The Outside Speakers Committee has chosen former Attorney General and possible 2002 Florida Gubernatorial candidate Janet Reno and historian, writer and professor Howard Zinn to speak at UR this school year.
Zinn will come first, Nov. 28 at 9 p.m., to an event that is co-sponsored by Amnesty International. A book signing will follow his speech. Reno, who will be coming March 20, 2002, will participate in a panel discussion in the afternoon and she will also give a speech at 9 p.m. Her speech is co-sponsored by the undergraduate political science council and Women?s Caucus as a part of the women?s history month.
?The selection process is always rather difficult, given the budget constraints that we deal with while still trying to find interesting and relevant speakers to bring to campus,? said Take-Five scholar Melinda Fountain, Chairperson of the Outside Speakers Committee.
Both speakers have many achievements in their respective fields.
?Professor Zinn has written groundbreaking books and devoted to the way that we view our own history and Janet Reno was the first female Attorney General of the United States,? Fountain said.
Rush Rhees Library now open until 3 a.m.
In order to better adjust to student lifestyle, the Rush Rhees library will be open longer, until 3 a.m., as compared to 1 a.m. last school year.
?For several years we have heard students speak about the changing patterns of study,? Dean of the River Campus Libraries Ronald Dow said.
This change is in response to the longer student work day with later class and lab schedules. The decision to change the library hours was made last academic year and implemented in the beginning of this semester.
?Studying is put off until later and later into the night,? Dow said.
?The change in hours is an ongoing attempt to respond to what we hear is [students?] lifestyle while on campus,? Dow continued.
The hours from Monday thru Thursday are 8 a.m to 3 a.m., Friday 8 a.m to 10 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Transcripts are now free for students
The UR Registrater?s office is no longer charging a two dollar fee to release student transcripts.
The cost had been in effect for many years in order to cover the administrative cost of the printing, preparation and the mailing of the transcript.
?Students need this in order to be able to access [transcripts] in a timely fashion,? UR Registrar Nancy Speck said.
?Absorbing the cost is a good service to give students,? Speck continued.
The decision to make transcripts free was implemented this summer.
Homerin to speak on Islam in the World Today
Professor of Religion and Chair of the Religion and Classics department Emil Homerin is giving a talk called ?Dissolving Misconceptions: Islam in the World Today? Tuesday, Sept. 25. The talk by Homerin ? a highly published theologian on Islam ? is giving the talk ?to dispel some misconceptions hat people have about the Muslim faith,? said senior Brooke Shuster. Senior Rebecca Wester-ling elaborated that ?in light of recent events a lot of people on campus are realizing how little we know about the Middle East and the Islam faith in particular. Its hard to discuss the recent events without being aware of the facts, at least in an intelligent way.?
The talk will commence at 6 p.m. in the Welles-Brown room of Rush Rhees Library. Admission is free.
Reporting by Mansi Desai
and Thomas Paris
