Hundreds of students and community members lined the Yard in hopes of securing a spot in Memorial Church to hear the man introduced as “in truth, the elected president by America.”

Eric S. Chivian, director of the Center for Health and Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, turned the stage over to Gore, whose talk was entitled “Healthy Planet, Healthy People.” The talk was sponsored by CHGE as part of the recently launched Paul R. Epstein Memorial Lecture Series.

During his talk, Gore lauded Harvard’s progress in becoming a more sustainable institution.

“One of my previous visits here with President Faust was to witness the launching of the Harvard Office of Sustainability,” said Gore. “And now some time has passed and we see extremely impressive results, not least of which is the incredible activism and engagement by students who have contributed to the progress the University has been able to make.”

Gore stated that consequences of global warming are compelling and devastating, but said that he believes in humanity’s ability to effect positive change.

“The dangers we face are almost unimaginably dire,” Gore said. “My hope is based on the history of our experience as a species.”

Gore said that the warming climate has destructive effects on human health. He noted examples of climate change that have influenced insect behavior and, therefore, the spread of diseases such as West Nile virus.

According to Gore, recent health dangers were anticipated by Epstein, a leader in the field of climate change at the Harvard School of Public Health.

“Everything that I’ve read to you about these recent findings was anticipated by Paul Epstein,” said Gore. “He wrote seminal papers 12 years ago. He saw the pattern very carefully and he was right. We all have a great debt to him.”

Gore voiced his disappointment in the current political system and the lack of discourse related to climate change in the recent presidential election.

However, he expressed hope in President Barack Obama’s ability to combat the rising temperature trends.

“I am optimistic today also because in his inspiring inaugural address, President Obama made the climate crisis the very first challenge he discussed and spent more words on it than any other. I was thrilled by that.”

The idea of the night was change. Gore continually stressed the urgency of the current situation, appealing to the audience with analogies.

“We’re using the atmosphere as an open sewer and it’s functionally insane,” Gore quipped.

In his talk, “Afghanistan Beyond 2014: A Perspective on Afghan–U.S. Relations”, held in Gaston Hall, Karzai acknowledged that expectations had not been met on either side of the partnership but expressed confidence that peace and stability are assured in Afghanistan’s future.

The Afghan president, who met with President Obama earlier today for what the White House called bilateral meetings, also announced an expansion of his country’s relationship with the United States in a bilateral security agreement. This new dynamic entails the reduction of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, a limitation in the use of these same troops after 2014, the continuation of U.S. training efforts and the transition of the control of security and border protection into Afghan hands.

Karzai, who holds an honorary doctorate degree from Georgetown, began his speech by commenting on the progress made so far on the goals undertaken by the United States and Afghanistan in 2001, which included freeing the world of terrorism, removing the Taliban from power and establishing a democracy in Afghanistan. According to Karzai, the partnership was successful in freeing Afghanistan from the control of the Taliban. He particularly credited the return of women to the workplace and classrooms as well as the growth of technology in the country as examples of this progress. However, the two nations have made less advancement in other areas.

“The second part – freeing us all from terrorism and radicalism – didn’t work as smoothly as we expected,” Karzai said.

In that vein, Karzai noted the complaints of both Americans and Afghanis, saying that the war on terror has been costly to both the U.S. and Afghan people. Despite that, he believes that Afghanistan is moving in the right direction as it approaches its third set of presidential elections and the reduction of U.S. operations in its territory.

Karzai particularly expressed confidence in a more mature relationship between the United States and Afghanistan and the future success of a peace process that will retain the elements of social progress made since the Taliban’s fall. Going forward, Afghanis on a local level advocate the continuation of U.S. support but also U.S. acknowledgment of their sovereignty as a nation.

“We will forget the less than pleasant aspects of our relationship, and we will move forward in the gratitude of the [Unites States],” Karzai said.

After speaking for less than 20 minutes, Karzai ended his talk with a revised version of the end of Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by the Wood on a Snowy Evening.”

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before we sleep,” he concluded.

After the lecture, the floor opened to five student questions, one taken from an open poll on Facebook and four drafted by Georgetown student groups. These included the International Relations Club, the Georgetown University Student Veterans Association, the Muslim Students Association and the Georgetown University Lecture Fund, which helped organize the event. Students posed queries about the threat of Al Qaeda, Afghanistan’s unemployment problem for former fighters on both sides of the civil war, the government’s plans for education policy and the hope that Karzai can offer against claims of corruption and worries about the nation’s security. The president responded vaguely to each of the questions, stating that Al Qaeda is no longer a security issue and that the government will continue to be concerned with the education of women.

Through both his lecture and question answers, Karzai attempted to diminish concerns about the stability and future of Afghanistan as a nation and its relationship with the United States.

“The hope has already been offered in Afghanistan,” he said.

Scalia came to Princeton U. to discuss his recent book and share his thoughts on interpreting the Constitution. Scalia, the longest-serving justice on the current Court, has been described as the intellectual anchor of the Court’s conservative wing.

When questioned by Duncan Hosie, who identified as gay, on his dissent in Lawrence v. Texas — which struck down a Texas anti-sodomy law — Scalia stood behind his decision. Hosie questioned Scalia’s comparison between having a moral objection to sodomy and having a moral objection toward things like bestiality or murder. Scalia defended his comparison as a form of argument.

“If we cannot have moral feelings against or objections to homosexuality, can we have it against anything?” Scalia asked, explaining his dissent. “It’s a reduction to the absurd … I don’t think it’s necessary but I think it’s effective,” Scalia said, adding dryly, “I’m surprised you weren’t persuaded.”

Born in nearby Trenton, N.J., Scalia applied, but was not accepted, to Princeton. He instead attended Georgetown where he graduated summa cum laude as valedictorian in 1957. He later graduated from Harvard Law School.

Scalia was notably plain-spoken during both the lecture and the Q-and-A.

“For those of you who have been to some of our previous lectures, you’ll notice it was a little different this time,” said politics professor Robert George, the campus conservative leader who introduced Scalia and offered closing remarks.

Scalia declined to discuss issues related to active cases or potential future cases during the Q-and-A, instead directing the conversation back to the general arguments he made during the lecture.

During his lecture, he defended his view that focusing on the text and the original meaning of the Constitution are the best interpretive measures to protect the Constitution and democratic ideals.

“The text is what governs,” said Scalia, explaining that it would be wrong to bring in the historical circumstances at the time of the Constitution’s signing or to attempt to interpret the intent of those who wrote the document.

“I don’t care what their intent was. We are a government of laws, not of men,” he explained.

Scalia lamented that the trend has moved toward viewing the Constitution as a living document that is open to new interpretations. He explained that the most common argument for this approach is flexibility, explaining that his opponents argue that as society changes, the Constitution must grow with the society it governs.

“The Constitution is not an organism; it’s a legal text for Pete’s sake,” Scalia said.

He argued that while viewing it as a living document can guarantee new freedoms, it can also eliminate old ones. That is in part why Scalia said he views the structure of the Constitution as more important than the enumerated rights contained within it.

“Every tinhorned dictator in the world has a bill of rights,” Scalia said. He explained that the Founders rightly spent most of their time debating the structure and treated the Bill of Rights as an “afterthought.”

He explained that unless the structure prevents the centralization of power and provides for adequate checks and balances, any protection of freedoms could be ignored. Scalia acknowledged that this same structure, which impedes rights from being taken away, also has a tendency to slow down the process of change.

“God bless gridlock,” he said. “It’s the principal protection of minorities.”

He explained that despite his continued warnings, the idea of a “living constitution is incredibly seductive.” Scalia added that the idea is especially “seductive” to his fellow justices, and it is hard to talk someone out of such a viewpoint.

“I don’t know how we got to this stage,” he added, explaining that the approach he defends is rarely taught in law schools anymore.

“At the end of the road is the destruction of the Constitution,” Scalia said. “Unless you give [the laws] the meaning of those who enacted them, you’re destroying democracy.”

Romney addressed the crowd in a state where the race, according to a report published in the Washington Post, is still close.  Still, according to an article reported by The Miami Herald, the Republican presidential candidate holds a narrow lead in the state of Florida.  With six days left before Election Day, his stop at the swing state could garner sufficient votes he needs to carry Florida.

His tour with Rubio, Bush and Mack, titled the “Victory Rally,” also included stops in Jacksonville and Tampa.

Marilyn Caserta, a senior at local high school Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the first speaker, Florida Representative Carlos Lopez-Cantera, took the stage.

Caserta has known Rubio since she was 9, and has sung before many of his events, including his inauguration as senator in Washington, D.C.

“I was absolutely ecstatic when I found out I was asked to sing,” she said. “It was such an honor to be given the opportunity to sing the national anthem for Governor Romney and for everyone that came out to support the campaign.”

After Lopez-Cantera spoke, local congresswoman Anitere Flores, and later Congressmen Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart addressed the crowd alongside Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Mack, Bush and Rubio later fueled the crowd. Rubio introduced Romney to the stage.

Senior Alex Hurtado appreciated Rubio’s portion of the speech. She was able to speak to him after the event, and shake his and Romney’s hands.

“I thought all speakers were fantastic,” Hurtado said. “I thought Marco Rubio was incredible along with Romney. This is my second time hearing Romney speak; overall I think the rally was a success. They definitely energized the crowd and motivated everyone to vote.”

Romney spoke about the need for college students to find jobs after they graduate, and touched upon the relief efforts needed to help the victims in the Northeast suffering from the aftermath from Hurricane Sandy.

Though many criticized Romney’s decision to continue campaigning, UM political science professor Casey Klofstad believes everyone’s opinion is “driven by politics.”

“If you’re generally supportive of Romney you’ll say he needs to campaign, if you’re supportive of the president you’ll say he’s taking respect of the gravity of the situation,” he said. “But, on the other hand, the president really can’t be campaigning right now; he has to govern, whereas Romney is freer in a sense to go and campaign. At the end of the day, it’s a combination of what they can and cannot do, plus political reception.”

Romney also outlined his five-point plan to improve the economy by creating jobs.

He motivated the crowd with statements on the American character.

“It’s part of the American character to live for something bigger than ourselves,” Romney said.

The event marked the second time the presidential candidate visits campus. Romney was last at UM on Sept. 19, when Univision reporters Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas Romney and Obama for a broadcast on the Spanish station. Romney’s session with the journalists lasted 35 minutes, while Obama’s lasted one hour. The president has visited the University of Miami three times in the past eight months.

Though the speakers motivated students who attended the event, some students do not have such a positive outlook. Jordan Lewis, president of UM Young and College Democrats, believes that UM will lean toward the left side on Tuesday. He does not think the Republican rally was helpful for Romney’s campaign.

“Most students have already decided their vote,” he said. “This campus belongs to President Obama.”

Still, UM College Republicans member Lohena Cabrera believes the event helped stir enthusiasm.

“I think it went really well,” said Cabrera, who volunteered at the rally. “Everyone seemed really motivated and extremely moved by all the speaker’s words especially Senator Rubio and Governor Romney’s speech.”

Rudy Fernandez, vice president for government affairs at UM, believes that this helps enhance the University of Miami student experience.

“We feel that this adds a lot to being a University of Miami student, and hopefully it sends a very strong message that whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, it is very important to get involved in the democratic process, to vote, to learn about the issues and to get involved,” Fernandez said. “It is very unique that in a 10-month period, we have been able to host President Obama three times and Gov. Romney twice. I know no other institution in Florida can claim that they’ve been able to do that. It’s a very special experience for the whole university, especially for students.”

At around 7 a.m. news spread that Obama had canceled his appearance at the rally after hearing that Hurricane Sandy would be making landfall in the northeast that afternoon. The 7,600 spectators that remained seemed just as “fired up” about hearing the former president speak on campus.

“The president is doing what he needed to do, as the commander-in-chief he’s taking charge,” Gov. Charlie Crist said. “They’re [northern states] not too accustomed to hurricanes and when you add that to high tide and add that to cold weather and you add that to the loss of electricity that’s a major problem. He needed to go back to be the chief in the command center.”

Aubrey Marks, president of College Democrats, was first to the podium and the tone of her speech was one of enthusiasm and excitement. As she discussed all of the accomplishments of the past four years including repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the healthcare reform.

“There’s so much running on this election, so much at stake, we need a proven leader and this leader is President Barack Obama,” Marks said. “President Obama has done so much for his first term in office but there’s so much more to be done.”

Marks was followed by speeches from two volunteers from Organizing for America, Crist and Sen. Bill Nelson before Clinton was introduced.

Clinton’s 33-minute speech discussed topics relevant to the college-based audience – student loans and healthcare.

“The most important thing that President Obama has done that nobody knows about is he reformed the student loan program and launched an initiative to help universities and colleges cut the rate of inflation in half in college costs,” Clinton said.

He went on to describe the loan reform saying that student loans won’t be as burdensome to pay back because payments will be fixed rates based upon income. Sumayya Dalal, a senior biology major, came to the rally as an undecided voter.

“I especially liked when he [Clinton] talked about education and loans. It’s so stressful applying for graduate school and worrying about my loan debt and it’s comforting to hear that there’s a different plan,” Dalal said.

Clinton described Romney’s vision to repeal Obamacare and the detriment he said it would be to students and the community. Currently, Obama’s health care reform requires young adults up to the age of 26 to remain on their parents’ health insurance and bans health insurance companies from denying insurance to children because of pre-existing conditions.

Ken Bruder, a 17-year-old high school senior, attended the event in hopes of getting a clear vision for the president’s position on education. With plans to attend UCF to get a degree in secondary education, Bruder said he was interested in seeing what route the nation would take and how that would affect his future career.

“I have a deep concern for the future of this nation,” Bruder said. “I thought the speech was great. They approached it from a realistic perspective and made the future seem less scary for me. I feel secure for my future career.”

His sister, Michelle Bruder, was also in attendance.

“I already voted but I wanted to know what they had to say,” she said. “As a young adult being able to stay on my parent’s health insurance is a big deal. It is unrealistic to think we could do that all on our own.”

Although the crowd was made up mostly of students wearing “Knights for Obama” shirts and community members holding “Forward” signs representing the Obama campaign, there were many Republicans in the audience who had come to see what the opposition would be talking about.

A UCF alumna who requested not to be named said she could understand why people were so engaged in what was being said but it didn’t change her mind that Romney was the right candidate for her. She stated that this election is about how individuals believe the new president will support them and hopes people will focus on the facts more than the political party hype that surrounded the rally.

“This is not about the candidates; this is about you and your future. It’s about two very different approaches,” Clinton said. “Which one is going to build the 21st century dream?”

Beyond the obvious pro-Obama message, the speakers urged students to go out and take advantage of the early voting opportunities available to them.

The College Democrats at UCF are providing shuttles to the Alafaya Library, the UCF area early voting site. The early voting polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and registered voters must bring a photo ID with their signature in order to receive a ballot. If the ID is not signed, voters will be required to show proof of identification with a second source such as a student photo ID or a debit card with signature.

Early voting sites will remain open until Saturday and Election Day is Nov. 6.

There is no question that Ohio, and Toledo in particular, could decide the election, and both campaigns are well aware of the stakes. Both campaigns, as well as allied interest groups, have spent or reserved around $950 million on television ads in the state.

Though the Romney groups have accumulated an approximately $100 million advantage over Obama’s groups, Obama looks to have a slight edge in the state, with an average lead of 1.9 points, according to Real Clear Politics.

Obama visited Ohio on Tuesday, making it his 17th trip to the state this year. The president has visited Ohio more than any other state this election cycle, and Romney has a number of planned trips to the state in the coming two weeks.

The economy remains a paramount issue in the state, and has remained a theme in campaign appearances by all candidates.

In his speech, Biden delineated the clear vision of the Obama administration for alleviating social issues and aiding the middle class before a crowd of about 1,500 attendees.

Biden talked about job outsourcing, and distinguished between the two presidential candidates on the issue, noting that while Romney emphasizes a difference between “off-shoring” and “outsourcing,” he and Obama see both as taking jobs away from Americans.

“The president’s job is to bring jobs home; the president’s job is to create jobs here,” Biden said.

He emphasized the need for Americans to stand for what they believe in and vote in a way that reflects what they want, adding that there should be a heavier focus on the middle class and a concerted effort to continue creating jobs.

Biden said Romney and Ryan have not publicly addressed their thoughts on how to ensure economic success for the middle class well enough.

“Instead of signing a pledge … promising that they’ll cut taxes for the very wealthy, they should be signing a pledge to you, the middle class, saying that they’ll level the playing field,” he said. “That’s the pledge we wrote — that’s why we’re running.”

He noted that he and Obama have already started develop a plan to create new manufacturing jobs and double the country’s exports.

“We’re going to give tax breaks to companies who stay here and come here — not those who go abroad,” Biden said. “We’re going to develop home-grown energy.”

If re-elected, he explained that he and Obama foresee an increase in coal, oil and natural gas generated domestically, as well as solar power energy and biofuel. Noting that the administration plans to create 600,000 jobs solely in natural gas production.

Guyton Mathews, a U. Toledo junior studying political science and communications, was chosen to address the audience before Biden took the stage. In an interview after the event, he said he was glad to see that the vice president addressed some of his primary concerns — affordable education and women’s rights.

Mathews added that with the help of supporters like Biden, the Obama administration can secure Ohio’s support.

“If they just keep at it the way they’re doing it now, (Obama will) definitely get Ohio,” he said.

Mathews was one of many Ohioans to take advantage of early voting, which began in late September.

“It’s a lot more convenient,” he said. “We have classes so sometimes it’s not as easy to get out to the polls.”

Deonte Howard, a U. Toledo junior studying social work, also voted early. Howard explained that because he has cerebral palsy, it is hard for him to stand in line or walk long distances.

“Early voting gives me the opportunity to (vote) at a slower pace so I won’t be tired on Election Day,” he said.

Howard added he thinks Biden’s speech “hit home” for the college students in attendance.

“I feel like Biden coming down … is showing that they do care about us,” Howard said. “We are willing to put in our vote and I appreciate the fact that they acknowledge that.”

