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Welcome to the Keller Center

The Keller Center for the Study of First Amendment is part of the Political Science Department of the University of Colorado Boulder. The Center was endowed in 1993 by LeRoy "Lee" Keller, Vice President and General Manager of UPI鈥檚 International Service and a CU graduate.

Professor Steve Vanderheiden is Director of the Keller Center.

The Center's Mission

The Dalton Trumbo Fountain, named for the blacklisted author and CU alumnus who stood up to Joe McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947.

The Keller Center supports and encourages teaching, research and community outreach on topics and issues relating to the nature, meaning, and contemporary standing of First Amendment rights and liberties. Through undergraduate classes, public events, and scholarly conferences, the Center seeks to educate students, faculty and the community about the protections of free speech, press, association and religion under the First Amendment. The Keller Center also seeks to inform the public about the historical, legal and philosophical foundations of First Amendment rights and about contemporary threats to those liberties. 

"I am the only Democrat, the only liberal, and the only atheist in my family. I want the Keller Center to work to make it easier for others to pursue their individual beliefs, as I have been able to do all my life."

-LeRoy "Lee" Keller (CU '29)