Commencement 2000

Khrushchev and Paterno headline 30th annual Commencement Forums

Brown’s 30^th annual Commencement Forums will spotlight lessons in leadership – from the arenas of international politics, science and technology to the world of art, the newsroom and the football field.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Sergei Khrushchev, football legend Joe Paterno, feminist Alice Shalvi and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Louis Sullivan will be among the speakers headlining Brown University’s 30th annual Commencement Forums on Saturday, May 27, 2000.

The forums draw upon the knowledge, talent and expertise of Brown alumni, faculty, students, parents and special guests to consider timely social and personal issues; they are an integral part of the University’s Commencement/Reunion Weekend. An outgrowth of the campus teach-ins of the early 1970s, the forums offer a window on the intellectual world of Brown. This year’s speakers will share lessons learned in the arenas of international politics, science, medicine and technology, as well as in the newsroom and on the football field.

Sixteen forums will be offered Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. and continuing throughout the day in various locations on campus. Each session will last 60 to 90 minutes and will include time for questions from the audience. All forums are free and open to the public.

Editors: Times and locations are subject to change. For the latest information, check the Web at http://www.brown.edu/Administration/George_Street_Journal or call the News Service at (401) 863-2476.

9 a.m.

John Seely Brown on Learning in the Digital Age

John Seely Brown ’62 will present New Learning about Learning in the Digital Age in the Starr Auditorium at W. Duncan MacMillan Hall, 167 Thayer St. Brown, the chief scientist and corporate vice president of Xerox Corporation, is also the director of its Palo Alto Research Center, which develops computer-based innovations to improve both human and organizational effectiveness. He will base this forum on his book, The Social Life of Information.

Bryson and Levine present The History of 20th Century Dance

In Pirouettes in Print: The History of 20th Century Dance, Tom Bryson ’72 and Antonia Levine ’74 will discuss their collection of some 2,000 books on 20th century dance, dance memorabilia and ephemera – and the lessons the collection holds. The session will be held in the Lownes Room of the John Hay Library, 20 Prospect St.

Allyn and Goldstein present The Second Sexual Revolution

Playwright and essayist David Allyn ’91 and physician Irwin Goldstein ’71 will present The Second Sexual Revolution in Room 001 of the Salomon Center for Teaching, located on The College Green. Allyn is the author of Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution: An Unfettered History, which examines the societal and political energies that led to an era of unprecedented sexual freedom in the 1960s and ’70s. Goldstein is a Boston urologist whose research has helped persuade the medical community that impotence is an illness worthy of medical care; he has been extensively interviewed and quoted on the subject of Viagra.

Jon Klein on news reporting in the new millennium

Jon Klein ’80 left his job last year as executive vice president of CBS News – where he oversaw the award-winning 60 Minutes and 48 Hours – to found TheFeedRoom.com, a video-powered, interactive news network. In Getting Your News Fix in the New Millennium, Klein will discuss the challenges and excitement of news reporting in a new medium for a new millennium. This forum will take place in Room 101 of the Salomon Center for Teaching on The College Green.

10:15 a.m.

Evans to present Reflecting on the Creative Process

Barnaby Evans ’75, the designer of Providence’s Waterfire, will discuss Illuminating the Mirror: Reflecting on the Creative Process in the main auditorium of the Albert and Vera List Art Building, 64 College St. Evans, who majored in biology at Brown, was commissioned by First Night Providence in 1995 to create Waterfire, a “site-specific artwork” that has become the hallmark of the city’s renaissance. He will talk about the energies that drive his creative spirit.

Joe Paterno to present On the Line: Leadership

Joe Paterno ’50 will share lessons learned from his five decades in coaching in On the Line: Leadership, at Sayles Hall on The College Green. Paterno, Penn State’s head football coach, will talk about what leadership looks like from the 50 yard line, as well as what qualities he has witnessed – and nurtured – in his athletes to help them assume leadership roles when their playing days are over.

The policy and precedent of the Elian Gonzalez affair

The Elian Gonzalez Affair: Policy, Precedent and Psychology will be the subject of a panel discussion in Room 001 of the Salomon Center for Teaching on The College Green. This panel will bring together individuals representing different views and legal opinions on the case, who can discuss its long-term effects on Elian Gonzalez himself. Participants are Micho Spring, co-chair of the Caritas Cubana Committee; Carl Krueger, a specialist in immigration law; and Steven Barreto, clinical director of child psychiatry, Brown Medical School. Froma Harrop, editorial writer for The Providence Journal, will serve as moderator. This forum is sponsored by the Pembroke Center Associates.