In the evening before the final presidential debate, Karl Rove—political analyst and former senior advisor to former President George W. Bush—debated Howard Dean—former governor of Vermont and former Democratic National Committee Chairman—on the effects of the 2012 Presidential Election on America’s role in global politics in a fully packed Page Auditorium.

Rove had originally been slated to debate Robert Gibbs, President Barack Obama’s campaign advisor and former White House Press Secretary, but because Gibbs was unable to attend, Dean replaced him.

Moderating the debate was political science professor Peter Feaver, director of the American Grand Strategy program, which sponsored the event. Feaver joked that, had they not gotten Dean to fill in last minute, he would have had to “pull a Clint Eastwood” and have Rove debate an empty chair.

Unlike the night’s more pugnacious presidential debate, Rove and Dean’s camaraderie and banter caused their debate to resemble a conversation between friends with opposing political viewpoints. When Feaver asked Rove and Dean to introduce each other, for example, both debaters plied one another with backhanded compliments.

During Rove’s introduction, he poked fun about various moments throughout Dean’s political career. Rove described how Dean supported Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964 “and then went downhill from there.” He also joked about a later Democratic Convention in which Dean “drank with Kennedy people but voted with the Carter people.”

Despite these comments, Rove sincerely commended Dean for being a “fervent advocate for the things he believes in” and for his long service as governor of Vermont.

Keeping with the friendly tone of the conversation, Dean praised Rove as the “leading political mind” of the Republican party.

“I know, because I’ve been fighting them for my entire life,” he said. Dean also mocked a recent loss by the University of Texas football team, from Rove’s long-time home state.

“In Vermont, we’re fiscal conservatives, we don’t have a football program,” Dean said.

Following this exchange, Rove whipped out an electric screwdriver, revved it and made a pun about “drilling into the issues.”

The two men then went on to tackle more substantive matters of foreign policy and national politics. They offered nuanced personal positions on issues abroad, each point backed with specific examples and did not always follow their party’s ideologies—they both praised and admonished Obama’s foreign policy record to varying degrees.

One hotly debated issue involved American military involvement abroad. Rove advocated the value of “boots on the ground,” whereas Dean argued that troops should be pulled out of countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan because “the new version of war is different.”

For instance, Dean noted how the current battle against jihadists was fought largely by drones in northwest Pakistan. Rove volleyed back that if the United States did not maintain bases around the world, it would not be able to launch such drone attacks where needed. The two continued to discuss specific policy topics, including relations with China, U.S. interventionism and political divisiveness.

Freshman Tyler Fredricks liked that Rove and Dean talked about topics of foreign policy that are not part of the usual political discussion.

“Usually they focus on Iraq, Iran or the E.U, but they talked about other countries such as Somalia and Kenya,” he said.

He also added that he wished they had talked about Israel, citing his Jewish heritage.

On the topic of national politics, the two men supported their political parties but were not belligerent. When Rove and Dean were asked about bipartisanship, Rove joked about his reputation as a Republican partisan.

“I’m Satan. I’m responsible for all the bad things,” Rove said to audience laughter.

Dean criticized Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for changing positions too much and said that the “ace in the hole” of the Obama campaign was its grassroots voter turnout organization. Rove critiqued Obama for lacking a coherent message and strategy.

Although both Dean and Rove agreed that the race will be extremely close, each made the case that their party’s candidate would win. Both candidates rattled off the names of swing states with ease and Rove produced a little sheet that he wrote up every morning detailing new poll numbers and recited them.

Senior Erin Sweeney, an American Grand Strategy student coordinator who helped advertise the event, was happy with the debate’s turnout and the course of the conversation.

“It was really interesting how Karl Rove was very pro-Romney and Dean was less pro-Obama,” she said.

The debate ended with Rove revving his screwdriver and a standing ovation for the two men from the crowd.

This is Obama’s sixth visit since being a presidential candidate in 2008 and his second visit within two weeks at Mason. Obama has frequently visited the swing state of Virginia and is heavily focusing on the Commonwealth voters because of new polls that put Romney and Obama neck and neck.

Friday’s speech was advertised by the Obama campaign to be a rally focusing on women’s rights. While this issue was very prevalent, Obama spent a large portion of his speech criticizing some of the comments made by Romney in Tuesday’s presidential debate.

“Virginia, you have heard of the New Deal, you have heard of the Square Deal, the Fair Deal; Mitt Romney’s trying to give you a sketchy deal,” said Obama as he referred to Romney’s economic plan. Obama called the plan a “one-point plan” instead of a five-point plan, because people in the upper class would be allowed to play by a “different set of rules.”

Obama also introduced a new attack line on his opponent, calling Romney’s change of stances a case of “Romnesia.”

“He’s changing up so much…we gotta name this condition that he’s going through. I think it’s called ‘Romnesia,’” Obama said. “Now, I’m not a medical doctor, but I do want to go over some of the symptoms with you, because I want to make sure nobody else catches it.”

Some of the areas of concern that Obama saw as symptoms of “Romnesia” included Romney’s change of stance on equal pay for equal work, contraceptive availability, employer ability to deny care and tax cuts for the top one percent.

“If you come down with a case of ‘Romnesia’ and you can’t seem to remember the policies that are still on your website or the promises that you have made over the six years you’ve been running for president, here’s the good news: Obamacare covers pre-existing conditions! We can fix you up! We’ve got a cure! We can make you well, Virginia!” Obama said.

The rally, which was attended by an estimated 9,000 people, transformed the RAC Field. People stood on the field as they watched Obama speak from a podium flanked by signs that read “women’s health security.”

Prior to Obama’s speech, Democrat Congressman Gerry Connolly spoke about why he was supporting Obama. “Remember, when you talk to your neighbors about why you’re campaigning for Obama…we’re doing it for our daughters,” Connolly said.

Others to take the stage before the president’s speech include Terri Riley, a member of Obama For America; Nan Johnson, a retired school counselor; and Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Obama spent some of his time speaking about women’s rights, as a crowd of women stood in the risers behind him and served as the backdrop to his speech.

In his discussion of women’s rights, Obama emphasized a woman’s right to decide how to take care of her body, specifically mentioning how Obamacare allows for this freedom.

“This law [the Affordable Care Act] has secured new access to preventive care like mammograms and other cancer screenings for more than 20 million women with no co-pay, no deductible, no out-of-pocket cost,” said Obama, “because I do not believe a working mother should have to put off a mammogram because money’s tight.”

Obama mentioned the point in Tuesday’s primary debate when Romney spoke about hiring women to his cabinet as governor of Massachusetts.

“When the next president and Congress could tip the balance of the highest court in the land in a way that turns back the clock for women and families for decades to come, you don’t want someone who needs to ask for ‘binders of women,’” Obama said.

The president concluded his speech at Mason by rallying the crowd and emphasizing the importance of equality and hard work, attempting to drive his message home with 18 days remaining before Election Day.

“We are a country in which everybody has a place,” Obama said. “A country where no matter where you are, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, young, old, gay, straight, abled, disabled, we have a place for everybody. Everybody’s got a chance to make it if you try!”

This Monday in Florida, Obama and Romney will face off for the last time before November 6 in the third presidential debate, which will air at 9 p.m.

Dean of the Georgetown School of Foreign Service Carol Lancaster introduced Clinton, calling her a “Hoya by marriage” and lauding her years of work in government.

“Secretary Clinton has come to embody the Georgetown spirit of public service,” Lancaster said.

Clinton began her talk by outlining the impact of energy concerns on international affairs, saying that the issue is at the core of geopolitics, economic growth and global development.

“Fundamentally, energy is a source of wealth and power, which means it can be both a source of conflict and cooperation,” she said. “Energy cuts across the entirety of U.S. foreign policy.”

She also detailed the Obama administration’s recent initiatives to develop a more progressive and independent energy policy.

“Many Americans don’t yet realize the gains that the United States has made,” she said, citing increased use of wind, solar and natural gas and the implementation of new automobile fuel efficiency standards.

“We are less reliant on imported energy, which strengthens our global economic and political standing,” she said. “The important thing to keep in mind is our country is not and cannot be an island when it comes to energy markets.”

Under Clinton’s leadership, the Department of State created a new Bureau of Energy Resources that orchestrates the department’s diplomatic efforts on energy.

“We did not have a team of experts dedicated full time to thinking creatively about how we can solve challenges and seize opportunities, and now we do,” Clinton said. “That … is a signal of a broader commitment on the part of the United States to lead in shaping the global energy future.”

Here, Clinton turned and pointed to the front row, where six Georgetown alumni who work in the bureau were sitting.

“That’s a shameless pitch for the Foreign Service and the State Department,” she said.

Clinton went on to explain the three pillars of the Department of State’s policies on energy: energy diplomacy, energy transformation and energy poverty. She cited the department’s efforts in Iran, Sudan and South Sudan, Iraq and the Arctic and said that the United States must play a role in preventing conflict over energy resources.

Clinton also spoke of the necessity of transitioning to cleaner energy sources, arguing that the United States has the knowledge and resources to promote green energy in other countries. She talked about a new initiative, “Connecting the Americas 2022,” that aims to provide universal access to electricity in the Americas within 10 years.

“Interconnection will help us get the most out of our region’s resources,” she said. “It really is a win-win-win in our opinion.”

In terms of energy poverty, Clinton detailed her administration’s efforts to promote transparency and equal access to energy in developing countries.

“Poor governance … is a key factor in energy poverty and political instability,” she said. “We need to ensure that energy resources don’t cause more suffering than good.”

Overall, Clinton promoted an active role for the United States in global energy issues.

“We have no choice. … We have to be involved,” she said. “The challenges I’ve outlined will only become more urgent in the years ahead … and all of us have a stake in the outcome.”

Matthew McManus, deputy director of public diplomacy and policy analysis in the Bureau of Energy Resources, shared how Georgetown should get involved in the conversation about sustainability.

“It is important for us to engage the next generation and to really have a debate about the best path forward for energy security, our planet and the environment,” he said.

Just weeks after a similar campaign appearance at North Carolina Central U. in Durham, Obama drew a crowd of more than 5,000 to U. North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Carmichael Arena, where she emphasized issues important to young voters—Pell grants, student loans, jobs, education—and said the future of all of these is on the line in the 21 days between now and the Nov. 6 election.

In her speech, Obama numbered the beneficiaries of her husband’s presidency in the millions—he has created millions of jobs and helped millions of people through his health care plan, she said.

“Look, I could go on and on and on,” she said. “Barack Obama knows the American dream because he’s living it, and he is fighting every day so that every one of us in this country can have that same opportunity, no matter who we are, or where we’re from, or what we look like or who we love.”

Obama added that the president ended the war in Iraq, ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden, repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell” and fought for benefits for veterans and military families as well as work permits for immigrants.

The progress the president has made is at stake if he loses in November, Obama said. Four years ago, the president won North Carolina by about 14,000 votes, which meant he won each precinct by five votes, she said. She warned that this year’s contest will be even closer.

“One person could swing an entire precinct,” she said.

Given the closeness of the race, Obama encouraged young people to vote and to tell their parents, grandparents and friends to vote as well, preferably during the next few weeks of early voting. She also urged supporters to take a day off work to campaign. Obama emphasized the importance of education to the crowd, which gathered on a college campus. Obama began her remarks by mentioning the “visionary leadership” of Bill Friday, the former president of the University of North Carolina system who died last week.

Former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt shared a similar sentiment in his opening remarks.

“[Businesses] don’t just come to North Carolina for our Southern hospitality,” Hunt said. “They come for our well-educated workforce. They come for you.”

Many attendees at the rally, which catered largely to supporters of the president, voiced approval for the first lady’s prowess as a speaker.

“I thought it was a good call to action,” said Samanthis Smalls, history graduate student at Duke and Obama phone bank volunteer. “With the reminder that there are only 21 days left, clearly this is a push toward the end.”

Smalls said she appreciated the time Obama spent after her speech shaking hands with the Organizing for America volunteers on the floor of the arena. Duke senior Chris Carroll thought Obama’s opening remarks could have had more substance. For instance, in the context of an anecdote recounting to the crowd why she married the president, she mentioned it was not just because her husband is handsome.

“The message when she said that was kind of, ‘Barack’s a really handsome and really good-looking person, so you should vote for him,’” Carroll said. “She’s an incredibly intelligent woman. I wish she would just stand on her own, rather than in the background promoting her husband.”

The personal anecdotes Obama offered were rich in detail, such as the look on her father’s face when she walked across the stage for college graduation. But when she discussed politics, she turned from details to more general statements, Carroll noted.

Carroll said he and his friends were struck when Obama mentioned “ending the war in Iraq” as an accomplishment of her husband’s.

“My friends and I just looked at each other like, ‘Oh, Michelle,’” he said. “It’s all politics.”

“I want to be real clear that I’m very proud to say we elected our first black president,” Kid Rock said. “I’m sorry he didn’t do a better job. I really wish he would’ve. I really do, but the facts are the facts.”

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s running mate took the stage as AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” rang out over the crowd, and after waves to attendees, he spoke out against President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, discussing his plans for fostering a stronger nation, and echoing the comments Romney made in a speech earlier in the day that focused on his foreign policy goals.

“When you turn on your television, what you are witnessing on TV is the unraveling of the Obama foreign policy,” Ryan said. “Our enemies are becoming more brazen. Our adversaries seem more willing to test us. And we’re showing more daylight between ourselves and our allies, and they are beginning to question our resolve. And the reason is America is projecting weakness right now.”

The visit to Michigan was Ryan’s second since becoming the nominee in August. It’s also a sign that the Romney campaign thinks Michigan may be in play following Romney’s debate win last week.

In a poll conducted between Sept. 8 and Sept. 11 by EPIC-MRA — a professional survey firm — Obama’s Michigan lead among likely voters fell from a 10-point lead to a three-point lead within the last month.

Along with the emphasis put on foreign policy, Ryan spent a large portion of his speech addressing domestic economic issues, particularly in comparison to the economic policy of European countries.

“The problem is all of these ideas, all of this agenda that the president put in place, more borrowing, more spending, more regulating, more money printing, more taxing — it does not create more jobs,” Ryan said. “If you want to see what that story looks like at the end of the day, go home again and turn on your TV and look at Europe. If you want European results, you copy European policy, but we don’t want European results.”

Ryan also addressed the auto industry, a topic particularly salient to Michigan and other Midwest states, including Wisconsin, his home state. The largest General Motors plant in operation was located in Janesville, Wisc. when it closed in 2009.

“We lost four auto factories from the area I represent in just four years,” Ryan said. “Trust me, I come from Detroit west. We know we need a healthy auto sector. “

Ryan then explained the Republican Party’s plan is to recreate a successful auto industry.

“The way we do that is we stop sending all of our decisions to Washington with a government-driven economy,” Ryan said. “That’s what our manufacturing agenda is all about: strong manufacturing, low tax rates, good regulations, and good energy policy.”

Ryan also addressed what he called a sign of the clear failure in Obama’s economic policy, and America’s slipping to other international powers.

“China just beat us as number one nation in manufacturing just two years ago, and we were on top for 100 years,” Ryan said. “The good news is, if we put the right people in place and get the right policies in place, we can turn this around.”

Elaborating on his plans to salvage the sector, Ryan said the United States needs trade agreements that put the country on a “level playing field” with other nations in order to save our manufacturing industry.

“Let’s also not forget that most people who buy products are outside of this country,” Ryan said. “We need to make sure we have trade agreements that work for us, so they don’t take advantage of us.”

In closing, Ryan reiterated his party’s stance and alluded to the Obama administration’s recurring blame on the Bush administration for current ailments to the country.

“We’re not going to spend the next four years blaming other people; we are going to take responsibility,” Ryan said. “We are not going to try to transform this country into something it was never intended to be. We are not going to replace our founding principles. We are going to reapply our founding principles.”

Other prominent Michigan political figures also spoke at the event, including former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who is the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. Hoekstra turned to the crowd to garner support for his campaign against Senator Debbie Stabenow.

“30 days,” Hoekstra said. “Dump Debbie.”

Hoekstra focused on foreign affairs, and how he believes Obama and the Democratic platform have failed in Middle Eastern affairs.

“When I was in the Middle East, this is what I saw: an Israel that was isolated, an Iran that is 12 months away from a nuclear weapon, an Egypt that is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood,” Hoekstra said. “This is not my vision of national security. It’s not what Israel’s looking for. It’s not what America’s looking for.”

Other speakers included Don Volaric, the Republican candidate for U.S. Representative in Michigan’s 9th district, U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, Kerry Bentivolio, the Republican candidate for U.S. Representative in Michigan’s 11th district, and Pastor Kent Clark of Grace Centers for Hope.

Speaking in Ohio Wednesday, President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney were only 25 miles apart, but in their speeches the two candidates hoped to demonstrate that their policies are much farther apart.

While Obama spoke here, on the campus of Bowling Green State U., and also at Kent State U., Romney visited the city of Toledo, which is hotly contested, and swept with political advertising.

Both candidates have visited Toledo this month, and it has been the eighth hottest media market in terms of political advertising, according to NBC. NBC reported that in September, Romney’s campaign spent $1 million on advertising in the city, while Obama has invested around $760,000.

Obama has visited the state fifteen times this year, according to Mark Knoller, the CBS News White House correspondent. Romney has visited the state 10 times since May 1, and seven times during the primaries, according to the Associated Press.

Electoral history and experts suggest that the campaigns’ emphasis on Ohio is warranted. Since John F. Kennedy lost the state in the 1960 presidential election, no one has been elected president of the United States without winning Ohio’s electoral votes.Obama leads Romney in Ohio 53 to 43 percent in a poll released by Quinnipac U. yesterday in conjunction with CBS News and The New York Times.

Issues that Obama has touted as successes, including the rebirth of the auto industry, have proved important to voters here. According to NBC, 57 percent of Ohioans who might vote said they didn’t think Romney cared about their needs, and 51 percent thought Obama could better handle the economy.

Michael Heaney, a U. Michigan assistant professor of political science, called the state a “linchpin” for Romney, emphasizing that he needs to win the state in order to win the presidency. He added that while the state is still important for Obama he could win the election with a coalition of electoral votes from other states such as Virginia, Iowa and Colorado in place of Ohio.

