Speaker
Series Spotlights Issues to Unite GMU with Arlington
Community
The Spotlight
Speaker Series, sponsored jointly by GMU and the
Arlington Country Public Library, entered its second
year this semester on Oct. 27 with “The
Election: What’s at Stake?” During the event at the Arlington Campus,
a panel of SPP professors spoke with Arlington residents, as well as GMU students
and faculty, about the Electoral College, the religious right, U.S. fiscal policy,
the European Union and the “angry voter.” The panel included Professors
Desmond Dinan, James Pfiffner, Mark Rozell and Susan Tolchin.
 |
| From
Left to Right : Professors Susan Tolchin, James
Pfiffner, Mark Rozell, and Desmond Dinan |
The opening session
provided a lively discussion and showed promise
for another successful series, according to Jocelyn
Rappaport,
the Arlington campus’ public
information manager. “The speaker series enriches the relationship between
the university and the community and makes available the wealth of knowledge
and experience of our professors to the internal and external community,” she
says. Rappaport worked with Arlington County Library to launch the free
program last year. She says that the series has become popular with both
the public
and the GMU community.
The series, which
includes two discussions per semester, allows GMU
to reach out in a way that’s not only important but also essential. “The Spotlight
Speaker Series extends education beyond the classroom,” she says.
Rappaport is grateful
that so many GMU professors have willingly volunteered
their time to lead discussions that are both meaningful and insightful
to the audience. “The speakers’ firsthand experiences with the topics they
discuss enable them to personalize the issues for the audience,” she
says.
The next discussion, “Connecting the Dots – A Matter of National
Security,” will take place on Thursday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. at the Arlington
County Library at 1015 North Quincy Street. Professor David Schum from Mason’s
Schools of Law and Information Technology and Engineering will argue
that the intelligence community should not exclusively be blamed for
failing to prevent
the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Two more speaker
series will be announced for the spring semester. |
