Applied Public Policy

This op-ed was originally ran on September 22, 2026 in The Greenville News. Written by Hanaa Khan ’28 The post Greenville City needs the penny sales tax appeared first on The Riley Institute.Read more

This op-ed was originally ran on October 27, 2025 in South Carolina Daily Gazette. Written by True DePaoli ’27 The post You can’t fix the birth rate without fixing child care appeared first on The Riley Institute.Read more

In an op-ed published in Greenville Journal, Furman University senior Libby Adams wrote about AI and its potential human toll. Adams, a psychology and politics and international affairs double major, said as a high school student, she debated issues surrounding lethal autonomous weapons and AI. Having a...Read more

From fire departments to foundations to law enforcement, three Riley Fellows share how DLI changed the way they lead, inspired new policies, and built lasting connections. The post Beyond Professional Development: How DLI Changes Leaders appeared first on The Riley Institute.Read more

When classroom disruptions become the norm, who pays the price? A teacher trying to deliver a lesson, a student struggling to stay focused, and classmates hoping to learn all share the consequences when behavior challenges take over instructional time. Across the country, questions about student behavior, classroom discipline, and teacher...Read more

Most political advertising dollars are spent on TV despite a growing shift toward social media outlets, reports Bella Carpentier for The Greenville News. She turned to Furman University’s David Fleming for comment. Fleming, a professor of politics and international affairs and a senior researcher with The...Read more

The Riley Institute at Furman University will host Ambassador Rahm Emanuel and Upstate business leader Billy Webster for an on-stage conversation about the public policy issues shaping the national conversation ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The event, scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 14, from 6 to 7 p.m. in the...Read more

Furman University senior Ben Thompson writes an opinion piece in The Post and Courier about how donors and nonprofits can make the most of donor-advised funds, shoring up the gap left by traditional funding vehicles. Thompson, a politics and international affairs and a Spanish major, says a...Read more

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, we explored AI’s promise as a learning partner as well as the evidence gaps and risks surrounding educational technology. But the question remains: what should we actually do? The answer is unlikely to be either...Read more

In Part 1, we looked at AI’s promise as a learning partner—and the risk that convenience can replace the productive struggle students need to develop lasting skills. But schools face another challenge: we’re adopting AI faster than we can determine what actually works, prepare children for an...Read more

What if the smartest student in the classroom isn’t a student at all? Today, students can ask AI to explain a difficult equation at midnight, brainstorm an essay in seconds, or create a personalized study guide with a few prompts. For teachers, AI and other educational technologies can provide new...Read more

Riley’s Readers, a program crafted by Furman University’s Riley Institute Fellows, was featured on WYFF News 4 and on FOX Carolina News. Riley’s Readers enables incarcerated parents to record their voices as they read stories to their children. The recordable books are then shared with the inmates’...Read more

Hanaa Khan, a junior at Furman University, has written an opinion piece in The Greenville News in favor of a proposed penny sales tax for Greenville residents. The tax, which will appear on the ballot this November, has the potential to raise more than $510 million over eight years...Read more

More than three decades ago, Alexander Stubb ’93 H’17 and Gen. Joshua Rudd ’93 arrived at Furman University with different interests, different ambitions and little indication of where their paths would eventually lead. On Friday, those paths came together again at the university that helped shape both of them. Stubb,...Read more

Amid a capacity crowd Sept. 18 in McAlister Auditorium at Furman University, news organizations near and far covered a talk featuring Finnish President Alexander Stubb and General Joshua Rudd, both 1993 Furman alumni. From domestic and foreign policy to artificial intelligence to college days hijinks, news sources touched on a...Read more