University-wide series on crisis begins Oct. 4

University-wide series on crisis begins Oct. 4September 29, 2001Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

The first installment of The University Forum: The Global Response to Terrorism, a series of University-wide forums dealing with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the emerging global crisis, will be held at 8 p.m. Oct. 4 in Syracuse University’s Grant Auditorium.

The inaugural forum, “Some Origins of the Crisis,” will include presentations by the following panel of scholars:

• Tazim Kassam, associate professor of religion in The College of Arts and Sciences, who will speak on “Islam and Context for the bin Laden Group”;

• J. Michael Gaddis, assistant professor of history in The College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School, who will speak on “Cultural Views on Religion and Violence” and;

• Goodwin Cooke, professor of international relations in The College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School and former ambassador to the Central African Republic, who will present “Sources of Near Eastern Concern About the U.S.A.”

The moderator for the panel discussion will be Eric Schiff, professor and chair of the Department of Physics in The College of Arts and Sciences.

An open discussion session will follow the panel presentations. The forum is open to all members of the University community and to the general public. Refreshments will be served.

Subsequent forums in the series will be held on Oct. 18 and 25 and Nov. 1, 8, 15 and 29.

“It’s our intention that this series of forums will provide additional facts and perspectives on many aspects of this terrible event, and the response of the United States to it,” says David M. Rubin, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and chair of the Academic Affairs deans’ group that is planning the series. “In this way we hope to enrich the debate on campus. Such discussions can also serve to reassure persons during this stressful period.”