University Lectures series explores ethics during Oct. 19 visit by Randy Cohen

Randy Cohen, Emmy Award-winning writer and humorist and author of “The Ethicist” column in The New York Times Magazine, will visit Syracuse University Oct. 19 as the next guest of the University Lectures series.

Cohen will speak on “How to Be Good” at 7:30 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel. The lecture is sponsored in cooperation with the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts as part of the department’s centennial celebration, and is free and open to the public. Reduced-rate parking will be available in the Irving Garage. CART and sign language interpreters will be available for all University Lectures this season.

Cohen was born in Charleston, S.C., and raised in Reading, Pa. He attended graduate school at the California Institute of the Arts as a music major studying composition. His first professional work was writing humor pieces, essays and stories for newspapers and magazines, including The New Yorker, Harpers, The Atlantic and Young Love Comics.

His first television work was writing for “Late Night with David Letterman,” for which he won three Emmy awards. His fourth Emmy was for his work on Michael Moore’s “TV Nation.” He received a fifth Emmy as a result of a clerical error, and he kept it. He was the original head writer on the “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” for which he also co-wrote the theme music. For two years, he wrote and edited “News Quiz” for Slate, the online magazine.

Cohen is the third of 14 distinguished guests and panelists who will share their global experiences and perspectives with the SU and Central New York communities as part of the University Lectures series.