“There are multiple paths for (Obama) to win the election, and those paths may or may not include Ohio,” Heaney said. “For Obama, Ohio is one of the states that could put him over the top, whereas for Mitt Romney, it’s really hard to see how he could win the election without winning Ohio.”

Heaney noted that of all the swing states, Ohio offers the second most electoral votes at 18, behind Florida with 29.

Not only does Ohio serve as a substantial boost in the total electoral count for a president, it is a “bellwether state” that tends to reliably reflect the rest of the undecided sectors of the nation, Heany said.

“Ohio is the state that is most likely to make a difference in the election. If there’s going to be one state that swings the election from one candidate to another, it’s going to be Ohio,” Heaney said. “It reflects the trend in the nation.”

Heaney said one explanation for Obama’s lead in Ohio may be that the state’s economic recovery has been slightly better than the national average.

Ohio’s unemployment rate was reported at 7.2 percent in August, the lowest unemployment rate in the state since 2008. The AP reported that Ohio’s unemployment rate has steadily remained 1-percent less than the national rate, and the number of unemployed residents in Ohio decreased by 5,000 from July to August.

UM political Science Prof. John Chamberlin said Ohio will continue to receive national media attention and become a state indicative of who will win the election.

“Republicans are not running ads in Michigan and Pennsylvania so they can throw money into Ohio,” Chamberlin said. “It is going to be one of the places that absorb a huge amount of campaign money and time. People will be polling like crazy in Ohio and we’ll start to see those results in the next ten days.”

Though they didn’t campaign together in Toledo, Romney and his running mate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R–Wisc.) have held other rallies together this week, suggesting that Republicans have realized they need to double their effort in Ohio, Political Science Prof. Michael Traugott said.

“We can tell generally in a campaign about the importance of a particular state by how much the candidates spend on advertising, how much of their personal time they spend there, and the significance of Ohio is much more important for Romney and that’s why both he and Paul Ryan are campaigning there,” Traugott said.

Traugott said Romney is already facing a tougher challenge, because polling suggests Ohio seems to prefer Obama’s policies.

“For Romney, it’s a more difficult task because his standard advertising message doesn’t seem to be very influential for the voters in Ohio,” Traugott said. “In addition to the personal appearances that he makes, he’s going to have to revise his message somehow.”

When the polls open on Election Day on Nov. 6, up to 40 percent of the country will have already voted, according to CNN. Ohio begins its early voting process — in which certain states allow in-person or mail-in voting before Nov. 6 — on Oct. 2.

Obama campaign spokesman Adam Fetcher told CNN that the Obama campaign realizes the potential benefit of getting people to cast their votes early.

“While Mitt Romney and his allies are counting on big ad buys … we’ve made early investments in battleground states — where we’ve been registering folks and keeping an open conversation going with undecided voters for months — to build a historic grassroots organization that will pay off when the votes are counted,” Fetcher said.

In their visits yesterday, both candidates said the electoral battle for Ohio could them win the political war for America’s future.

Speaking to a crowd at the SeaGate Convention Centre in Toledo, Romney said the policies he would bring to the Oval Office are very different than Obama’s.

Romney said he could save voters from the pitfalls of another four years under the Obama administration. Speaking in Lucas County — where NBC reports 18 percent of the population lives below the poverty level, and a median household income is about $42,000 — Romney said he would address the economic despair of the middle class if elected.

“Do you want four more years where half our kids coming out of college can’t find a college level job? Do you want four more years of trillion dollar deficits?” Romney asked. “If President Obama were to be re-elected, what we’d see is four more years like the last four years, and we can’t afford another four more years.”

Romney said his policy platforms will lead America down a more prosperous path and generate much-needed change for the nation.

“I will take America in a very different direction than this president,” Romney said. “This election comes down to a choice. It comes down to a choice of path. His campaign slogan is “forward” — forward with the same ideas, the same approach as he’s had the last four years.”

Earlier in the day in a raucous rally here, Obama said he too recognized very different realities for America’s future depending on which candidate is chosen in November.

During Wednesday’s speech at BGSU, Obama said that because of personal experience he deeply valued higher education.

“Education was my gateway to opportunity,” Obama said. “That’s the only reason I’m standing here. It’s the path more than ever to a middle-class life.

Caitlyn Fuller, a senior at BGSU and a life-long resident of Bowling Green, said she came to the event to support the President, who she finds to be more relatable than Romney.

“He’s just really, really wealthy, and I’m not sure how in touch he is with Ohio,” Fuller said.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily following the president’s speech yesterday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Obama’s visit to Ohio shows his commitment to working families.

“The President is committed to the people taking these auto bailouts,” Carney said.

Speaking to the crowd at BGSU, Obama said he was proud of defending the auto industry, an effort he said his opponent chided, alluding to a 2008 New York Times Op-ed written by Romney titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

“When my opponent just said we should, ‘Let Detroit go bankrupt,’ that would have meant walking away from an industry that supports one in eight Ohio jobs,” Obama said.

Obama said he already had the country heading in the right direction — forward, like his campaign slogan.

“Today, the American auto industry has come roaring back with nearly 250,000 new jobs,” Obama said. “Now you’ve got a choice. We can give more tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas or we can start rewarding companies for opening new plants and training new workers and creating jobs right here in the United States.”

Obama said that unlike Romney, he would be a president for all, citing the recent exposure of a speech made by Romney to donors in May that claimed 47 percent of Americans are dependent on the federal government and view themselves to be victim.

“I don’t believe we can get very far with leaders who write off half the nation as a bunch of victims who never take responsibility for their own lives,” Obama said. “As I drive around Ohio and as I look around, I don’t see a bunch of victims, I see hard-working Ohioans.”

In Toledo, Romney admitted Obama cares, but said the president’s good intentions are misplaced.

“Look, I know the President cares about America, the people of this country,” Romney said. “He just doesn’t know how to help them. I do.”

Operating under a theme of “Women for Mitt,” Ann Romney emphasized her husband’s support for women.

“He cares about women … making the economy work for women,” Romney said. ”We need to have women understand Mitt is a person who cares.”

In attendance were a group of women who had previously served under Mitt Romney during his time as governor of Massachusetts, a statement which, according to Ann Romney, demonstrated his track record of supporting women and hiring women for key roles in his administration.

“The bottom line of having these women here, having me here and having all of these women in the audience is to know that Mitt put women in key leadership positions to help create job growth,” Romney said.

Before she took the stage, a number of female politicians and supporters from Wisconsin spoke on Mitt Romney’s behalf, including Marquette student Sam Zager, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences and cochair of the Coalition of Young Americans for Mitt Romney, who spoke about her support of Romney and her disappointment with the Obama administration.

Republican state senators Alberta Darling and Leah Vukmir and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch also joined Zager onstage at the event.

The focus on female voters was seen as a response to criticism the Romney campaign has received in the past for struggling to connect with women. A Marquette Law School poll released last Wednesday, a day before Ann Romney’s visit, showed Mitt Romney trailing President Barack Obama in Wisconsin by 14 percentage points among likely voters, a huge increase in the gap from the same poll released last month.

While the speakers chose not to address the poll’s results directly, it was clear that the emphasis of the day was on encouraging women to support Romney, with specific attention given to female college students. Pat Garrett, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences and Chairman of Marquette College Republicans, was pleased with the platform of the event.

“I think it was a really good event to bring two groups that don’t necessarily always vote Republican into the Republican fold, and that’s women and students,” Garrett said. “I think that we’re doing a great job reaching out to those voters now, and if we keep doing that, then we’re going to bring them to the fold and we’re going to win in November.”

While the event was geared specifically toward Republicans, and the majority of students in the audience were from Marquette, there were Democrats and students from other universities who came to hear Ann Romney speak.

“I came to listen, and I came to see what I am disagreeing with,” said U. Wisconsin-Madison student and Democrat Erik Tyler, who took a bus early on Thursday morning and missed class in order to attend the event.

“I completely disagree with most of the speeches, but I want to be informed going into the election, so this was a good opportunity for me to remind myself why I am not a Republican,” he said. “I mean, us Democrats don’t need to remind voters that we support women. Our actions speak louder than their words.”

The rally brought together more than 2,000 students, community members and campaign supporters who lined up hours before the event began at 3 p.m. to hear the Wisconsin congressman speak.

Following an introduction by former NASA astronaut and retired Air Force Col. Sidney Gutierrez, Ryan opened with remarks about the future of American spaceflight. He accused President Barack Obama of “presiding over a dismantling” of the space program, referring to Obama’s decision to discontinue former President George Bush’s Constellation program, which set a goal of sending astronauts back to the moon by 2020.

“Today, if we want to send an astronaut to the space station, we have to pay the Russians to take him there,” Ryan said. “The space program strengthens the entrepreneurial spirit and commercial competitiveness. It launches new industries and new technologies.”

Ryan stressed the importance of setting a clear mission for NASA’s future to ensure the nation remains a leader in space travel and research, but he offered few specifics as to how the space program might change under a Romney administration.

Equipped with a backdrop of an ever-changing digital national debt clock and a PowerPoint presentation of charts and graphs, Ryan illustrated the enormity of the $16 trillion national debt and said that it is not all at the fault of Obama or the Democratic Party.

“Both political parties got us in this mess,” Ryan said. “We can’t afford four more years of the last four years. We have a moral obligation to save the American dream for our children and grandchildren.”

Forty-eight percent of our debt today is owned by foreign governments, Ryan said.

“When you rely on other countries to lend you their money to run your country you lose your sovereignty; you lose control; you lose your independence. We have to get this under control,” Ryan said. “The Obama economic agenda didn’t fail because it was stopped, it’s failing because it was passed.”

Jack Weiss, a sophomore majoring in international and global studies, said he believes in Romney’s proposed economic policies but believes that in order to win the youth vote, Romney must prove that he has the youth in mind and not just the big businesses.

“His [Romney’s] economic [and] fiscal policies are ideally what everyone needs. The last four years have been up in the air and things have gone crazy. Let’s give someone else a try that has some other ideas,” Weiss said. “He and Paul Ryan [have] proven that they know how to run budgets and that’s what needs to happen.”

Ryan continued his speech by referencing a recent presidential candidate forum on the Spanish-speaking channel, Univision, during which Obama was pressed on the issue of immigration and his unfulfilled 2008 promises of reform.

“The president said he admitted that he can’t change Washington from the inside. Why do we send presidents to Washington in the first place? Don’t you send presidents to Washington to change Washington, to fix the mess in Washington? If President Obama admits that he can’t change Washington, then we need to change presidents,” Ryan said.

According to a June Gallup poll, 20 percent of U.S. Hispanics believe immigration is among the most important issues this election year and are equally as concerned about health care and unemployment rates.

Health care seemed to be a major concern for many of the students who attended the rally. Erin Wagstaff, a senior majoring in health sciences, is a registered Republican prepared to vote for Romney on Election Day. As a person with diabetes, Wagstaff said health care is a deciding factor for her.

“Right now, with Obamacare, if my insurance coverage drops, no one can pick me and so that means I can’t get insurance from anyone because I have a pre-existing condition, and that’s a huge thing,” Wagstaff said. “Mitt Romney’s taking that away.”

Besides health care, student loan debt has been a major topic of discussion during the presidential speeches by both candidates.

“If he wants to energize the youth he needs to focus on youth issues like getting jobs after they graduate; he needs to hammer that, whenever he comes to a UCF campus that’s what he needs to be talking about,” said Matthew Hoban, a freshman Aerospace Engineering major. “Pell grants, student loans, jobs after graduation [and] college issues is what they need to be talking about on a college campus.”

Although Ryan did not discuss this in great detail, Romney’s campaign website describes plans to ensure that Pell Grants grow at the rate of inflation, so that all Americans have the opportunity to get a good education. He also plans to create 12 million jobs by the end of his first term in office.

If elected, Ryan, 40, will be the second-youngest vice president in American history, following in the footsteps of Richard Nixon, who was 39 years old at the start of his vice presidency.

Current polls conducted by NBC News and Fox News both show Obama maintaining the lead with 49 percent of voters, while Romney is following closely behind at 44 percent.

Ryan spent the weekend campaigning throughout Florida, stopping in Miami to speak in Little Havana before his UCF appearance. He also made stops at the University of Miami and in Sarasota, working to gain a hold on Florida’s 29 electoral votes.

In a speech largely focused on expanding access to higher education for young Americans, Biden said that the United States must improve education opportunities in order to compete in the global economy.

“None of us would be standing here today if someone did not reach out and give us a hand in the form of a scholarship or loan,” Biden said.

Republican presidential nominee former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., does not believe that the government should play an active role in funding public education, according to Biden. His running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has consistently proposed budget cuts to public education programs, Biden said, stating that a Romney administration would “eviscerate” public education

Romney’s recent remarks disparaging 47 percent of Americans who are dependent on government assistance highlight the philosophical differences between the two parties, according to Biden.

“How can he be so profoundly wrong about America?” Biden said.

The Republican ticket’s positions are consistent with the party’s worldview that America has adopted a culture of dependency, Biden said. Romney does not realize, however, that a wide range of Americans, including middle-class families and students who take out loans, rely on government programs, he said.

“This is not a country of victims,” Biden said. “It has never, ever been a good bet to bet against the American people.”

Biden drew cheers from the crowd when he referred to the Democratic Party’s liberal position on social issues, including gay marriage and women’s reproductive health rights. Romney’s potential Supreme Court nominees would support curbing minorities’ civil liberties and overturning Roe v. Wade, Biden said.

“This is not your father’s Republican Party,” Biden said.

A second Obama administration would end the current war in Afghanistan, Biden said, while claiming that Romney has not adopted a coherent foreign policy.

In her opening remarks, Second Lady Jill Biden argued that the election is especially important for women. The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, a bill that protects female workers from salary inequities, and the administration’s commitment to protecting female reproductive rights should motivate women to support the president, she said.

First Lady of New Hampshire Susan Lynch introduced the vice president and his wife and said that New Hampshire could potentially decide the winner of the presidential election.

Lynch said that her experience working at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center raised her awareness of issues related to health care affordability and delivery. The Obama administration is committed to expanding health care coverage and assisting the “most vulnerable in society,” she said.

Robert Avruch, Obama for America regional field director for Grafton and Sullivan Counties, delivered remarks before the event and said that he had personally benefited from the Obama administration’s reformed student loan repayment program, which reduced his monthly student loan payment from $500 to $98.

“He’s fighting for us,” he said. “He believes that no matter who you are — your religion, your socioeconomic status or your sexual orientation — that there is a place for you in America.”

Students who attend college in New Hampshire should register to vote in the state, Avruch said.

New Hampshire residents interviewed at the rally said they attended the event because they wanted to hear from Biden in person.

Lin Hill, director of the awards program at Practice Greenhealth, a nonprofit devoted to promoting sustainable reforms in the health care sector, said she wanted to talk to Biden about revising the No Child Left Behind Act.

“Resources are currently not going to accelerated students,” Hill said. “Provisions need to be added so that schools can provide for them.”

Government funding is only mandated for programs that assist underperforming and underprivileged students, she said. If a provision that allocates resources to high-achieving students were added to the No Child Left Behind Act, funds would be better distributed among all students, according to Hill.

“We need to keep America on the cutting edge,” Hill said.

The next president must focus on how to improve the nation’s position in the world community, P.J. Tierney, an Episcopal priest and author of “Theocracy: Can Democracy Survive Fundamentalism?” said.

Before the event, Chaplain Richard Crocker delivered an invocation, and local firefighter Brian Rapp led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. The Dartmouth Aires performed the national anthem after earlier performing three songs before the other speakers took the stage.

The event marked Biden’s 13th trip to New Hampshire since the start of his vice-presidency and his sixth of the year, according to an Obama campaign press release.

President Barack Obama visited U. Miami Thursday, less than 24 hours after presidential candidate Mitt Romney stood on the same stage.

“I haven’t gotten everything done that I need to get done, and that’s why I’m running for a second term,” Obama said to a crowd of 700.

Univision journalists Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas asked Obama about a range of issues, focusing on those of interest to the Latino community. Questions were asked in Spanish and simultaneously translated for Obama, who answered in English.

Although the anchors drilled Obama about not completing his promises in regard to immigration reform, sophomore Brandon Barsky thought Obama delivered a good response.

“He talked about the lack of bipartisanship on the part of Congressional Republicans,” said Barsky, who is a member of UM Young and College Democrats. “This has been a big problem because it seems that everything he passes they vote down because it was passed by a Democrat.”

Both visits were part of Univision broadcasts. The decision to hold the events in the BankUnited Center Fieldhouse was based on considerations about the taping of the show. Thursday’s event with Obama will air at 10 p.m. on the Spanish-language station.

Rudy Fernandez, vice president for government affairs, thinks the events allowed students to actively engage with the election, which is rare for a university.

“We believe it’s a very unique experience to have the two presidential candidates on campus within a 24-hour period,” he said. “The benefits for the university community, and for the students that get to partake in it, outweigh the problems and are certainly worth the amount of work that goes into hosting one of these events.”

Although both events were conducted in similar formats, there were several differences:

1. Romney’s session with the journalist lasted 35 minutes, while Obama’s lasted an hour.
2. Romney’s audience was far more vocal.
3. The Romney event was not opened up to a lottery for student tickets.

Sophomore Janelle De La Torre, who volunteers for the Romney campaign, believes the anchors were biased toward Obama.

“It’s a very liberal news station, and I didn’t appreciate the way they stated and directed the questions at Governor Romney,” she said. “I believe everyone who spoke Spanish and understood the questions would agree with me.”

Like for Romney’s event, the Obama campaign guaranteed student tickets to members of certain organizations, such as UM Young and College Democrats. However, the remainder of the tickets were distributed through a lottery.

“They wanted us to give preference to Young Democrats and College Democrats, but there wasn’t that level of insistence in terms of ‘Make sure every ticket goes to Young Democrats and College Democrats,’” Fernandez said. “They were less concerned about it.”

Approximately 375 students attended the event. Barsky estimated that 20 were members of UM Young and College Democrats. The remaining tickets were distributed by Univision and the Obama campaign.

