30, at 3:30 p.m., in the Alumni Assembly Hall in the Holtzman Alumni Center.

Riley’s talk, “How Campus Censorship Harms Us All,” is hosted by the Pamplin College of Business and part of its BB&T Distinguished Lecture Series on Capitalism. The lecture is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

Riley has worked at the Wall Street Journal for more than 20 years, writing opinion pieces on politics, economics, education, and immigration and race, among other subjects.

He is also a commentator for Fox News, where he has appeared for more than a decade, and a frequent public speaker.

He joined the Journal in 1994, was named a senior editorial-page writer in 2000, and became a member of the editorial board in 2005.

In 2008, he published “Let Them In,” which argues for a more free-market oriented U.S. immigration policy. His second book, “Please Stop Helping Us,” about the track record of government efforts to help the black underclass, was published in 2014. He joined the Manhattan Institute in 2015.

Born in Buffalo, New York, Riley earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has also worked for USA Today and the Buffalo News. He lives in suburban New York City with his wife and three children. 

The BB&T lecture series is part of a Pamplin teaching program to explore the foundations of capitalism and freedom. The program’s undergraduate and graduate courses examine alternative economic systems, including socialism and communism, and compare them with the economic solutions offered by free markets. For more information, please contact finance department head Vijay Singal.

The program was established in 2007 in the college’s finance department with a $1 million gift from BB&T Charitable Foundation.

Free parking is available at the Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center. Find more parking information online, or call 540-231-3200.

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Terry Goodson at 540-231-5886 or email goodson@vt.edu during regular business hours at least five business days prior to the event. 

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