Former Secretary of State George Shultz praised the conservative legacy of the Reagan Revolution in his address to a capacity crowd at Tresidder Union last night at the inaugural meeting of the Stanford Conservative Society (SCS).

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Joel Lewenstein

The newly formed Stanford Conservative Society (SCS) launchs its kickoff event with a meeting featuring guest speaker and former Secretary of State George Shultz.

Shultz, a member of the Hoover Institution who served under President Ronald Reagan, waived his usual $50,000 speaking fee for the event, where he reminisced about his experiences in Washington and opined about the future of the conservative movement.

“Ronald Reagan is my hero,” Shultz said. “I had a great time serving him and we had fun. Reagan had a backbone of steel when standing up for his principles because he understood them.”

According to Shultz, Reagan ignited a conservative revolution that dramatically changed the economic values of the country. The former cabinet member also warned against adopting a universal health care system; instead, he argued, the U.S. system should be reformed to ensure that all Americans have access to health care.

“We should have a healthcare system in which money flows to individuals so they have a choice,” Shultz said.

He added that many of Reagan’s principles could be applied to modern-day problems. For example, he explained that the former president’s incremental approach to curbing ozone emissions could be applied to carbon dioxide emissions today. However, he also noted that any carbon reduction treaty must be an all-inclusive one that regulates developing countries like China and India to be truly effective.

“Why not apply the Montreal protocol — a process that keeps identifying things that can done about [carbon dioxide emissions] — and makes an agreement on a global basis to solve global warming.”

The event kicked off the first of several meetings that SCS leadership has slated for conservatives on campus. The group was founded to mobilize the University’s conservative community and to promote discourse among campus conservatives.

SCS Treasurer Steve Flory ‘10 said that while the group would not hold weekly meetings, it plans to be active.

“We don’t want to have a weekly meeting but every several weeks we will have Coffee with Conservatives as a time for conservatives to come together and talk about politics,” Flory said.

SCS President Grant Starrett ‘10 said that he plans to bring Craig Romney, son of 2008 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, to campus in addition to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts.

Milton Solorzano ‘07 said he was happy with the buzz surrounding the opening event.

“It was an excellent opportunity to bridge the disparate conservative communities at Stanford,” he said, “and a wonderful opportunity to hear one of the greatest policy figures of the late 20th century.”