Rocky Kolb to speak on The Big Bang and Beyond

Edward W. “Rocky” Kolb, head of the NASA/Fermilab Astrophysics Group and the Fermi National Accelerator, will present The Big Bang and Beyond in the C.V. Starr Auditorium in MacMillan Hall, 167 Thayer St. Kolb, whose research focused on the application of elementary particle physics to the very early universe, will discuss recent discoveries that illuminate theories of the beginning of time. This lecture is underwritten by a grant to honor Maurice and Yetta Glicksman.

Sergei Khrushchev to discuss Vladimir Putin and Russia 2000

Sergei Khrushchev, a senior fellow at Brown’s Watson Institute and son of the late Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, will present a Commencement Forum titled Russia 2000: Who is Vladimir Putin? in room 101 of the Salomon Center for Teaching on The College Green. Where will Russia’s new leader take the beleaguered country? Will he push democracy forward or turn to authoritarianism? Khrushchev will offer insights into Putin and the future of Russia.

2:15 p.m.

Anthony Caldamone to speak on U.S. physicians and the international Power to Heal

Anthony A. Caldamone ’72, M.D., professor of surgery and pediatrics and president of the Brown Medical Alumni Association, will discuss The Power to Heal: Motives and Methods in International Medicine in Room 001 of the Salomon Center for Teaching on The College Green. Caldamone, a veteran of several international medical missions with Physicians for Peace, will explore how American physicians can best work with their colleagues abroad to improve developing health care delivery systems from the Antarctic to the Middle East. This is the fifth annual Ruth B. Sauber Distinguished Medical Alumni Lecture, named in honor of the medical school’s student affairs officer, emerita.

The Making and Remaking of the Brown Campus

Brown University curator Robert P. Emlen and Dietrich Neumann, professor of the history of art and architecture, will present Razed and Rising: The Making and Remaking of the Brown Campus in the C.V. Starr Auditorium at MacMillan Hall, 167 Thayer St. The pair will discuss some of the choices Brown has faced over the years in accommodating its growth and changing needs, particularly in razing old buildings to make way for new facilities as open space has disappeared on College Hill.

3:30 p.m.

Ogden Lecture: Alice Shalvi to speak on feminism in Jewish life

As part of this year’s forums, internationally known scholar and women’s rights advocate Alice Shalvi will present a Stephen A. Ogden Jr. Memorial Lecture on International Affairs; her talk, titled Renewal and Regeneration: Feminism’s Impact in Israel and Beyond, will be presented in Sayles Hall on The College Green. Shalvi, the first woman rector of the Seminary of Judaic Studies in Jerusalem, is also the founding chair of the Israel Women’s Network. She will describe the long-term effects of feminism on Jewish life and society that have resulted as women have redefined their relationship to their faith and questioned the patriarchal customs and laws of traditional Judaism.

The Ogden Lecture Series as established in memory of Stephen A. Ogden Jr., a Brown student who died in 1963 from injuries he suffered in a car accident. His family established the lectures as a tribute to his interest in international relations.

Bobby Jindal to speak on Restructuring Medicare for Baby Boomers

Bobby Jindal ’91, the 30-year-old president of the University of Louisiana system, will return to Brown to honor his teacher and mentor, retiring Professor of Political Science Thomas J. Anton, director of Brown’s A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy. Jindal, the former head of Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals, is credited with rescuing the state’s Medicaid program from bankruptcy. He will discuss Restructuring Medicare for Baby Boomers in the Starr Auditorium at MacMillan Hall, 167 Thayer St.

Augustus A. White III to present Diversity at Brown: A Progress Report

Augustus A. White III ’57, M.D., chairman of the independent visiting committee appointed last fall to study the state of diversity at the University, will discuss how well Brown has done in attracting students and faculty from all racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds and how it can strengthen its efforts. He will present Diversity at Brown: A Progress Report, an insider’s look at the study, in the main auditorium of the Albert and Vera List Art Building, 64 College St.

Eduardo Stein to discuss Peruvian elections and democracy in Latin America

Eduardo Stein, parent of a graduating senior, will present a Commencement Forum on What the Peruvian Elections Mean for Latin American Democracies in Room 001 of the Salomon Center for Teaching on The College Green. Stein, who served as foreign relations minister for former Guatemala President Alvaro Arzu, was appointed by the Organization of American States to head the Electoral Observation Mission for the April 9 general election in Peru. He was also actively involved in his country’s peace process and helped revamp Guatemala’s foreign relations agenda on issues such as human rights, regional development, the environment, trade and tourism.

Louis Sullivan on health disparity in America

Despite overall improvements in the health of Americans, minorities and the poor have not realized the same progress as white Americans. Former (1989-93) U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan, M.D., now president of the medical school at Morehouse College, will discuss strategies to address this continuing inequity in a forum entitled The Challenge of Health Status Disparities in America in Room 101 of the Salomon Center for Teaching on The College Green.