“As for the lottery process, I think more students should have gotten tickets because there were a lot of community members,” Barsky said. “That’s all well and good, but they’re not paying over $50,000 to attend the university.”

To accommodate students who could not attend, the university held a watch party in the UC on Thursday, as they did during the Romney event on Wednesday night.

UM senior Connie Fossi attended the event, and asked Romney a question about his stance on student loans.

“I decided to ask that question because obviously I highly depend on the help I get from financial aid,” Fossi said. “That’s one of the major concerns – not only for me, but for many students in UM – because this is an expensive university.”

The event was conducted in a Q&A format and focused on issues of interest to the Latino community. Romney’s session with the journalists lasted 35 minutes, while the session with Obama is scheduled to last an hour.

Still, students like Fossi do not think one event can have a major impact on the Hispanic voter opinion.

“I don’t think one event can change the Latino vote,” she said. “I don’t think one event is enough to change the perspective Latinos have over Romney or over Obama.”

Of the 750 total tickets, UM was given approximately 380 for each event, with 99 percent of those tickets going to students, according to Rudy Fernandez, vice president for government affairs. Student Affairs was responsible for distributing the tickets according to the rules imposed by each campaign and by Univision, who rented the BankUnited Center Fieldhouse.

“We thought it was very important to engage as many students as possible in these two important events,” said Pat Whitely, vice president for student affairs.

Of the remaining tickets for each event, Univision distributed approximately 75, and each campaign distributed the other 300 to local supporters.

The event with Romney on Wednesday night, as per his campaign’s request, was only open to members of the UM College Republicans, the Federalist Society and presidents of certain organizations, such as the Federacion de Estudiantes Cubanos (the Federation of Cuban Students, known as FEC) and SpectrUM, the LGBT student organization on campus. FEC, for instance, received nine tickets for its entire executive board.

Although the Obama campaign also guaranteed tickets to members of certain organizations, such as UM Young and College Democrats, the remainder of the tickets were distributed through a lottery.

The decision to hold the event in the BankUnited Center Fieldhouse was based on considerations about the taping of the program, “Meet the Candidates.”

Although students have expressed complaints about the small venue and limited number of tickets, Fernandez believes the university’s decision to adapt to Univision’s stipulations was necessary.

“We believe the plusses of doing an event like this, even if it’s in a smaller venue, far outweigh the predicament of the fact that there’s a huge demand for tickets and very little supply,” he said.

To accommodate students who could not attend, the university held a watch party in the UC.

Two 50-inch screens streamed the event live on Wednesday. The watch party during Obama’s visit will be held Thursday at 2:15 p.m.

Senior Peter Leitten attended Wednesday’s watch party, but thought the school handled the event poorly.

“I was disappointed with the way the watch party was handled, because the monitors didn’t work for the first five minutes of the speech so I had to go on my laptop to watch it,” he said.

Junior Paola Giraldo, however, believes the watch party was a good idea.

“As a resident in Eaton, there are not many facilities to watch what’s going on in the world,” she said. “It was a very good opportunity.”

Six thousand audience members, 90 degree heat and a call to make a choice.

This was the scene as a cardinal-and-gold-clad mass passed around water and listened intently to the third sitting president (preceded by Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton) to visit Iowa State.

“Just over two months from now, for the first time in most of your lives, you will get the chance to pick a president,” said President Barack Obama on Central Campus on Tuesday, Aug. 28.

“When you step into that voting booth, the choice you make in that one instant is going to shape your country and your world for decades to come,” Obama said. “Your generation chooses which path we take as a country; your vote decides where we go from here.”

Those in attendance spent several hours, some arriving as early as 5 a.m., to hear the 44th president speak just after 1 p.m.

On a stage in front of Curtiss Hall, Obama — who claimed he would do his best to have a speech equal that of Paul Rhoads — hit nearly every political topic, from renewable energy to the economy, student loan programs, the war in Iraq and health care.

Obama has visited the state of Iowa 12 times since the start of his presidency, six of those times, including this event, have been in 2012.

“Iowa is one of the most competitive states,” said David Peterson, professor of political science. “There is not a lot of states in play in the middle, but we are definitely one of them.”

Iowa has only six electoral votes up for grabs, but the state is one of only a few that could still swing either way.

About 200 Obama volunteers, who remained tight-lipped on any details involving the day’s events, and Romney supporters, who gathered in front of Parks Library, spent the morning registering students to vote.

Peterson stated that with this election’s youth votes, there “might be less engagement, less connection and a less sort of excitement this time compared to four years ago.”

Obama asked all the youths present at the event to get active in the next two months and also said he is counting on all of them in the upcoming election.

“We knew that solving our biggest problems was going to take more than one year, one term or even one president, but we went ahead, and we got started. We know we’ve still got a lot of work to do to get where we need to be, but we are going to get there. I believe that, because I believe in you,” Obama said in his speech.

Obama discussed the fact that by July 1, Congress had passed a bill that kept interest rates on student loans from doubling from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

As president, Obama changed the student loan program in 2010, which made it so all student loans went through the Federal Direct Student Loan Program instead of through a bank. He also eliminated a student’s ability to get two Pell Grants in one year, which used to make it easier for students to receive funding to go to school in the summer as well.

Roberta Johnson, director of Iowa State’s financial aid office, said Obama eliminated a student’s chance to get two Pell Grants in a year because the Pell Grant program was “becoming unsustainable.”

According to the ISU Fact Book, the amount of money awarded through Pell Grants between 2009 and 2010 jumped from $21.6 million to 24.6 million.

Johnson said Gov. Mitt Romney, who was announced as the presidential nomination for the Republican Party at the GOP National Convention on Tuesday, was not clear on his plans for the student loan programs but that Paul Ryan has discussed restricting the Pell Grant program and restricting eligibility for receiving a Pell Grant.

“In America, higher education isn’t a luxury: It’s an economic necessity that every family should be able to afford,” Obama stated.

Obama also touched on what all he has accomplished while in office with the support of his voters.

“I said we’d end the Iraq War; we did. I said we would get Bin Laden; we did,” Obama said to cheers. “No one will ever again have to hide who they love in order to serve the country they love because your vote ended “Don’t ask don’t tell” once and for all; you made that change.”

Obama ended by encouraging his supporters to be involved in the campaign over the next two months and to make a “choice” on election night of where they wanted the country to go from here.

“I’m asking you one more time to do what we did, what young people all across the state of Iowa did four years ago; I’m asking you to believe. … We’ve come too far to turn back now; we’ve got more work to do.”

All classes in Curtiss Hall were moved to the Memorial Union for the day, which Wendy Wintersteen, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Science, said was “easy to accomodate.”

In terms of financial impact on Iowa State, the senior vice president for business and finance, Warren Madden, said the university will know the costs of the event in around the next 30 days.

Madden said the Obama campaign will be reimbursing the university for most costs and that they agreed to pay the rent of about $7,000 for using Curtiss Hall and Central Campus, a fee that would be the same for others who wish to use the space.

Madden does not believe there will be any substantial amount of cost to the university for the event.

Miami Economics Professor Richard Hart introduced Ryan along with Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Gov. John Kasich (R-OH). Event speakers also included State Sen. Bill Coley (R-OH) and State Rep. Tim Derickson (R-OH).

Ryan, a Wisconsin native and 1992 Miami graduate, began his speech talking about Miami.

“I spent a lot of my formative years here,” Ryan said. “Bagel and Deli is still here for sure, right? Oh, I also went to school here too … this town, this school — it means a lot to us.”

Ryan discussed Miami’s historic past and mentioned his love for Skyline Chili and Skipper’s Pub.

Hart told the crowd about his first meeting with Ryan in an intermediate macroeconomics course in 1991.

“It was through the office hours over the course of the semester that I got to know Paul,” Hart said. “He would drop by after class, not to discuss grades, and not to discuss the economic theory he developed in the classroom, but to discuss political philosophy and economic philosophy.”

Kasich and Portman made a joint appearance following Hart, addressing the southwest Ohio audience.

“If we could just start to do what we are doing in Ohio in Washington, DC we could start turning this thing around couldn’t we?” Portman said. “The RedHawks are soaring tonight, one of your own is on the national stage; he’s making a difference.”

Ryan discussed education, jobs, the national debt, government spending and the Obama administration during his nearly 20 minute speech.

Each speaker emphasized the difficulties college students are likely to face upon graduation.

“This is no ordinary election,” Ryan said. “These aren’t ordinary times. America and the meaning and promise of our nation is at stake in this election.”

A small group of protestors also appeared at the event holding signs that read, “Romney: Mr. 1%” and “Romney: 100% out of touch.”

The university found out about Ryan’s plan to hold an event at his alma mater shortly after the official announcement, according to Associate Vice President of University Communications and Marketing, Deedie Dowdle. While university officials prepared for the influx of returning students and event attendees, Dowdle said Miami College Republicans did the majority of the event planning.

The first lady talked a lot about her childhood to approximately 33,000 individuals, the largest crowd ever for a graduation ceremony at Oregon State U., in Reser Stadium. She spoke of her upbringing and having to share a bedroom with her brother Craig Robinson, who is the Oregon State’s head basketball coach.

Through recalling some of her childhood memories, Obama painted a vivid picture of what she meant by “leading a rich life, no matter how much money you have.”

She recalled a moment when Robinson asked their father if they were rich. He responded to the question by cashing his paycheck and dumping all of the bills on the table, which Robinson thought was a demonstration that the answer to his question was “yes.”

But then their father began eliminating dollar after dollar for all of the necessary expenditures for the family until eventually, there was nothing left.

The first lady’s lesson to students was that success should be defined on their own terms, not someone else’s. Both siblings experienced a time in their lives when they had the economic status and careers they felt they needed, but didn’t truly feel rewarded.

Obama said they both ended up quitting their jobs. She started working for the mayor’s office, while Robinson started coaching basketball, and both took salary cuts that “made [their] mother cringe.”

Obama had three lessons for students. First, focus on what you have, not what you’re missing. Second, define success on your own terms. And third, do not leave behind unfinished business with the people you love, to which Obama said, “‘Liking’ them on Facebook doesn’t count.”

Robinson, who was involved in many of the stories told in Sunday’s speech, also talked about what it meant to have his sister here speaking to the university where he coaches.

“It’s exciting, as her brother, to be able to hear it, and hear her do such a wonderful job for our country publicly,” Robinson said.

He also talked about how she is able to give these kinds of inspirational speeches on a fairly regular basis.

“Good scrabble player,” he joked. “No – my sister has been very comfortable in front of large groups for a very long time. She picks and says the things she says for a reason, and there’s always a message.”

Robinson said his sister would be sticking around in town to visit their family for a little while, before moving on to an engagement in Nevada on Tuesday.

The first lady did note the Obama family has become fans of Oregon State since her brother started coaching, proclaiming “Go Beavs!” to the crowd during her speech.

Obama largely avoided campaign rhetoric during his keynote address, focusing on women’s rights during an election year in which women’s issues have permeated the political dialogue. He stressed the importance of female leaders in society.

“Don’t just get involved—fight for your seat at the table,” he told Barnard students. “Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.”

Obama also touched on the sometimes strained relationship between Barnard and Columbia, although he didn’t address the controversy that ensued on campus after announced that he would speak at Barnard’s graduation rather than his alma mater’s.

And even though he wasn’t giving his usual stump speech, Obama didn’t shy away from talking about other hot-button issues, including gay marriage and the economy. He referred several times to his recent endorsement of same-sex marriage rights, eliciting loud cheers.

“The trajectory of this country should give you hope. Previous generations should give you hope … That’s how we achieved women’s rights,” he said. “That’s how we achieved voting rights. That’s how we achieved workers’ rights. That’s how we achieved gay rights.”

Barnard graduate Liza Darvin said that even if “some of it was political rhetoric,” she enjoyed Obama’s personal anecdotes. Another graduate, Laurie Kladky, said she appreciated Obama’s sense of humor.

“I expected it to be more campaign-y,” Kladky said. “He only told us to vote once.”

Women and politics
Obama also described the women “who shaped my life,” including his mother Stanley Dunham, his wife Michelle, and his half-sister Mary Soetoro-Ng. He told Barnard students to “ignore our pop culture obsession over beauty and fashion and focus instead on studying, inventing, competing and leading.”

“We are better off when women are treated fairly and equally in every aspect of American life, whether it’s the salary you earn or the health decisions you make,” he said.

He joked that his wife would have something slightly different to say about beauty and fashion, though.

“Michelle will say, nothing wrong with caring about it a little bit,” Obama said. “You can be stylish and powerful too.”

But for all the time Obama spent discussing women’s issues during his half-hour address, he didn’t explain why he chose to speak at Barnard rather than Columbia College, his alma mater. The March announcement that he would speak at Barnard prompted hundreds of sexist online comments on Spectator and Bwog, and highlighted the tension that sometimes exists between Barnard and Columbia—a tension that Obama referred to only tangentially.

“I will begin by telling a hard truth,” Obama told students. “I’m a Columbia College graduate. I know there can be a little bit of a sibling rivalry here.”

Obama did talk about his time at Columbia College, pointing out that women were first admitted to CC in 1983, the year he graduated.

He added that music at the time “was all about Michael [Jackson] and the moonwalk,” although he responded to cries of “do it” from the crowd that “there will be no moonwalking today.” He also noted that in 1983, Columbia’s neighborhood was more dangerous that it is now, and that Times Square was “not a family destination.”

“But for all the differences, the class of 1983 actually had a lot in common with all of you,” Obama said. “For we, too, were heading out into a world at a moment when our country was still recovering from a particularly severe economic recession.”

“This country would be better off if more Americans got the kind of education you receive here at Barnard,” he added.

‘Organic and resonant’
Obama arrived on South Lawn for the ceremony at around noon, when his motorcade turned from Amsterdam Avenue on to College Walk. Barnard seniors, as well as students from other undergraduate schools who won tickets for the event in a lottery, greeted him with ecstatic applause.

“I’m so excited. I can’t believe he’s actually coming,” Barnard senior Elizabeth Goodman said before the ceremony. “I’m really honored to be part of Barnard today.

Barnard graduate Julia Feld said before that she avoided watching videos of Obama’s past commencement speeches, worried that if they were too similar to his address on Monday, she might feel that his appearance at Columbia “isn’t special.”

“I have really thought about this,” Feld said. “I just want it to come as it comes, to kind of really enjoy it.”

Reaction to Obama’s speech was largely positive—and not just among current students. Andrea Hochland, BC ’75, who watched Obama’s address at a viewing party for Barnard alumnae at the Midtown Executive Club, said he gave a “fantastic commencement address.”

“It wasn’t filled with platitudes—it was organic and resonant to what Barnard represents,” Hochland said. “He’s a male speaker, but he’s someone who understands the woman’s situation in this country.”

Barnard President Debora Spar awarded Obama with a Barnard Medal of Distinction. She took on a political tone as she introduced Obama, praising many of his policies and calling his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention “as brilliant as it was decisive.”

“You have led the way on preventing hate crimes and promoting affordable health care, on reforming student loan programs, credit card and financial regulation,” Spar said.

Campus on lock-down
But Obama’s speech was only part of the story on Monday, when campus was turned upside down by security procedures.

Security concerns first entered the campus conversation late last month when administrators made the controversial decision to reschedule the School of General Studies’ Class Day, which was originally scheduled for Monday morning.

GS Dean Peter Awn said that if the ceremony hadn’t been rescheduled for Sunday, GS students and their guests would have had to arrive at campus at 5:30 a.m. due to heightened security procedures. That heightened security finally hit campus on Sunday, when residents of all lower campus dorms had to vacate their rooms by 4 p.m.

Lower campus was completely locked down from midnight on Sunday night until Obama departed at about 2 p.m. Only people attending the ceremony could access lower campus during that time, and all buildings south of Low Library were closed.

By 8 a.m., many Barnard seniors had lined up outside Lerner Hall to go through metal detectors. The line at times stretched for more than a block, but by 10 a.m. most of the students had made it into Roone Arledge Auditorium, where they waited until the procession began at noon.

For most students, though, the excitement of getting the chance to see Obama—and receive their diplomas—outweighed any frustration with the intense security.

Natasha Cline-Thomas was the last Barnard student in the line to get into Lerner. She was unperturbed by the security measures, saying that they were necessary and that the line was “moving pretty quickly.”

“As long as I get in, I’ll be happy,” Cline-Thomas said.

Feld, one of the last students in line, said that while she was excited to hear Obama, students should could have been given staggered arrival times.

“They should have understood how to deal with lines in a more efficient way,” she said.

“The security’s a little too much,” Nancy Trujillo said. “I just want to graduate.”

Soon-to-be graduates’ families and friends, as well as lottery-winning students from CC, GS, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science packed 114th Street. That line spanned the block between Broadway and Amsterdam several times over, as guests and students were funneled through security at the Carman and John Jay gates.

North campus remained open before and during the ceremony, but south campus was inundated by secret service agents, police officers, and public safety officers. There were snipers on the roofs of Low and Butler Library, and there was heavy security around some buildings with views of South Lawn.

While waiting to go through security at Lerner, Barnard English professor Helen Pilinovsky said she appreciated the security measures, citing the principle of “better safe than sorry.”

“I think it’s going to make our next trip to the airport look like cake,” she said.

Awards and gifts
Obama was far from the only speaker at the ceremony. Spar, Student Government Association President Jessica Black, Senior Class President Jackie D’Aversa, and Barnard board of trustees chair Jolyn Caruso-FitzGerald, among others, also addressed graduates.

Spar announced, after building some suspense, that Barnard seniors had Maddie Provo as the winner of the Frank Gilbert Bryson Prize, which is given each year to a senior who “has given conspicuous evidence of unselfishness and who has made the greatest contribution to Barnard during the college years.”

Provo, an improv comedian and an SGA representative to Barnard’s board of trustees, was shocked by the announcement. She tried with great difficulty to figure out how to walk up to the stage before realizing that she was supposed to stay seated, and she ultimately stood up in her seat and waved to her cheering classmates.

Before presenting Obama with his Medal of Distinction, Spar gave Obama two gifts—a collection of books written by Barnard alumnae and signed by their authors, and a book containing wisdom from the class of 2012 for Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia.

