SU Honors Program to present ‘Connected Communities’ event March 30

SU Honors Program to present’Connected Communities’ event March 30March 18, 2005Edward Byrnesedbyrnes@syr.edu

Syracuse University’s Renee Crown Honors Program will host a daylong event on March 30 in celebration of the links between the University and the surrounding community. Titled “Connected Communities,” the event will feature seminars and activities for students and community members alike to come together in the spirit of civic engagement and fellowship. The event, part of Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s inaugural year, “Exploring the Soul of Syracuse: University as Public Good,” is free and open to the public. Parking will be available in SU’s paid visitor lots.

“Shortly before Nancy Cantor was named Chancellor, the Honors Program embraced a commitment to civic engagement as one of the attributes we want to see in all our students. We now joyfully celebrate our shared values and her strong leadership, by advocacy and by example, on this dimension,” says Samuel Gorovitz, professor of philosophy and founding director of the Honors Program.

From 10 a.m.-4 p.m., in the atrium of the Schine Student Center, activities will include displays from the Society for Physics Students Outreach, the Upstate Medical University Children’s Hospital, the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology (MOST), the University Bookstore, the Center for Public and Community Service, and the Honors Student Association. The Honors Program will also present a video installation featuring Syracuse-area agencies and initiatives linked to SU and the Honors Program.

Three seminars, presented by Honors Program instructors and featuring special guests from the community, will commence with “Culture of Violence” from 12:45-2:05 p.m. in Room IA of the Newhouse I building. The seminar, presented by Mark Muhammad, a doctoral student and adjunct professor in the Communication and Rhetorical Studies Department in SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, will explore crime and youth violence, and what can be done to reduce it in Syracuse. Muhammad is actively involved in various Syracuse community initiatives, including serving as a member of the Violence Intervention and Prevention Projects’ Community Advisory Committee, Focusing Our Resources for Community Enlightenment (F.O.R.C.E.) and Leadership Greater Syracuse. His seminar will feature former gang member and author General Davis; Zanetta Greene, founder of Precious Hands, a grassroots organization aimed at assisting female youth; and Ronald Muhammad, a former case manager with the Syracuse Partnership to Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence.

The second seminar, “A Public Service Script-Utility vs. Aesthetics,” will be presented by Gerardine Clark, SU Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence in the College of Visual and Performing Arts in the Kilian Room, Room 500 of the Hall of Languages, from 2:15-3:35 p.m. Her seminar will examine the creation of the short film “The Decision,” produced to promote widespread knowledge of the juvenile justice system and aid in the prevention of juvenile crime through such knowledge. The seminar will feature a screening of the final film and will revisit the process of research, planning, writing, filming, promotion and distribution. The film’s creative director, Professor Richard L. Breyer of SU’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications; and Associate Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts James A. Clark, who assisted with the project, will also participate in the discussion.

The third seminar, from 3:45-5:05 p.m. in the Noble Room of Hendricks Chapel, is titled “Flaunting It: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Rights and Culture.” This seminar, presented by artist, lecturer and human rights activist Harry Freeman-Jones, will explore the conflicts religious institutions experience when coming to terms with their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members’ aspirations to participate fully in their faith communities. Freeman-Jones will be joined by the Rev. Thomas Wolfe, dean of Hendricks Chapel; and community activist William Knodel. Freeman-Jones has been active in the cause of establishing equal rights for the LGBT communities since the late 1960s. In addition to teaching for the Honors Program, he is a consultant and patient instructor for the Department of Family Medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University.The day will conclude with a First-Year Honors Students’ Connected Communities Dinner at the Sheraton Syracuse University. This event is open only to first-year Honors students, seminar instructors, Honors staff and invited guests. The program, which will begin with a welcome from Gorovitz and opening remarks from Cantor, will feature several brief presentations from SU students and instructors.

“The students will come to this event having read an array of texts about civic engagement. The shared reading will provide background for an insightful and reflective conversation within this community of young scholars-a conversation that will begin on March 30 and will endure throughout their college years,” says Gorovitz.

For more information on the Renee Crown Honors Program, visit http://honors.syr.edu/.