The Frank Church Institute
Join us for the Frank and Bethine Church Award for Public Service Dinner – April 26th @ the Boise Centre on the Grove
With special guests, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist & New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman and Idaho Bureau Chief & Statehouse Reporter, Betsy Russel.
How Democracies Thrive and Survive in the 21st Century
The Frank Church Institute was established in 1982 as the Frank Church Chair of Public Affairs at Boise State University, to honor the achievements and to carry forward the principles of one of Idaho’s most distinguished native sons, Senator Frank Church.
The Institute, which is housed within the School of Public Service at Boise State University, emphasizes to its students those ideas which the Senator held dear—a strong belief in the rule of law, eloquence firmly based on reason, and an unwavering faith in the American political system.
Remembering President Jimmy Carter
Time for a new Church committee?
The newly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 118th Congress has called for a Select Subcommittee to broadly investigate the federal government. Many, including the Speaker, are calling the committee the Church Committee 2.0. Hear what those closest to the late Senator are saying about the comparison.
Special Exhibit Honoring Bethine Church at the Albertsons Library
The Albertsons Library Special Collections and Archives will host an exhibit honoring the 100th birthday of Bethine Church. The wife of Sen. Frank Church and the daughter of Gov. Chase Clark, Church spent much of her life in the public spotlight. This exhibit will celebrate Church’s life and work that extend far beyond her husband and father, and recognize her vast contributions to political, civic and social organizations such as the Sawtooth Society, the Boise Peace Quilt project, the Frank Church Institute and more.
Survey of the Mountain West
A large bi-partisan majority of Americans in a five-state swath of the Mountain West are on edge about the health of democracy in the U.S. (85%) and yet two-thirds of them believe politicians should find common ground rather than just stand their ground. Those are the headline findings from groundbreaking research released by the Frank Church Institute at Boise State.
Other themes from current events that emerged from the polling data include:
- A serious lack of trust in the federal government, much less so for local and state government
- An overwhelming concern about misinformation and its spread on social media, a subject of increased scrutiny in Congress
- A strong sense that Americans in rural communities feel left out of policy that affects them in their everyday life
- Who to blame for violent protests that laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021
- Though a majority back the ballot rather than violence, a concerning 1 in 5 believe that violence can be justified
Working with Boise State University’s Idaho Policy Institute, the Frank Church Institute commissioned a leading Washington, D.C.-based research firm, Morning Consult, to gather public opinions of approximately 1,900 adults in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming in the fall of 2021.
Read the Survey of the Mountain West