“They’re welcome at Barnard any time,” Spar said, referring to Sasha and Malia.

For most students, though, hearing from Obama was the highlight of commencement. Cline-Thomas called it “the icing on the cake” that Obama was speaking at her college graduation.

Obama ended his address on a hopeful note.

“If you’re willing to reach up and close that gap between what America is and what America should be, I want you to know that I will be right there with you,” he said. “If you are ready to fight for that brilliant, radically simple idea of America—that no matter who you are or what you look like, no matter who you love or what God you worship, you can still pursue your own happiness—I will join you every step of the way.”

“Someone once wrote, ‘Life can be a challenge,’” he began, pausing as laughter built up among some audience members who immediately recognized the inspirational quote.

Its origin: A song on the “Pokemon” movie soundtrack, which Cain famously referenced when he told supporters he would be dropping out of the Republican presidential primary late last year.

“You are in college,” Cain continued Tuesday, “which means that, in 2000, you were watching ‘Pokemon!’ I was trying to make me some money while you were watching ‘Pokemon.’”

It was a fitting conclusion to a 45-minute speech that caught the eccentric, rambunctious conservative in full form: rattling off blunt advice to the hundreds of students in attendance — “Graduate, OK?” — bemoaning that “stupid people are ruining America,” and stumping for his 9-9-9 tax plan.

At one point, Cain excused himself as he gauged the audience reaction to his animated remarks on the separation of church and state.

“I’m not mad, y’all,” he said. “I’m just passionate about this thing!”

NU College Republicans President Dane Stier said Cain was the perfect combination of entertaining speaker and insightful politician.

“He has interesting things to say, and obviously everybody wants to hear him,” Stier said. “Most of the people who signed up to come are liberals who don’t agree with what he says, but they’re excited to come and see him.”

College Republicans adjusted the event’s entrance policy last week after what Stier called a “high degree of interest” from students, setting aside 325 free tickets for guaranteed seating. Those tickets were all claimed within the hour they were released May 2, and an additional 75 attendees were let in minutes before Cain took the stage Tuesday.

Cain, the former CEO and owner of Godfather’s Pizza, charted his personal and professional journey to the top post at the National Restaurant Association, including his bout with Stage 4 colon cancer and every management gig along the way.

He repeatedly told the nearly 400 students in Fisk Hall’s second-floor auditorium that “success comes in a zig zag, not a straight line.” Students especially have to set goals, because “goals are stepping stones to dreams,” he added.

Echoing his now-defunct campaign’s central planks, Cain pinpointed three areas of concern in the country’s current state: the economic, energy and spending crises.

“Yes, we have some other problems, but if we don’t fix those three, folks, this nation is headed off a cliff,” he said.

In the 15-minute Q-and-A segment that followed his speech, Cain took credit for forcing other candidates to be “more bold” in their platforms during the Republican primary, as well as injecting “a little bit of a sense of humor” into the political horse race.

Cain, who endorsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich earlier this year, called presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney a “very bright, very articulate” problem-solver with the business experience needed to run the country.

Still, Cain said the GOP race could have played out in a different way.

“I talk to groups a lot, and some people are still upset that their favorite candidate didn’t get the nomination,” he said, setting up one of the night’s loudest applause lines. “Mine didn’t either — me!”

Some students were less amused by Cain’s rhetoric, which he repeatedly admitted may be more candid now that he is off the campaign trail.

The audience audibly groaned when Cain called global warming “another myth people have bought into.”

NU College Democrats Co-President Lauren Izaak said although she found Cain’s dismissal of global warming troubling, she took particular issue with his skewering of some sensitive words.

While discussing the foreign oil crisis, Cain seemed to purposely mispronounce the religious follower names “Sikh” and “Shiite,” quickly adding, “Yeah, I said it,” when the audience gasped.

“I definitely understand why people felt offended,” Izaak said. “It felt oddly tied into the whole conversation we are having on campus about diversity right now.”

Before his speech, Cain briefly met with several student leaders in the lobby of the McCormick Tribune Center. One of those present, Associated Student Government President Victor Shao, said Cain shared some stories from his days at Godfather’s Pizza, such as the time Cain personally visited a store to figure out which ingredients to cut from the company budget.

At the meet-and-greet, Shao recalled Cain as especially emphatic about the temperature of the drinking water he was provided.

“He said the best thing for anyone who is going to be speaking is warm water, because cold water constricts the throat,” Shao said with a laugh. “I think they warmed up the water for him after that.”

Officials said about 14,000 people gathered at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus for President Barack Obama’s “Ready to Go” Rally.

Michelle Obama appeared in one of her signature dresses, hued in deep sky blue to match the colors of her husband’s campaign trail.

“Well it sounds like you all are already fired up and ready to go here today,” Michelle Obama said with a laugh when she first took the podium.

But Michelle Obama went on to speak about more serious issues, such as her family growing up and their hardships.

“My father was a blue-collar worker at the city water plant and my family lived in a little bitty apartment on the south side of Chicago,” she said. “Neither went to college. But they saved and they sacrificed. They poured everything they had into me and my brother.”

The First Lady talked about her father’s struggle to pay for her college education, though she said he sincerely valued her education because he wanted better for her than he had himself.

“While pretty much all of my college tuition came from grants and student loans, my dad paid as much tuition himself that he could,” she said. “Every semester, my dad was determined to pay that bill on time.”

The message Michelle Obama said she wanted to get out to Ohioans was that of her family’s values, emphasizing them several times during her twenty-minute speech.

“That’s what I think about when I tuck my girls in at night. I think about what I want to leave for them,” the First Lady said. “I want for them what my dad wanted for me.”

Michelle Obama went on to talk about how she gets to see up close and personal the decisions her husband has to make on a daily basis.

“These problems have no clear solutions,” she said. “When it comes time to make that decision, all you have to guide you are your life experiences, your values and your vision for this country.”

Michelle Obama touched on Barack Obama’s background, being raised by a single mother and the hard work and struggles that his grandmother faced.

“In the end when you’re making those impossible choices, it all boils down to who you are and what you stand for, and we all know who Barack Obama is,” she said. “We all know what our President stands for, right?”

Michelle Obama launched a campaign to fight childhood obesity in 2010, promoting healthy eating and exercise for America’s children. Her “Let’s Move!” campaign has recently come under fire, criticized of promoting bullying in schools.

In his second visit to Ohio State’s campus in fewer than two months, the president spoke before about 14,000 people in the Schottenstein Center Saturday at his “Ready To Go” Rally.

The Schottenstein Center seats about 18,300 people. Organizers allowed those in lower bowl seats to move to the floor to give the illusion the arena was filled closer to capacity for TV cameras.

Obama focused on several topics, including the economy, education, ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and women’s rights, all at a time that he said is a “make or break moment for the middle class.”

He said it was important to be a “bold, forward-thinking America,” calling out strategies of Republican leaders and that of likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

“For the last few years, the Republicans who run this Congress have insisted that we go right back to policies that created this mess,” Obama said.

He said they want bigger tax cuts for wealthy Americans, cuts to Medicare, research and technology, and to give more power to banks and insurance companies to “do as they please.”

“And now, after a long and spirited primary, Republicans in Congress have found a nominee for president who has promised to rubber-stamp this agenda if he gets the chance,” Obama said. “Ohio, I tell you what: We cannot give him that chance. Not now. Not with so much at stake.”

He said Romney doesn’t understand the government can’t maximize profits by any means necessary. He said Romney assumes that if CEOs are making money, the middle class will as well, for example.

“He and his friends in Congress think that the same bad ideas will lead to a different result,” Obama said. “Or, they’re just hoping you won’t remember the last time we tried it their way.”

Obama rattled off several reasons as to why he’s running for a second term. One of which included proposing sending two million more Americans to community college.

He also said he plans to spend half the money saved from pulling the military out of Iraq and Afghanistan on the national deficit and the other half on infrastructure, including roads and wireless Internet.

He was critical on spending and the economy since the 2008 recession. He said the free market, when not abused, allows America to prosper, but he said our country strayed from some basic tenets.

Obama said a massive surplus was squandered on tax cuts for people who didn’t need them. He also said wars were waged on the credit card, Wall Street speculators reaped huge profits by making bets with other people’s money, and manufacturing left our shores.

“It was a house of cards that collapsed in the most destructive crisis since the Great Depression,” Obama said.

He said the U.S. auto industry has recovered since the government bailout after the 2008 recession. He also said jobs are being added for the first time since the 1990s, exports surged, and more than 4 million jobs were created in the last two years.

However, he said people are still looking for work, the housing market is weak, deficits are high, and people are still being laid off from their jobs.

“It was tough, but I tell you what, Ohio, the American people are tougher,” Obama said.

The president said he is going to win this campaign “the old-fashioned way” by going door-to-door, despite videos screened for the crowd before his appearance focusing on social media websites such as Twitter and YouTube.

Audience members were also asked before the president spoke to call a friend and ask them to support Obama.

First Lady Michelle Obama took the podium before the president and spoke for about 25 minutes. She said she and her husband were in Columbus for “the vision we all share.”

Michelle Obama spoke about “basic American values” and the “world she wants to leave” for today’s children, which includes schools that should push them to prepare them for good jobs and allowing their parents and grandparents to retire with dignity.

“It’s that fundamental promise that no matter who you are or how you started out, if you work hard, you can build a decent life for yourself, and yes, an even better life for your kids,” Michelle Obama said.

She also spoke about student loans. The current student loan interest rate cut expires on July 1, meaning interest rates will double if the cut is not renewed.

She said most of her college education — she received her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in 1985 — was paid for via loans and grants, but her dad “couldn’t bear the thought” of being late paying a bill that would jeopardize his children missing the registration deadline.

“We want to restore that basic middle-class security to our families because we believe that folks shouldn’t go bankrupt because they get sick,” Michelle Obama said. “They shouldn’t lose their home because someone loses a job. We believe that responsibility should be rewarded and hard work should pay off.”

Also speaking before the Obamas were Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and former U.S. Sen. John Glenn, all of whom are Democrats.

Ryan Williams, a spokesman for the Romney campaign, said Obama failed to mention his poor economic record.

“The speech the president gave today was a cut-and-paste job and rehash of what he did in 2008,” Williams said. “The president came here and did what he’s continued to do his entire campaign, which is talk about anything but his failed economic record and his disappointing policies that have not created jobs for working Americans.”

Tyler Byrum, a member of OSU College Republicans and a second-year in engineering physics, said Obama focused too much on the past rather than the future, particularly on the economy and the ability for college graduates to get jobs out of school.

“It was hypocritical for Obama to say those things because he himself is a millionaire,” Byrum said. “I just felt like what he addressed about Romney, it was all low-blow partisan bias.”

Barack Obama said this election will be closer than the last and that voters should be prepared for more “nastiness” from the campaigns.

However, he said it’s still possible to make a difference.

“We’re not Democrats or Republicans, but Americans first and foremost,” he said.

Sarah Stemen contributed to this story.

Clinton’s speech, titled “Embracing our Common Humanity,” addressed the interdependence of people in an increasingly globalized world.

“I never met a person who was entirely self-made,” Clinton said.

“We live in an interconnected world.”

Clinton cited his own education as an example. He worked hard in school, but various scholarships facilitated his success.

He also emphasized that despite slow economic recovery following the recession, he is optimistic that the country will bounce back.

“It’s hard for a lot of people in California to hold onto (hope) because of all the brutal economic situations that the state has endured,” Clinton said.

He said that when he became president, California was one of the states hardest-hit by the recession in the early 1990s – but it too recovered.

Leslie White, a Los Angeles resident who attended the event, said she felt it was meaningful for the former president to have spoken on a college campus. She has had two children in college, she said.

“College grads are going to be at the forefront of whatever happens in the future,” White said.

“To have expressed his optimism about the country and the world while it struggles is more meaningful because he spoke to a lot of college students (in the lecture).”

About 900 tickets were given to UCLA students for free on a first-come, first-served basis.

Madhu Narasimhan, a third-year political science student, said he was one of the last students to get a free ticket.

Narasimhan, who said he has been a longtime fan of Clinton, also saw the former president speak at UCLA during a rally to endorse Gov. Jerry Brown for the 2010 state gubernatorial election.

“The content of the speeches was different,” he said.

“The first one was more political, and this one was more about embracing our common humanity; it had a more visionary and hopeful approach.”

Jonathan Li, a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student, said that while he enjoyed the inaugural lecture and agreed with the former president’s views on interdependence, he wished the speech had been more empowering to students in particular.

The holders of the first 500 free student tickets got a seat in Royce Hall, while the rest were invited to a room in Haines Hall to watch a live videocast of the event. The remaining seats were sold to the general public starting at $100.

Prior to the start of the lecture, Chancellor Gene Block presented the Luskins with the inaugural Fiat Lux award, which “honors those whose vision and action have manifestly enriched and transformed UCLA,” Block told the audience.

The award was first recommended in 2010 by the chancellor’s office to honor people who have rendered distinguished service to UCLA, Ritea said.

Ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff was invited to UT to launch the McCombs School of Business’ “Ethics Unwrapped” speakers series, and spoke to audience members about the dilemmas of legality and morality in the lobbying industry in an event titled “You Don’t Know Jack”.

One of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, D.C. during the presidency of George W. Bush, Abramoff served three and a half years in prison after a scandal involving Indian casino interests found him and 21 other White House officials guilty of corruption.

He now claims he is on a campaign to bring hard change to the lobbying industry after realizing in prison that a government allowing corruption to go unchallenged is a failure.

After some deliberation, UT officials decided paying Abramoff an estimated $10,000 was worth it if students could learn about the dark side of ethics, said Howard Prince, director of the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

“The first question I had when I was told we could have [Abramoff] come to campus, was ‘Why should we pay a failure to talk about moral failure,’” Prince said. “After some deliberation, we realized there could be value from learning from the mistakes of others, especially when the failure was from a man of considerable talent, like Mr. Abramoff.”

Abramoff, who is still on parole and cannot travel or make phone calls without approval, will not immediately receive the payment. A third party will monitor the fund, which is being paid for by sponsors in McCombs school, Deloitte Foundation and Bates Family Foundation, said business professor Robert Prentice.

Being questioned by Prentice and advertising professor Minette Drumwright, Abramoff engaged in a conversation about the difference between moral and legal problems in Washington.

“I used everything that was ‘legal’ to build a lobbying empire, and it was an empire on behalf of clients to support their product,” Abramoff said. “The problem was that I wasn’t judging what I was doing morally. I was judging it legally, and there was big difference.”

The only reason he was caught for corruption was due to his political battle with Senator John McCain, Abramoff said, who “dumped the emails” that led the exposure of his crimes.

Being cast out of Washington, D.C. didn’t solve the institutional practices that continue to intertwine money and politics, Abramoff said.

“So I got assassinated and sent off to prison, and they threw their hats in the air and said they had fixed the system and that the devil was cast out,” Abramoff said. “But they didn’t change anything, the system kept on going.”

Now writing for the Republic Report and asking for “effective reforms” that stop lobbyists from giving any contributions to public officials, Abramoff said he reflects on his own experiences as a lobbyist to craft his demands.

“They passed a law in Washington saying a lobbyist can’t legally go to dinner with a congressman,” Abramoff said. “Legally, a dinner counts as a sit down meal with cutlery. When I had a restaurant we would put in bar stools for meetings, so the meals counted as standing up. We need laws that close those loopholes.”

After a question and answer session, Prentice closed the event to an audience’s applause, asking them to reflect on their own failures and the lessons they had learned.

“I read three books on psychopaths before meeting Mr. Abramoff, and I was kind of hoping that when I met him I was going to meet my first psychopath,” Prentice said. “The reality was that when I met Mr. Abramoff, it was much like meeting other white collar criminals. He’s a man closer to me, and that’s a sobering lesson.”

As the most persistent Occupy chapter, Raleigh’s organization against corporate personhood, greed and tuition hikes has grown throughout the school year.

Among the most important events for Occupiers at N.C. State was the “mic check” on Wells Fargo CEO John Stumph. Several members of Occupy NCSU got together for an afternoon of protest leading up to a calling out of the CEO for alleged unjust business practices.

Ryan Thomson, member of Occupy NCSU and Raleigh and graduate student in anthropology, said it was among one his favorite moments this year.

“I’m still grinning about [the mic check] and I probably forever will,” Thomson said.

Bryan Perlmutter, junior in business administration, said the Stumph protest moved the group forward, and was one of the most exciting moments of the year.

“When we mic checked John Stumph earlier in the year, it was good, because it brought a lot of media attention, and it  brought to light who we should be letting speak at our University,” Perlmutter said.

Perlmutter said Stumph isn’t the type of speaker that should be lecturing at the University, implying his business ethics as questionable.

Ishan Raval, occupier and freshman in philosophy, cited the mic check as one of the most important highlights of Occupy NCSU. He thinks in general, the Occupy movement has inspired Americans to get off of their feet.

“Since the 60s there hasn’t really been anything like this,” Raval said. “Things have been quiet and people have been content watching TV and eating Big Macs.”

Perlmutter said it has sparked change not only among those who back Occupy, but it has changed politics in the U.S.

“The student movement in general really started to come together this year, and started some great things for our future,” Perlmutter said.

Katina Gad, senior in fashion and textile management, said the movement has spread awareness about corrupt banking practices.

“People are a lot more conscious of what the banks are doing,” Gad said.

And while Raleigh Occupiers traveled Wall Street to protest banks first-hand, some maintained a voice in North Carolina.

For Ryan Thomson, going to New York City to join those who started the movement was an experience he won’t forget.

“When I got to march on Wall Street and 6,000 people took over, that was huge for me,” Thomson said.

From New York City, to Raleigh, and around the country, the Occupy movement made and continues to change politics in America.

“We’ve shifted the political discussion,” Thomson said. “That is hands down the biggest thing that I think all of Occupy has done.”

As the school year unfolds, Occupiers plan to keep persistent in their views, with a change in attitude.

“We’ve taken to the Capital, we’ve readjusted our approach to local politics and are becoming increasingly engaged instead of othering ourselves and saying ‘we’re opposed to them,’” Thomson said. “We’re saying ‘here are the changes we want to see and here’s why.’”

