For the first time since its creation three years ago, Safe Zone is offering training to all students, not just to select groups. Training sessions will be held Oct. 22 through Oct. 26 in Wilson Commons.
Safe Zone is a student run program that creates visible, safe places throughout campus for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their allies to talk. The areas are marked by specific cards that are displayed on people?s doors or somewhere else where they would be visible to passers by.
Becoming a part of Safe Zone involves attending an hour long orientation session that is facilitated by two students. ?There you will receive a great amount of information, a resource packet and a Safe Zone card,? UR Safe Zone coordinator Beth Fox said. After the session is over there is no obligation to continue to be a part of the organization, but there is opportunities for further development and support.
The program was started in the 1999-2000 school year by training 50 Residential Advisors, staff and faculty. Over the past two years the program has been expanded to student leaders, and now to any student interested.
The training sessions will be held Monday, Oct. 22 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in the Gowen Room, Tuesday, Oct. 23 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the Gowen Room and 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Havens Lounge, Wednesday, Oct. 24 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Gowen Room, Thursday, Oct. 25 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Gowen Room and Friday, Oct. 26 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the Gowen Room.
For more information, contact Beth Fox at safezone@mail.rochester.edu.
Foster to speak on feminism and abortion
The president of Feminists for Life, Serrin Foster, will speak in Hubbell Auditorium at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 22. Her speech, entitled ?The Feminist Case Against Abortion,? is co-sponsored by the Catholic Newman Community and Feminists for Life of New York.
The talk is free and open to the public.
The speech will center on dispelling the misconception that feminists are always pro-abortion. Foster will present an outline of the views of the feminists who are against abortion. ?It is a good issue because a lot of people don?t realize that feminists can have diverging views,? junior Candace Curran said.
Anthropologist to discuss meaning of culture
Lila Abu-Lughod, professor of anthropology and gender studies at Columbia University, will give this year?s Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture Wednesday, Oct. 24. She will be discussing ?The Ambivalence of National Identity: Asserting the Local in the Face of the Global? at 7 p.m. in Morey Hall, room 321.
Abu-Lughod is a scholar of Middle Eastern studies who has loooked at people?s reactions to Egyptian soap operas in relation to how citizens look at a national identity. Her expertise stems from the two and a half years she spent living with the Baladi tribe of Egyptian Bedouins, studying television and public culture in Cairo and looking at health and medicine issues in rural Egypt.
There will also be a panel discussion at in the Welles-Brown Room of Rush Rhees Library Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 2 p.m. Abu-Laughod will provide commentary and show videotapes of Egyptian soap operas. Professor of Religion T. Emil Homerin and Associate Professor of Anthropology Thomas P. Gibson will also participate in the discussion entitled, ?In the Name of Community: The Management of Religion and the Magic of Stars.?
The discussion will focus on the strategies and efforts of Egyptian media to combat Islamic terrorism and extremism through a common love of the actors.
Both events are free and open to the public.
Hill Court election runoff to occur Oct. 22?23
The runoff election in the Hill Court area Students? Association Senate race will take place Monday, Oct. 22 and Tuesday, Oct. 23. Online voting will open at 10 a.m. Monday and continue until 10 p.m. Tuesday.
The senate Monday approved the dates at its meeting, which were recommended by junior and Chair of the Senate Election Committee Adam Simmons.
Simmons said said that paper ballots will be allowed in the runoff, but students wishing to vote that way will be compelled to sign an agreement stating that they understand their votes will not count if they are found to have active e-mail accounts on the mail server.
The Hill Court area election, for two senate positions, ended in a three-way tie between John Brach, Pete Sanfacon and Sean Sullivan. A dispute involving paper ballots reached the All-Campus Judicial Council, which decided to include the paper ballots.
Junior Lora Marden, originally announced as a winner in the election, was in fourth place after ACJC reinstated two ballots.
Write-in votes will be allowed in the runoff election.
Nine area senators and one class senator were elected to the senate Wednesday, Oct. 3. Ten percent voter turnout left some disappointed.
