United Nations West
Former U.N. assistant secretary general Dennis Halliday condemned U.S. sanctions against Iraq in a February 27 speech at Terman Auditorium, arguing that the policy harms children. "The school system doesn't have a sanitation system or heat for the winter," he said. Two weeks later in a talk at Encina Hall's Bechtel Conference Center, Sadako Ogata, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, detailed the ethical challenges of protecting displaced people.
The Whole Truth
Journalists who go out looking for scandal shouldn't sweep their findings under the rug if they fail to discover dirt, said Steven Brill, founder and editor of media watchdog magazine Brill's Content. In a February 17 visit to Cubberly Auditorium, Brill argued that reporters should write the good news, too. On March 5, William Bowen, co-author of The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions, told an audience at Dinkelspiel Auditorium that universities should help nurture a diverse society.
Advocates for Change
Consumer activist Ralph Nader, addressing a March 13 Law School conference that drew students from around the country, urged aspiring attorneys to work for social change. John Deutch, former director of the CIA, told a capacity crowd at Annenberg Auditorium on March 4 that to better combat terrorism, the U.S. needs to find a balance between civil liberties and national security concerns. Olivia Gans, director of American Victims of Abortion, argued that ending a pregnancy is dehumanizing. Ganz spoke at the Women's Center on February 23 and Tresidder on February 24. Argentine diplomat Raúl Estrada-Oyuela described the politics behind the Kyoto Protocol on global climate issues at Bechtel Conference Center on February 11.