The movement’s new approach is organized and self-aware, and Occupy Raleigh is currently back on the capitol lawn, protesting in defiance of what they call corporate greed.

“We’re getting more strategic with our campaign, we’re not trying to be so up in your face all of the time,” Thomson said.

Thomson reflected upon the work that he and Occupy NCSU have done, saying that the experience was great, and that he was proud of what he has accomplished.

“It has been a heck of a ride to say the least,” Thomson said.

Organized by the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, the speech was part of the annual Whittington Lecture, a series created to honor Leslie Whittington, a former dean of public studies in the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, who died in the 9/11 attacks.

In his speech, Ryan criticized the Obama administration for its spending increases and spoke about the severe consequences a large deficit could have on the nation’s economic future.

“The hallmarks of the president’s government-centered agenda are that policy after policy takes from hardworking Americans and gives to … special interests,” Ryan said.

Ryan’s plan aims to reduce the national deficit to below 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2015. Additionally, he said he would reduce the size of government to 20 percent of the overall economy by the same year.

To these ends, the Ryan plan reduces future funding to welfare programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and Pell Grants.

Midway through Ryan’s speech, a group of students from Georgetown Occupy unfurled a banner over the Gaston Hall balcony that read “Stop the War on the Poor.”

Georgetown Occupy member Cole Stangler criticized Ryan’s cuts to welfare.

“Paul Ryan’s entire budget is class warfare in service of the 1 percent,” Stangler said. “He’s doing [their] dirty work.”

But Ryan, who frequently uses his Catholic faith to support his budget plan, said that it is Obama who has promoted class warfare through rhetoric about tax cuts and expressed hope that a new administration could solve the deficit problem.

“Only with the right leadership in place can we move forward with the idea of leaving our children with a stronger nation than the one our parents left us,” Ryan said.

After the lecture ended, the Georgetown Occupy members joined protesters from Catholics United, a nonprofit organization that promotes social justice found in Catholic teaching.

“As Catholics, we care about the less fortunate. We’re here to say, Paul Ryan does not speak for us,” Executive Director James Salt said.

Before Ryan’s arrival on campus, Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., senior research fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center, crafted a letter challenging Ryan’s interpretation of Catholicism. The letter was signed by 90 faculty members across a variety of departments.

“Ryan has been talking so much about how Catholic social teaching inspired him and influenced the drawing up of his draconian budget,” Reese said. “I felt it was imperative that we respond and challenge him because we think he is totally misrepresenting and misusing Catholic social teaching.”

The letter confirmed Catholic social teaching’s commitment to helping the very poor and criticized Ryan for embodying the philosophical views of Ayn Rand rather than Catholicism.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize how far left a lot of the Catholic teachings of social and economic justice are,” Karen Stohr, a philosophy professor who signed the letter, said.

Reese clarified that the signatories do not object to Ryan’s presence on campus — only his budget plan.

“We welcome him to campus because it provides an opportunity to talk about Catholic social teaching and how moral and religious values should influence political decisions,” Reese said. “I think it’s a great opportunity to have a conversation, dialog, even an argument on campus about moral values and politics.”

The U. Iowa Field House was a sea of black and gold as students welcomed President Barack Obama to speak on affordability and access to higher education.

Obama arrived Wednesday to the cheers of 5,500 students, faculty, staff and Iowa community members, said Stephen Pradarelli, director of the U. Iowa’s News Services.

Students started by screaming their “love” for the 44th president who quickly replied, “And I love you back!”

The president traveled to Iowa, a state that helped propel him to win the 2008 election, to discuss students’ “investment” in higher education, one he felt is being threatened by climbing tuition rates and fees.

“I am only here today and Michelle is only where she is today because scholarships and student loans gave us a shot at a great education. That’s how we succeeded,” Obama said. “Since most of you were born, tuition and fees in America’s colleges have more than doubled and that forces students to take out more loans and rack up more debt.”

Obama explained that the average debt for American college students when they graduate is $25,000. The University of Iowa’s graduating class of 2011 left with an average debt of $25,446.

Iowa State’s graduating class of 2011 had an average debt of $29,324, said Roberta Johnson, director of the ISU Office of Student Financial Aid. This average was lower than the previous four years. In 2006, ISU students left with an average debt of $30,619.

“We’ve got to make college more affordable for more young people. We can’t put the middle class at a disadvantage … we can’t price the middle class out of a college education,” Obama said.

The president explained that since taking office, he has changed the student loan system so it did not go through banks, put a cap on student loans so graduating students only have to pay 10 percent of their monthly income on loans, has created a Consumer Finance Protection Bureau to offer students more information and is encouraging colleges and universities to keep tuition low or they will not receive federal aid.

“State legislatures also have to do their part by making higher education a higher priority in budgets,” Obama said.

He said more than 40 states cut higher education spending in the last year.

The role of Congress in aiding in American college students’ financial issues was another major topic.

On July 1, a cut on interest rates for student loans will expire, adding an additional $1,000 dollars to students’ debt. This cut, which lowered the interest rates for student loans by half, was enacted five years ago.

Obama said Congress needs to act now to extend this cut on interest rates and explained that a bill was introduced in Congress for this purpose Tuesday night.

“Congress needs to act right now to prevent interest rates on federal student loans from shooting up and shaking you down,” he said.

Obama also wants Congress to extend a tuition tax credit that gives families a tax break when they help their kids go to college, continue Pell Grants for low-income students and double the number of work-study jobs in the next five years.

“Helping more young people afford college should be at the forefront of America’s agenda and it shouldn’t be a Republican or Democrat issue. This is an American issue,” Obama said.

Though Obama said 77 Republican members of Congress voted for the original bill to keep student loan interest rates from doubling, he laughed at several recent remarks by the opposing party.

“One of these members of Congress … who compared these student loans, I’m not kidding here, to a stage-three cancer of socialism,” Obama said while laughing. “I don’t know where to start. What do you mean? What are you talking about?”

Obama also said the spokesperson for Speaker of the House John Boehner said this was a distraction from the issue of the economy.

“This is the economy. This is about your job security. This is about your future. If you do well, the economy does well. You are the economy,” Obama explained, his voice growing with each sentence. “Making sure our next generation earns the best education possible is exactly American’s business.”

Steffen Schmidt, ISU university professor of political science, said that Obama’s visit to Iowa, as well as Michelle Obama’s visit to Des Moines on Tuesday night, have to do with Iowa being a “battleground” state.

Schmidt explained in an email that Iowa is “one of a half-dozen or so that could swing either to the Democrat or the Republican in November. So Iowa is on the Obama, and probably later the Romney, campaign schedule. It is just as important this year for November as it was during the Iowa caucuses in January.”

Obama did not mention any campaign issues, but stuck strictly to the topic of college affordability.

“You’re here because somebody made a commitment to you,” Obama said, as he began to come to the end of his 30-minute speech.

“Somebody here had a parent or grandparent that said, ‘Maybe I can’t go to college, but someday my son can. Maybe I can’t start my own business, but someday I can picture my daughter starting her own business. Maybe I’m an immigrant, but I believe that this is the country, this is the place, that no matter who you are, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, no matter what your last name is, you can make it if you try.’”

A small group of around 15 protesters met outside of the Field House during the event.

The interest rates on subsidized Stafford student loans are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent for 7.4 million students July 1, unless Congress passes legislation to stop it. A crowd of 8,000 people packed the arena to see the president rally for Congress to keep the low interest rates and to talk about the importance of higher education.

With the recent tuition increases passed for the 16 UNC-System schools, including a 9.8 percent tuition increase at N.C. State, college is getting more expensive. In North Carolina, the double interest rate would affect 160,000 students and add $980 to the span of the average student loan, according to the White House.

Obama called on states, colleges and universities, and Congress to make higher education more affordable for all Americans. According to the White House, “The strength of the American economy is inextricably linked to the strength of America’s education system.”

Senior Dominique Garland introduced the president.

“With scholarships and loans I was able to have a holistic education, including internships and other opportunities. If the loan interest rate doubles, this could change,” Garland said.

“Higher education is the single most important investment you can make in your future. In today’s economy there’s no greater predictor of success than a good education,” Obama said.

According to Obama, the unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree is half of the national average, and incomes of college graduates are twice as high as those without college degrees. However, the average student graduates with $25,000 in student debt, and for the past generation of college students, tuitions and fees at most of America’s colleges have doubled. “Americans now owe more on their student loans than they do on their credit cards,” Obama said.

The president said he and his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, have had their own experiences with college debt.

“Michelle and I, we’ve been in your shoes. When we graduated from college and law school we had a mountain of debt. When we married we got poor together. We added up our assets and there were no assets,” Obama said.

Obama said while his administration have taken action to help with student loans, like capping interest rates and setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it’s not enough. He said colleges, universities and Congress have to do their part as well, and if colleges can’t stop tuition from going up, then funding they get from federal taxpayers will go down.

“Last year over 40 states cut their higher education spending and we’re challenging states to take a responsibility,” Obama said.

Obama also challenged Congress to give more young people the chance to earn their way through college by doing things like doubling the number of work-study jobs over the next five years, and stopping the interest rate cuts from expiring July 1.

“Stopping this from happening should be a no brainer. It shouldn’t be a Democratic or Republican issue. It should be an American issue,” Obama said.

Ending his speech, Obama referred to the “American Dream.”

“In America we admire success. We aspire to it. But America is not just about a few people doing well,” Obama said. “I want one of you to find the cure for cancer, the formula for fusion. Now is the time to double down on building an America that lasts.”

Michael Walden, a William Neal Reynolds distinguished professor and extension economist at N.C. State, commented on the effect the rate increase could have on the University.

“An increase in the interest rate on loans will increase the costs of attending college and likely reduce attendance by some potential students,” Walden said.

Jessica Schwartz, a 2010 alumna of N.C. State, is still paying off her student loans at about $62 a month. She took out $5,500 in student loans, mostly to fund a summer of studying abroad.

“Occasionally when I feel economically confident I’ll put in $100, but that’s rare these days. I believe I have about $1,300 to still pay off, and not counting interest I’d have about 20 more months to go if I consistently keep up the $62 monthly plan,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz said that while no one likes to owe money, she feels lucky she had the ability not to have a lot of student loans.

“I think that high interest rates are a big problem and they will deter people from going to college if it costs too much money. Education is important and school should be more affordable or future generations will suffer, either because people can’t further their education, or they can’t afford to pay off their loans after-the-fact,” Schwartz said.

Obama also filmed an episode of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus with the Dave Matthews Band, which aired Tuesday night. The show had a student audience from the University.

McGovern, who gained national prominence during his 1972 campaign by opposing the Vietnam War, spoke frankly about his disapproval for the military’s ongoing military occupation of Afghanistan.

“I didn’t think we should have been in Vietnam, and frankly I don’t see what we’re doing in Afghanistan,” McGovern said.

Accusations made against McGovern during the 1972 campaign claiming he was a pacifist were untrue, he said.

“I opposed the war in Vietnam, but I fully believed what we did in WWII was just,” McGovern said. “In WWII I developed a full appreciation of the sacrifices made by young soldiers when we send them off to war. War is a deadly business, and something we should never enter lightly.”

McGovern defended governmental spending, saying he feels his taxes are put to great use on roads, education and national defense.

“I’ve visited, for better or worse, just about every country … and not one has a government as useful as the U.S. federal government,” McGovern said. “I’d rather be a citizen of the U.S. than any other country on earth.”

In a question-and-answer session after his speech, McGovern disagreed with the concept of corporate personhood.

“The first time I see a corporation holding a rifle in a foreign war I’ll believe it,” McGovern said.

“If you had said in 2006 that we would be where we are now, very few people would have believed you,” Krugman said as he began the lecture.

Titled “Europe’s Two Depressions,” Krugman’s lecture primarily addressed the ongoing global financial crisis that began with the crash of the housing market in 2007. Although Krugman said that at the moment the U.S. economy “doesn’t seem to have an ongoing process of unraveling,” his outlook on Europe’s current financial situation was less optimistic. He noted that Europe has done worse financially in a number of respects than the United States has and is replicating many of the mistakes of the 1930s.

“Sometimes you read the headlines and say, ‘What year is this?’ ” he said. “Why does this sound so much like the 1930s?”

Krugman used the economic crisis that has dominated European politics as an entry point into the topic. He labeled Spain as the epicenter of the European crisis, though he was careful not to fault the country for fiscal irresponsibility. On the eve of the crisis, Spain had a budget surplus larger than Germany’s budget surplus and a public debt less than Germany’s, according to Krugman.

To explain the crisis, Krugman presented a graph looking at the increase in average budget deficits of European countries from 1999 to 2007. However, he said that the budget deficit does not exactly predict the crisis, even in retrospect.

In order to recover, Krugman said that he believes Europe needs a higher inflation rate to counteract the inflexibility of wage rates. He admitted, though, that he does not know what will happen on the continent and acknowledged that he often writes rather skeptical opinion columns in the Times.

Krugman questioned the incentives provided to manufacturers by Spain, suggesting that Spain could export more manufacturing goods to make up for the decline in construction employment.

Looking beyond Spain, he said the Euro has a bleak future ahead.

“If the Euro is going to survive, it is going to have to involve a large fall in the relative cost of labor … to bring them back to something like where they were,” he said. However, he said that labor markets do not have the necessary flexibility to do this.

“The reality is that even countries that have what are widely praised as being flexible labor markets do not cut wages,” he said. “It just doesn’t happen. Nobody does that.” Although public-sector wages might drop down, he said, private-sector wages almost always creep down slowly even in the face of high unemployment. He cited Ireland as an example of the slow drop in wages.

“Not that long ago, Ireland was a paradigm of fiscal responsibility and flexibility,” he said. Nevertheless, in the face of 14 percent unemployment, wages still slowly “grinded” down.

Calling Europe a “noble experiment,” Krugman emphasized that he is not anti-Europe. He said that he believes the whole European project is about peace and democracy but that it is now in dire financial problems.

“What’s being asked of the countries in trouble is not possible,” he said. “You’re condemning them to debt inflation.”

Krugman ended with a brief question-and-answer session, fielding questions from audience members. The lecture, held in Dodds Auditorium, was the keynote address at the inaugural conference of the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance at the Wilson School. Simulcasts were set up in three rooms for those waiting in line who were turned away from the auditorium.

“Put whatever I’m going to tell you tonight in proper perspective, because I’m just a loser,” Huntsman told students and alumni at American U. on April 18.

Huntsman previously served two terms as the governor of Utah and later as the ambassador to China under President Barack Obama.

But that service came with a price. His opponents in the Republican nomination campaign often criticized Huntsman for his status as a member of the Obama administration.

“I’m kind of an oddball Republican getting in the race,” he said. “[I] worked for a Democrat: I wouldn’t trade that for anything. You know why? Because I believe at the end of the day we’re Americans first and foremost, and we forget that sometimes.”

But that didn’t stop him from jumping into the race anyway, even though “the odds may have been long,” he said.

“For one not to be wiling to stand up during what I think is the most important election of my lifetime, it would have been unpatriotic,” Huntsman told The Eagle.

The Huntsman campaign suffered in other ways. He lost momentum when he entered the race late, he said, and he also refused to participate in “exercises in pandering,” like the Iowa straw poll, he told ATV.

Huntsman said that his wife Mary Kaye told him, “‘If you pander, if you sign those silly, damn pledges, I will leave you.’”

It didn’t help when he received partial endorsements from Democrats such as Michael Moore, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

“And then I knew we were so toast,” Huntsman said.

Huntsman said, this country has a “trust deficit,” citing a polarized campaign system and the Congress’ 8 percent approval rating.

Huntsman also said that the Republican Party is suffering under stagnant thinking, especially when it comes to advocating for civil unions for gay couples and measures to reduce the effects of climate change.

“We might be so far adrift that we’re forever in trouble,” Huntsman said about his party.

Huntsman dropped out of the presidential race in January, shortly after putting most of his resources into winning the New Hampshire primary six days earlier.

Huntsman simultaneously endorsed his opponent, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, even though he has “been on two or three sides of every issue,” he told ATV in an interview.

He even contradicted Romney’s narrative of running a government like a business.

“Government ain’t a business,” Huntsman told the AU community. “And in many cases, government can’t be operated like a business. It is mostly a not-for-profit.”

As for Huntsman’s future, he rejected the idea of running as an independent in this presidential election, even with Americans Elect, an new online political party that has placed Huntsman as its second most popular “draft candidate,” below Texas Congressman Ron Paul by about 5,000 votes.

Huntsman also wasn’t keen on the idea of being appointed to a cabinet position under a hypothetical Romney administration, even as secretary of state. He said it was as likely as “David Grohl of the Foo Fighters asking me to be their new keyboard player.”

Though he did say he would accept either position if offered.

“I would gladly accept [Grohl’s offer], because I’m a musician first and foremost…but I also believe in serving my country,” Huntsman said, “and I will always put my country first and do whatever I can to make her a better, stronger place.”

Paul voiced his opposition to the United States’ prohibition of drugs and said he is encouraged by  efforts by states to confront federal law on the subject. “This is where I am cautiously optimistic that one day, we’re going to wake up, and it might be that the states will grab hold of nullification,” Paul said.

Businessman Barry Hinckley began the event with an effort to drum up support for his candidacy against Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a pitch that was met with heckles from members of the crowd. He won back the crowd when he lauded Paul’s consistent support of conservative economic policy and called him “the founder of political honesty.”

Paul primarily discussed topics that have helped him sustain his famously loyal following through his three presidential campaigns — the dissolution of the Federal Reserve System, opposition to the country’s military-industrial complex and legalization of currently prohibited drugs. Almost as soon as Paul came on stage, the crowd was chanting, “End the Fed.” The Fed’s power to print money without backing the currency in precious metals is tantamount to “counterfeiting,” Paul said.

Paul voiced his opposition to the war in Afghanistan, another position that resonated with the crowd. “There was a time when they used to paint the label that if you didn’t vote for all these wars, then you didn’t like the troops, you were un-American, you were unpatriotic,” Paul said. “But guess what? If that’s true, why do we get the most support from the troops?”

