Students interested in classical studies focused on Western Civilization and its contributions may have trouble locating courses with institutions dominated by liberal professors, progressive agendas, and students interested in parties more than scholarship.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on one professor’s quest for a friendly environment:

Stephen H. Balch, the longtime leader of a group that promotes the study of Western civilization, has moved to Texas Tech University.

On Thursday, Kent Hance, the institution’s chancellor, was scheduled to preside over the opening of the Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, which Mr. Balch will direct.

It will do what Mr. Balch has long advocated for colleges and universities nationwide in his role as a founder and then president of the National Association of Scholars, from 1987 to 2009: emphasize the accomplishments of the West.

From his Lubbock office, Mr. Balch, 68, said that the institute will stimulate discussion on the campus through guest lectures, symposia, brown-bag lunches, and conferences. It will also propose courses to be taught at Texas Tech, and even courses of study.

He says he hopes his colleagues in the Honors College, the institute’s academic home, will join him in that endeavor. Initially such colleagues would teach courses, but “I hope we’ll grow to have an influence in hiring,” to recruit academics interested in “the big questions” of Western civilization. “But that would be done on a collegial basis,” he added. “It’s not something I can or should do by myself.”

Expansion beyond Texas Tech is among his goals, too, “because Western civilization can’t survive on one campus alone.”

The establishment of such a center at Texas Tech, a large public university, is striking, given how long its director, and his mission, have been contentious among academics. Mr. Balch and the National Association of Scholars have disparaged numerous perceived misdirections in American higher education, among them what they call politicization and trivialization in the classroom, an overemphasis on identity and pop culture, suppression of debate, excessive tuition fees and other flaws in higher education’s financial model, and such issues of academic integrity as plagiarism and grade inflation.

Five years ago, Mr. Balch says, he decided the time to move on was approaching: “I really wanted to do some of the things I had urged others to do,” he said. He began to gradually hand over the reins at the National Association of Scholars to Peter Wood, who is now the group’s president and is also a contributing writer to The Chronicle. Mr. Balch remains on the association’s Board of Directors, which he chaired from 2009 until August this year.

As he sought a new base, Mr. Balch says, he found several institutions interested in accommodating him. “But none offered me as promising a set of possibilities as Texas Tech,” he said.