January 30, 2004
Public Policy Institute unveils schedule of events
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- A former U.S. agriculture secretary, a political analyst and the dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government are among the high-profile guests who will present free public lectures this semester at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
The University's Public Policy Institute, under interim director Mike Lawrence, is arranging the visits. Among the events is a two-day symposium in March on retired physicians. The symposium will include experts in the health care and medical fields and focus on how to better utilize retired physicians as volunteers.
Community outreach is among the goals of Southern at 150, the blueprint for the development of the University by the time it celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2019.
The schedule, so far:
- 7:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 9: Des Moines Register political columnist David Yepsen, one of the nation's leading political analysts and an expert on the Iowa caucuses, Hiram H. Lesar Law Building auditorium.
- 8 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 26: Joseph S. Nye, Jr., dean of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, will deliver the Morton-Kenney Endowed Lecture, Student Center auditorium.
- March 21-22 (times to be announced later), Symposium on Retired Physicians. The keynote speaker is Dr. William T. Close, a physician for more than 50 years who spent 16 years working in the Congo. Close was part of the team that defined and contained the first outbreak of Ebola in 1976. The symposium will be at the Student Center.
- 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 7: John R. Block, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and former director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, will speak on food safety issues and world hunger. Block's appearance is part of the Gil and Jean Kroening Lecture Series. The lecture will be in the law school auditorium.