If the U.S. only went to war when Congress passed a declaration of war — as the Constitution dictates — America would not have been at war since World War II, Paul said. “No more wars without a declaration, and let’s get our troops home,” he said.

“I pledge allegiance to Ron Paul,” a female supporter shouted in response.

Paul disparaged President Obama for signing the National Defense Authorization Act as well as the FISA Sunsets Extension Act of 2011 — an extension of the Patriot Act, legislation that has spurred controversy for expanding the federal government’s powers to address security threats. He also challenged the constitutionality of targeted assassinations of American citizens overseas without due process, actions he said the Obama administration has taken.

Paul criticized the war on drugs, comparing the prohibition of certain drugs to the United States’ failed prohibition of alcohol in the early 1900s. “I think we should come to the same conclusion that we came to after we tried the prohibition of alcohol, and it failed — to repeal the prohibition,” Paul said.

Everyone has the responsibility to protect themselves from the dangers of drug use, in the same way everyone has to take care of himself or herself behind the wheel of a car, he said. “The government owns you if they think they can protect you against all personal injury,” he added.

The U.S. accounts for 5 percent of the world population but has 25 percent of the world’s prisoners — well over half of whom are non-violent, Paul said. Since Americans are not inherently worse than people anywhere else in the world, he said, “I would say we have too many laws.”

“There were 40,000 new laws passed” this year, Paul said. “I would like to be the first president ever to repeal 40,000 laws,” he added to much applause.

Paul also criticized the entitlement system as ineffective and impractical. “The entitlement system is motivated by a lot of good intentions, but good intentions aren’t necessarily good intentions — sometimes, they’re distorted,” he said.

“I believe that if you have humanitarian instincts — you don’t want people starving in the streets — the only political solution to that … is to have a free society and a prosperous society, and you will be able to take care of those problems much better than any other system available to us,” Paul said.

The crowd reacted positively to Paul’s remarks. “I love everything he said about the Fed and the NDAA and repealing things — he’s here for freedom,” said Jen Bach of Cranston.

“I absolutely love Ron Paul,” said Stephanie Beels, a student at Salve Regina University. “I’m actually taking a bunch of philosophy classes, and he says everything that any of the old philosophers talk about — his fundamentals are rooted in John Locke’s philosophy,” she said.

“The whole purpose of the U.S. is everyone has individual liberty, and you can live the way you like, and we’ve strayed so far from that,” said Rob Ellis, a North Kingston resident. “People in Washington trying to tell people how to live your life ­— they think they know how to be in your bedroom.”

“Whether or not Ron Paul is elected, or gets on the Republican ticket, I think he’s already won,” he said. “He’s already winning the hearts and minds of so many young Americans.”

“There is a general understanding that America is safer and more secure than it has been since 9/11,” Napolitano said during her lecture, which was put on by the UCLA Burkle Center and is part of a multi-campus tour that Napolitano is making around the country.

She went on to speak about partnerships between the U.S. and its neighbors, and objectives in improving trade and aviation security.

Students, alumni and other members of the community attended the event. Cindy Fan, vice provost for international studies, said she has long been fascinated by Napolitano and her role as a woman who takes a powerful position in the government.

The office of Homeland Security was created by former president George H.W. Bush following the Sept. 11 attacks to coordinate efforts to protect the country and its territories from disasters – man-made and natural – as well as terrorist attacks.

Since its establishment in 2002, the department has had three secretaries, including Napolitano.

“The challenge (of homeland security) is large and complex,” she said. To coordinate homeland security, the department works closely with various American agencies as well as international governments, she added.

Napolitano’s speech drew some dissent.

About 20 demonstrators walked out of the lecture hall during the speech as part of a “silent walkout” to protest immigration laws in Arizona and deportations of undocumented students and their families by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, organizers said. The agency is headed by the Department of Homeland Security, which runs under Napolitano’s supervision.

A number of protesters chanted “Right to Dream” and “Education, not deportation” from outside the building. Their echoes could be heard from inside the lecture hall.

Police officers stood by and monitored the situation, but no confrontations occurred.

“We were trying to make sure that Janet Napolitano addressed the issue of immigration that is so prevalent within the greater L.A. area and within the UCLA community,” said Carlos Castellanos, the external policy chair of IDEAS atUCLA and a third-year political science and philosophy student.

José Quintero, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student who identified himself as an undocumented student, also congregated with about 45 other people outside Korn Convocation Hall where the lecture was taking place. He said he had come out to advocate for a national version of the DREAM Act and to show support for other undocumented students who are facing prospects of deportation.

Other audience members said they did not agree with the protesters’ actions.

“I am really sympathetic to people who are undocumented or came to the U.S. when they were young,” said Mary Smith, a UCLA alumna who attended the lecture. “But I really feel (the protesters) should have listened to what (Napolitano) had to say.”

Napolitano’s lecture was followed by a 20-minute question-and-answer session, in which she responded to queries from the audience.

“We have priorities within immigration enforcement: those who are criminals, those who are repeat violators and those who are violators,” Napolitano said when asked about the department’s deportation guidelines.

“I can’t write a law to protect (undocumented students), only congress can,” she said. “As we protect the law, we try to go after our priorities, but sometimes these students will get involved due to extenuating circumstances,” she added.

General Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the current state of global security one defined by a paradox—with both increasing levels of geopolitical stability and a diffusion of access to powerful weapons—in an address at the Institute of Politics at Harvard U. Thursday night.

“I believe I am chairman at a time that seems less dangerous, but is actually more dangerous,” Dempsey said. “Although geopolitical trends are ushering in greater levels of peace and stability worldwide, destructive technologies are available to a wider and more disparate group of adversaries.”

Dempsey’s words were timely—at around 6:45 p.m., two members of Dempsey’s staff left the JFK Forum. According to an IOP volunteer who wished to remain anonymous, the staff members were responding to the news that North Korea had just launched a long-range rocket in defiance of repeated international protests. The rocket broke apart shortly after blastoff. According to the BBC, North Korean officials have stated that the rocket launch was intended to place a weather observation satellite in orbit, but the United States and allied nations suspect that the launch was a cover for a long-range missile test, which would be a necessary technology for a developing nuclear weapons program.

In his presentation, Dempsey addressed many of the concerns over global security that are exemplified by events such as the recent North Korean rocket launch.

“More people have the ability to harm us or to deny us the ability to act than at any time in my life,” Dempsey said.

But he insisted that he did not want to instill a sense of “doom and gloom” in his audience.

“There is one idea I should purge from your mind tonight—and that is that we are a nation in decline,” Dempsey said.

“Look, we’ve still got a lot of tricks up or sleeves,” he continued. “But the message is that the margin of error is growing smaller and smaller.”

During the talk, Dempsey outlined his plan for the future of the United States military.

“The force we are building really is a force that can win any conflict, repel any threat, and protect our interests,” he said. “With the pace of the development of the threats I described, I believe this force needs to be in place by 2020.”

Despite the grave nature of his discussion, Dempsey remained optimistic. Alluding to his time as an English professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he quoted the opening lines of Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities”: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Echoing Dickens’ sentiment, General Dempsey continued, “So this is the security paradox that we face today: As counterintuitive combination of peace and the potential for violence.”

University President Drew G. Faust introduced Kissinger as one of “Harvard’s most legendary graduates.”

Kissinger—who served as National Security adviser and Secretary of State during the Richard M. Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations and received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize—recalled his first two weeks at Harvard, when he slept in bunk beds in a gymnasium provided for students of the over-enrolled Class of 1950 whom the dorms could not accommodate. Kissinger was later a member of Adams House.

Kissinger established a close relationship with a tutor, William Y. Elliott, who sparked his ardent interest in Kantian ethics, a background he said was influential in his later thinking.

“In philosophy class, you deal with morality,” he said. “In statesmanship, you deal with nuances.”

Kissinger, who also received a Masters, Ph.D., and law degree from Harvard and taught at the University for 15 years, said Wednesday that although academics and political actors may examine the same issues, they do so from different vantage points.

He explained that writers and professors have a perspective informed by their ability to choose topics at their discretion and change their opinions over time.

In contrast, statesmen must act quickly and irrevocably.

Looking back on his actions as Secretary of State, Kissinger, now 89 years old, said he wonders whether he would now be a better Secretary of State.

“I don’t have a satisfactory answer,” he said.

While he believes that he now has a more balanced view of the world, he said he has lost some of the self-confidence that is necessary for the job.

“You don’t get rewarded for your doubts,” he said.

Despite Faust’s warm introduction, not all attendees were pleased that Kissinger had been invited to speak.

As Kissinger began his remarks, an audience member yelled “war criminal” and “shame on Harvard” before he was escorted out by Harvard University Police Department officers.

Outside of Sanders Theatre, several people protested Kissinger’s appearance.

Joseph F. Kebartas, a member of the nonprofit organization Veterans for Peace, said that he was protesting in an attempt to make the Harvard community aware of numerous crimes that Kissinger has committed.

“It’s hard to believe Harvard would put him up to such high esteem and invite him to speak,” Kebartas said.

However, other attendees said that they did not object to the event.

“I don’t think that there is a moral problem in inviting him to speak or that Harvard did anything wrong by doing so,” said Elvira A. M. Sihvola.

Sebelius said she has had similar conversations with women throughout the country in Baltimore and Minneapolis because she said women are not only the majority of the country, but also the main consumers of healthcare. She added the majority of the beneficiaries from Medicare are women.

However, she said women are typically at the worst end of the current insurance market and are likely to have jobs where they are uninsured or underinsured. She said women often pay more for equal coverage in medical insurance.

Sebelius said women pay 15 to 40 percent more for the same insurance policies men have, and often those policies did not include the services women needed. She added they would have to pay more out-of-pocket for maternity coverage.

“Being a woman, right now, is a pre-existing condition in the health insurance market, and that would come to an end,” Sebelius said. “Certainly when issues like anything from C-sections to domestic violence are used as pre-existing condition limitations and insurance companies can charge for that or lock women out.”

Sebelius said the act would also extend coverage to those under the age of 26, and said because of that age extension more than 2.5 million young people are now covered by their parents’ insurance. She added 28,000 of those adults are in Wisconsin.

Meghan Ford, a U. Wisconsin student majoring in sociology and political science, also spoke at the discussion. She said before the Affordable Care Act passed, graduating in four years frightened her because she was uncertain whether she would be able to get insurance coverage or not.

However, she said having a plan she can rely on and stay on until age 26 will help her. Ford said she is graduating with almost $25,000 in student loans, and individual plans cost about $200 for an individual. She said combining that cost with rent and student loans repayment would have been a huge problem.

“Having more of those worries was just making me sicker and sicker, and being able to have that security … eased [my] whole hoard of anxieties and worries,” Ford said.

Also speaking in the discussion was Andrea Bonaparte, a UW student studying social work, who said the Affordable Care Act lifted a burden off her shoulders. She said she will not have to worry about health insurance and can focus on finding a job and career.

Sebelius also spoke about the act in Milwaukee. Republican Party spokesperson Ben Sparks said in a statement about the Milwaukee event that Wisconsin families have made it clear they do not support the act.

“We’re not surprised that the campaigner-in-chief is deploying his staff to swing states in order to defend his signature ‘accomplishment,’ Obamacare, which will only increase health costs for Wisconsin families, saddle our nation with more debt and increase the burden on Wisconsin job creators,” Sparks said.

Members of the Paul campaign staff have grown accustomed to large and enthusiastic collegiate receptions, saying they receive turnouts four-to-five times larger than their GOP rivals.

“I’m always asked why the young people care about [me],” Paul said. “And I answer, ‘Well, maybe the young people care about liberty.’”

The evening began with a call to action by Student Body President Jeff Pickering and Youth for Ron Paul Chapter President Billy Yoder to go beyond passive support of the congressman. They stressed the importance of delegates as the only way to get the congressman elected.

Paul thanked the crowd for their warm welcome and voiced enthusiasm for being in Aggieland, a two-and-a-half hour drive from his Lake Jackson home. True to his campaign’s message, Paul anchored his speech to the ideal of restoring liberty to the American people as a means of solving the nation’s current challenges.

Paul validated his foreign policy stances by boasting that he receives more monetary support from active members of the military than all other candidates combined. He reminded attendees that he remains the only candidate with military experience, having served in the Air Force during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

“Thankfully, we didn’t have to resolve the Cuban crisis with nuclear power. … The Soviets collapsed because they overextended themselves,” Paul said. “No one is going to invade this country, this I know. Our greatest threat is at home.”

This is Paul’s third run at the presidency, twice as a Republican and once as a Libertarian in the 1988 race. He reiterated his belief that government should only act within the confines of the U.S. Constitution, charging President Barack Obama and members of  Congress with infringing on fundamental civil rights. He likened recent legislation to the incremental decrease of civil liberties experienced in Nazi Germany.

Touching on the issue of tax increases, the national debt crisis and auditing the Federal Reserve, Paul argued that current policies are suffocating the American economy.

“I’ve been in Washington for a couple of years, and let me tell you, they’re not smart enough to spend your money,” said Paul, whose time in the House of Representatives dates to 1976. “We’ve gotten fat and lazy and think the government will take care of us — this policy will not work. It’s time to get our head out of the sand and face the situation.”

The rally was an opportunity to come home for Linda Paul, the congressman’s granddaughter and junior biomedical science major, who has traveled with Paul on the campaign trail this semester.

“We’ve had this kind of turnout everywhere we go, but to know this crowd is filled with people I know, to see my fellow classmates coming to hear my grandfather speak, is amazing,” Linda said. “Texas is our home, so we love when we are campaigning in our state.”

Elijah Rockers, sophomore electrical engineering major, has been a Paul supporter since 2008. Rockers said Paul’s consistent foreign policy positions and plans to curtail wasteful spending in Washington won his support.

“I think the main thing I don’t like about Romney is his flip-flopping on the issues,” Rockers said. “That’s what I like about Ron Paul — he’s been saying the same thing for 30 years.”

Michael Couvillion, rally attendee and former economics major, described himself as a “hardcore” supporter, convinced by Paul’s voting record and position on the issues.

“If you’re looking for the truth, he’s your guy,” Couvillion said.

The rally coincided with former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum’s decision earlier in the day to bow out of the Republican primary. Asked for a response to the news, Paul said he believed the development to have a positive effect for his campaign.

“I think everyone is pondering what that will do, but I can’t see how it will be harmful,” Paul said. “I’m cautiously hopeful that it will benefit us.”

The delegate count stands strongly in favor of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who leads the field with 661 delegates. Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich trail with 285 and 136, respectively, while Paul has 51.

Regardless of the impact of Santorum’s announcement, Paul stipulated that his message and dedication to changing the face of our government would not change.

“Who knows what will happen between now and August? If anything, it’ll just make us work harder,” Paul said. “I’ve been saying the same thing for 30 years — it’s always the same message, so no big plan changes.”

According to Vilsack, the world population could reach as high as 10 billion people in the lifetimes of the students currently attending K-State.

“We will have to increase food production by 70 percent to meet that demand,” Vilsack said.

Due to a rising population and a rising need for food, Vilsack said that increasing the number of people who are professionals in agriculture is a necessity in order to maintain peace.

“If the world is fighting over oil right now, imagine what will happen if we are all fighting over food,” he said.

Vilsack hailed the U.S. as a “food secure” nation, meaning the country is able to feed its citizens adequately. According to Vilsack’s lecture, 85 percent of all food consumed in the country is home-grown.

“If the ports shut down or if we as a country are hunkered down in some configuration, we will be able to feed ourselves,” he said.

Vilsack also touched on how American agricultural programs have a worldwide effect.

Specifically, he talked about the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, which is sponsored by the USDA. Vilsack said that programs like the McGovern-Dole program not only help feed the world, but also help build positive foreign relations.

“We all are in this together if we want to meet this challenge of feeding the world,” Vilsack said. “It’s a challenge of a lifetime for the students here. And agriculture is at the center of all of this.”

In the lecture, Vilsack focused heavily on the economic success of the agricultural community. According to Vilsack, agriculture is responsible for 10 percent of all the country’s exports.

“For 50 years, we have had a trade surplus in agriculture,” Vilsack said. “Last year was a record at $37 billion.”

Vilsack also said that with the rise of precision technology in the field of agriculture, more jobs have been created, and that has helped sustain the agricultural economy, which he hopes the rest of the country can model.

“We’ve got some tough decisions to make with reference to the federal budget,” Vilsack said to the media following his lecture. “We want to make them strategic. I think [President Barack Obama] is right when he says that we need to get back in the business of making things. Agriculture is a proof point of that.”

The points he made seemed to hit home with many in the audience; Vilsack received a very warm reaction at the conclusion of his lecture.

One of the students in attendance was Nate Spriggs, student body president and senior in agricultural economics.

“I thought the lecture was great,” Spriggs said. “I think he gave a very important message as to the challenges that we face and the role of agriculture.”

Provost April Mason was also impressed with the lecture and how Vilsack emphasized food security.

“I have a passion for food security, so what Secretary Vilsack said about the need for agriculture to help us continue to be a food secure country was essential,” Mason said.

Vilsack, who is the 30th Secretary of Agriculture and the former governor of Iowa, also spoke about the developments of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, originally planned to be built on Kimball Avenue in Manhattan, just east of Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Despite recent concerns over funding and a risk of disease outbreak, Vilsack said that the facility remains an important priority.

“I understand the importance and significance of that facility and getting it done,” Vilsack said. “[The Department of] Homeland Security is doing an assessment on the site in the last year or two to quantify the risk of exposure. We are going to continue to work with members of Congress to figure out how and when, with tight budgets, we can fund this. I think it’s a national priority.”

Scalia explained originalism as interpreting the Constitution as the framers intended it, instead of reading new meaning into the document.

His ideological opponents believe the Constitution is a living document that changes over time to reflect an evolving society.

“The living Constitution — I hate it,” Scalia said. “The enduring Constitution, that is what I’m defending.”

One of the key pieces of logic behind his philosophy, Scalia said, is that scholars don’t read new meaning into the text of other historical documents or pieces of literature.

