Deliberative Democracy Events at Cal U Include Lectures by James Fishkin, George Mehaffy, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
For Immediate Release
Contact: Angela Burrows, Director of Public Affairs
724-938-1540; burrows@cup.edu
Environmental issues are vital to region, say students energized by presidential politics
CALIFORNIA, PA (March 12, 2008)
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California University of Pennsylvania hosts Deliberative Democracy: University Students Have Their Say, a day of “deliberative polling” on environmental issues and a public lecture on Monday, March 31, 2008, and a speech by environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Wednesday, April 16, 2008.
The public is invited to a 7 p.m. lecture on March 31st about Deliberative Polling®, which uses social science methods to see how people’s opinions change about issues as individuals become more engaged and informed. The event will be presented in the Morgan Hall auditorim on campus. Cal U is conducting baseline polling on environmental issues—including the state of the region’s rivers—on campus in March. To date, nearly 1,000 students have responded to the survey. On March 31st, students will hear experts debate issues raised in the polls, then participate in group discussions and be polled again to determine if their opinions changed after considering new information. A key goal of all Deliberative Polling® is to prepare students to be informed, engaged citizens.
Cal U is hosting the Deliberative Polling® events as part of the American Democracy Project (www.aascu.org/programs), of the American Association of State Colleges & Universities. The Deliberative Polling Initiative of the American Democracy Project is supported by The New York Times and the Center for Deliberative Democracy (www.cdd.stanford.edu) and is based on work pioneered by Dr. James Fishkin of Stanford University. Dr. Fishkin and George Mehaffy of the American Democracy Project will speak about deliberative democracy at Cal U in an evening lecture on March 31st.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., environmental activist and attorney, speaks on Wed., April 16, 2008, at 7 p.m. in the Steele Hall Main Stage. His lecture, free and open to the public as part of the Noss Lecture Series, will be followed by a question-and-answer session and a book signing. Kennedy is senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeepers and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance. Time named Kennedy one of the magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet” for leadership in the fight to restore the Hudson River and resulting network of Waterkeeper organizations across the world.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will speak at Cal U about the state of rivers in the United States and other environmental issues as well as the need for young people to have a greater voice in political dialogue. He will also sign several of his books for sale, including The New York Times bestseller Crimes Against Nature (2004) and The Riverkeepers (1997). The lecture is free and open to the public. Kennedy’s visit to campus comes a week before Pennsylvania’s crucial presidential primary and 40 years after his father’s campaign for the presidency.
Participants in the March 31st panel discussions include: Ms. Lisa Schroeder, director of the Riverlife Task Force; Dr. Willie Soon, geoscientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and chief science advisor of the Science and Public Policy Institute; Mr. Robert Ferguson, founder and president of the Science and Public Policy Institute; Dr. Terry Collins, director of the Institute for Green Oxidation Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University; Dr. Kyle Fredrick, assistant professor of earth sciences and Dr. David Argent and Dr. Carol Bocetti of the department of biological and environmental sciences at California University of Pennsylvania.
For more information on the Deliberative Polling events on March 31st and the April 16th Robert F., Kennedy, Jr. lecture at California University of Pennsylvania, visit www.cup.edu or call 724-938-4054.