“When we read Shakespeare, we have a glossary,” Scalia said. “We don’t think the words have changed there, so why do we think they have changed in the Constitution?”

The Justice, however, said he sees why his opponents wish to believe the Constitution can change.

“It’s a very seductive philosophy,” Scalia said. “It’s wonderful to think whatever you are passionate about — abortion, the death penalty, homosexual sodomy — is in the Constitution.”

Though that perspective can be tempting, it would distort the objectivity of the Supreme Court, he said.

“If you find what the original meaning of the Constitution is, I am handcuffed,” Scalia said. “I cannot do the nasty conservative things I would like to do to the people.”

A loose interpretation of the law is a recent phenomenon, Scalia said. He said this philosophy allowed justices starting with the Warren Court to tamper with the meaning of the law while still appearing objective.

“In the old days, they distorted the Constitution in the good old-fashioned way — they lied about it,” Scalia said.

While few lawyers or judges have as strong of a view of originalism as Scalia, many said his beliefs have still made an impact on the profession.

“There is no other justice who has had as much influence on the way we lawyers see the law,” Dean Robert Rasmussen of the Gould School of Law said.

Students also said hearing Scalia defend his school of thought in person was a valuable experience.

“I don’t necessarily agree with him, but it was great to hear about originalism from one of the leaders of that school of thought,” law student Danielle Warner said.

Not all students in the audience, however, had such a positive viewpoint.

“I think it is troubling to have such a rigid, black and white perspective on issues, especially for someone who is supposed to be inherently objective,” law student Blanca Hernandez said.

Despite some disagreement with Scalia’s strong beliefs, most appreciated the opportunity to hear from such a prominent figure.

“It’s really cool USC Gould School of Law attracts Supreme Court justices, but at the same time he makes it sound so easy,” law student Ryan McDonald said.

Though many may disagree with his philosophy, Scalia said he remains a strong originalist because of what is really important: protecting the meaning of the Constitution.

“What’s the use of adopting a Bill of Rights if it doesn’t mean anything except what future generations want it to mean?” Scalia said.

Cain, the former chief executive officer of Godfather’s Pizza and a one-time frontrunner in the Republican presidential primaries, withdrew from the presidential race in December amid allegations of sexual misconduct. He spoke in Low Library at the invitation of the Columbia University College Republicans, discussing the economy in a passionate speech before answering audience questions on topics ranging from foreign policy to his favorite pizza toppings.

Cain spent much of his speech arguing that decades of excessive regulation, taxation, and legislation—which he referred to collectively as “the ‘ations’”—are killing the American economy.

“How did we get into this mess?” he asked. “If you don’t believe we are in a mess, you’ve been living under a rock somewhere. You’re not paying attention.”

Drawing on his business experience at Godfather’s Pizza and the Pillsbury Company, Cain said that the so-called “9-9-9” plan he proposed during his presidential campaign would “unleash the economic potential in the country.” Under the plan, the entire U.S. tax code would be replaced by a 9 percent tax on individual income, a 9 percent tax on business income, and a 9 percent national sales tax.

“The biggest albatross around the neck of our country that is holding growth back is the tax code,” Cain said. “Let’s start over.”

Cain explained that he came up with the 9 percent figure by asking the chief economist on his campaign to calculate the lowest the three taxes could conceivably be while still pulling in the same amount of revenue that the federal government currently receives in taxes. The economist calculated the figure to be 8.7 percent, which Cain said he rounded to 9 percent to make his plan easier to pitch to voters.

“If 10 percent is good enough for God, 9 percent is good enough for the government,” he added, in reference to the traditional practice of donating one-tenth of one’s income or possessions to religious organizations.

Cain also encouraged students to help change the country, telling them to “stay involved, stay informed, [and] stay inspired.” Reiterating a point that he made several times on the campaign trail, Cain said that he has found inspiration in the song “The Power of One” from the 2000 Pokémon movie, which he said he “committed to memory” after hearing it during a broadcast of the 2000 Olympic Games.

Cain recited the lyrics: “Life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible. It’s never easy when there’s so much on the line, but you can make a difference—there’s a mission just for you. Just look inside, and you will find just what you can do.”

In addition to giving his analysis of the economy, Cain argued that the U.S. has become “a nation of crises.”

“We have economic crises, spending crises, energy crises. We have an illegal immigration crisis,” he said. “We have a moral crisis going on in this nation.”

After finishing his speech, Cain took questions, some of which were submitted in writing by event attendees and some of which were tweeted to CUCR before the event. Asked about University President Lee Bollinger’s recent pledge to commit $30 million to increasing faculty diversity, Cain responded that “you cannot improve race relations by edict.”

“You can’t improve with programs that pander,” he said. “It’s the knowledge and understanding of differences, and respecting those differences, that matters.”

Cain, who was criticized during his presidential campaign for having a tenuous grasp of foreign policy issues, was also asked about U.S. foreign policy in Iran. He began his answer by arguing that the U.S. “should not cancel the missile defense system that was being built in Turkey,” before changing gears and arguing that the U.S. should “not have cancelled our space shuttle program.”

The termination of the space shuttle program “mitigated some of the technological capabilities that we were going to develop,” he said.

Additionally, Cain dismissed concerns over hydrofracking, a controversial natural gas-harvesting method that critics have said can release dangerous chemicals into water supplies. Cain said that hydrofracking is not detrimental to the environment.

Columbia University Democrats Media Director Sarah Gitlin, who attended the event, was particularly skeptical about Cain’s discussion of hydrofracking.

“We always knew Herman Cain is crazy,” Gitlin said. “We didn’t expect him to come up with a lot of his own facts as well as his own opinions—especially his comments on the environment.”

The audience at the event, which was cosponsored by the Columbia Political Union and partly funded by the Student Governing Board, was a mixture of Cain supporters and detractors, with many of Cain’s lines drawing enthusiastic but scattered applause. CUCR President Tyler Trumbach said that Cain was “very charismatic” and “an excellent speaker.”

“I think a lot of what he said was noncontroversial,” Trumbach said. “A lot of people agreed with what he was saying. They may not agree with individual policy, but they may agree with his analysis of the economy and the government.”

Asked about whether more businesspeople should go into politics, Cain encouraged students to get involved in both business and politics.

“I would recommend you graduate from college, get educated, and make some money first, so you don’t become a crooked politician,” he said.

The last question Cain answered was about his favorite pizza topping, which he said is “the all-meat combo.”

“I don’t like anchovies on there,” he said. “Pepperoni, bacon, sausage, ham—the all-meat pizza is my favorite topping.”

He ended on a more serious note, though, urging students to take action and paraphrasing 18th-century philosopher Edmund Burke.

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing,” he said. “I will not die doing nothing to help this nation, and I challenge you to not die doing nothing to help this nation.”

Lee and her colleague Laura Ling had gone to China to film a documentary about North Korean refugees for Current TV, a news channel co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, she told about 80 people Saturday at Brown U. Early in the morning March 17, they went to Tumen River, which separates China from North Korea, to get footage of the routes refugees use to cross the border. Their Korean-Chinese guide motioned for them to follow him.

“I knew it was a risky move, but I was so intent on getting the story out that I did not focus on the danger,” Lee said. She and Ling were crossing back into China, she said, when the two soldiers appeared and captured them. They were ultimately kept as prisoners in North Korea for almost five months, until former President Bill Clinton was able to secure their release Aug. 4, 2009.

Lee focused her talk on what she said was “the purpose to her life” — telling the stories of those who do not have a voice. She spoke at length about the people she interviewed in China for the documentary she was making before her capture but never finished. Many of the North Korean refugees in China are women, she said, because they are the ones being exploited by human traffickers near the border. She said these women are being sold as sex workers or as brides to poor Chinese farmers, who have a hard time finding wives because of China’s gender imbalance.

Lee mentioned one girl she met who was in her early 20s. The girl had decided to leave North Korea for China because she had heard life was better there. But when she arrived, the man who had offered to help her find a job took her to a small room where he made her work in front of a computer, undressing herself for strangers over the Internet. Lee said the story depressed her. “Under different circumstances, she might have been going to school with you guys,” she said.

The North Korean refugees Lee interviewed are in China illegally, she said, since they are not considered refugees by the Chinese government. She said this made things difficult, since Chinese men often have children with their North Korean brides, but these children are unable to go to school without some kind of parental registration. She added that if the mother is deported, these children are often abandoned by their fathers.

After talking to these refugees, she “felt responsible for telling their true story,” she said.

For the first three days of their captivity, Lee said she and Ling “still had journalistic spirit.” Since many of the refugees they had interviewed for the documentary still had family in North Korea, they tried to protect their sources by destroying the papers and tapes they had with them. But they were soon moved to Pyongyang, where Lee said she was interrogated for eight hours a day.

Lee said she was often interrogated by the same officer, whom she called “Officer Lee.” He wanted her to admit to being part of a government plot to slander North Korea and seemed to have a hard time understanding she worked for a private company, she said.

“He did not abuse me physically,” Lee said. “But he knew how to threaten me and intimidate me.” She said it was psychologically exhausting going through the interrogations every day, trying to figure out if she had revealed anyone.

Yet Lee was surprisingly good-natured about her captivity. “Even though my time in Pyongyang was so difficult, I didn’t want to hold any bitterness toward the country,” she said.

Lee told stories about little moments of kindness she surprisingly experienced. She said one officer lent his coat to her when it was cold — she had ditched hers earlier because there had been some phone numbers in a pocket. One guard gave her a boiled egg, telling her it was “good nutrition.”

Lee concluded her talk by saying she was grateful for the outcry that followed her capture. “It was important to have people like you keeping our story alive,” she said.

Accent Speakers’ Bureau and the Women’s Student Association paid Andrews, a U. Florida alumna and ESPN sideline reporter, $15,000 to speak at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

Andrews’ bubbly personality raised many laughs from her audience of about 500.

She was forced to decline an invitation to a fraternity member’s formal and poked fun of a front-row fan sporting an Indiana jersey.

“Why are you wearing that?” Andrews joked.

But her famous looks and Gator roots are not the only traits that attracted the crowds.

Telecommunication freshman Megan Gannon, 19, who waited in front of the Phillips Center for three hours to see Andrews, said she idolizes the reporter and wants to work alongside her one day.

“I like how opinionated she is,” Gannon said. “She speaks very well as a woman in a male-dominated profession.”

Andrews graduated from UF in 2000 with a degree in telecommunications. During her time in Gainesville, she was a member of the Dazzlers, the official dance team for UF athletics.

Andrews said she knows she is one of the prominent females in her field and it only makes her work harder to prove herself to her peers.

“I’m a huge sports fan,” Andrews said, “and I’ve met the male sports fans that don’t know as much as I do. Every day, I try so hard to prove to people I belong.”

While Andrews has fought hard to earn her credibility, several male viewers said they don’t doubt her abilities.

“It shouldn’t matter whether you’re a man or woman,” said Alex Everett, a 21-year-old chemical engineering senior. “She’s a good reporter, no matter what.”

Originalism is the philosophy that seeks to discover the original meaning or intent of the United States Constitution. In his speech, Scalia lamented that the Constitution is malleable to the demands of society and argued that it is not a living document. It is something not subjective to change, and, according to Scalia, it is ignorant to believe otherwise and only “exaggerates the difficulty of the meaning” of the item being interpreted.

He stated it is essential to know the original meaning of the document, and to do so one must know history to understand what was originally intended by the nation’s Founding Fathers. In order to make a decision on an issue, he said justices need facts from historians and that it is the court’s responsibility to evaluate those facts. From there, a decision can be made. In other words, history is the basis of originalist thought and must be used in order to make a fair and accurate judgment.

Scalia also explained that lawyers and judges should be trained in interpreting text and not in philosophy and morality, stating plainly that the law is about the law. Throughout the evening, Scalia employed this sort of straightforward, blunt approach in his speech and during the question and answer session. His no-nonsense, verbose manner is something he is known for in the court, but with that also comes his famed sense of humor. For instance, when asked about the other justices, he quipped, “They’re not bad people; they’re just wrong.”

Scalia’s speech was generally received with positive comments by students.

“His explanations of originalism, and how it used to be the norm in the U.S., has inspired me to look harder at the theory of a ‘living constitution,’” said sophomore marine biology major Ryan Parker, who attended the forum and also had the opportunity to dine with Scalia before the event. “He was a very open and entertaining dinner guest, full of great stories and insights about our country, particularly our media culture.”

This was Scalia’s first time to speak at Southern Miss. He has had previous engagements at William Carey University and Presbyterian Christian School in Hattiesburg.

“Liberty is a young idea. Maybe that’s why young people like the idea of freedom,” Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul had just said. “Intellectually, the revolution is well on its way.”

Paul spoke to a crowd of more than 5,000 people Wednesday at UCLA. He addressed the packed stadium from a lectern in the center of the court.

Paul’s campaign platform focuses on drastic cuts in government spending and “interventionism,” or the involvement of government in individuals’ daily lives and decisions.

Paul reiterated these points Wednesday night, feeding off the support of the crowd and urging a revolution in the name of individual liberties.

He got the most cheers from the crowd when he spoke in favor of legalizing marijuana and allowing individuals to make their own choices.

“If somebody wants to put something into their body that is potentially dangerous, that should be their decision, not the government’s,” Paul said.

The rally was hosted by Youth for Ron Paul at UCLA, a group that has been working since January to bring Paul to UCLA, said Tyler Koteskey, a first-year political science and history student and president of UCLA’s chapter of the group.

California’s primaries are not until June, but Paul is trying to reach out to the youth demographic and California voters, both of whom have shown their support for the candidate, said Edward King, national youth director for the campaign.

Paul is far behind the other three candidates in the Republican race, with 51 delegates. It’s unlikely he’ll run against President Barack Obama in November, said John Zaller, a political science professor.

Paul said after the rally that students are important in achieving his goals.

“I don’t think any real changes can come about if you don’t have young people on your side,” he said.

Some were adamant in their support for Paul, while others were there to hear what he had to say.

“I wanted to form my own opinion and not be swayed by the media,” said Adam Garelik, a first-year political science student.

Garelik said he enjoyed the rally but found Paul’s arguments mostly unrealistic.

“I don’t see how (Paul) would ever implement his policies,” Garelik said. “(Going to) the rally sort of strengthened my views toward (Republican candidate Mitt) Romney.”

Bruin Democrats President Jonathan Bash, a third-year political science student, was also at the rally. He said it was good to see young people getting involved with politics.

“Some of Paul’s ideas should be listened to and taken into account by both parties,” Bash said.

Google Ideas Director Jared Cohen discussed the way that changing technology has affected how governments handle social issues at the Harvard Kennedy School on Monday.

“In the last ten years we have seen an explosion of technological access,” Cohen said. “This means that tech will be part of every problem in the future.”

Cohen “has a massive vision for change,” said Kate Krontiris, a graduate student at the Kennedy School who has worked with Cohen at Google Ideas, a technology-oriented think tank.

The first part of the event, which was moderated by Kennedy School adjunct lecturer Nicco Mele, focused on Cohen’s career and work for Google.

Cohen has worked as an advisor to both Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, helping to draft the State Department’s 21st Century Statecraft policy. After leaving the State Department in 2010, Cohen joined Google Ideas as its new director.

For Cohen, the transition from the public to private sector was natural. “I have been working on the same issue since 2004,” he said, referring to his commitment to encourage governments and other institutions to employ new technologies in their work.

When asked how he would describe Google Ideas, Cohen said “I don’t know exactly what you would call Google Ideas, but I like to think of it as a think/do tank.” The team at Google Ideas is a small team that works in a “democratic fashion” to try to solve issues facing the world, Cohen said.

Google Ideas is a small offshoot of Google that seeks to aid fragile states and counter violent extremism and illicit trafficking networks.

Cohen said that “working at Google Ideas is like working at a startup without having to work in a garage or take out the trash.”

Cohen specifically addressed the undergraduates present, saying that he is “envious of people in school right now, as they have an innate technological expertise.”

If students do not take advantage of this skill, Cohen added, “they’d be shooting themselves in the foot.”

Cohen said that he feels confident in our future because technology will continue to evolve and grow to meet society’s demands.

“There is no greater driver of innovation than necessity,” Cohen said.

As the discussion concluded, Cohen stressed the importance of using advanced technologies to tackle the major issues facing the world.

“The intersection of technology and geo-politics will have a profound impact on today’s world,” he said.

“Young people are forceful in transformation,” he said. “Today’s younger people have advantages—you have the Internet, you have Twitter—young people are using Facebook and Twitter to organize protests and speak out about human rights and oppression.”

Ban focused on “three E’s”—education, employment, and empowerment—throughout his speech, which resonated with students and faculty members.

“I think that for us in today’s world there is a need to be a global citizen, and for that you must have a global perspective,” said School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora. “We are becoming more and more dependent on each other. The world is getting smaller and smaller. If you want to be successful in the global economy, you have to have the right mindset, experiences, and cross-cultural fluencies.”

Peña-Mora said that he remains dedicated to providing students with international opportunities, with SEAS expanding its study abroad opportunities this year for undergraduates.

“Education is a wise, smart investment,” Ban said. “Young people everywhere deserve the power to get information and ask questions about justice, equality, and opportunity.”

Formally titled “From Youth Explosion to Global Transformation: Unleashing the Power of Young People,” the speech addressed global issues like job creation, LGBT equality, women’s rights, education, and climate change, and how the solutions to those problems may stem from the work of younger generations.

“We need to build resilience and equality with wider vision, and the way to do it is to help the youth,” Ban said. “‘Youth’ is a state of mind, because it implies we can always be young.”

Many students were present for the event, and Esperanza Garcia, a masters student studying sustainability management, took advantage of the question-and-answer session after the speech to ask Ban about global warming and implementing policy changes.

“What I ask of you is to do not only what you are already doing but I’m also asking for world leaders to look into how we can implement these policies in real terms,” Garcia said. “It’s important to put in text how we can develop these important measures and how we will really accomplish them.”

Garcia said that she felt it was important to highlight the issue of global warming, but noted funding issues have prevented significant policy reform.

“As young people, we take responsibilities of implementing these changes, but we need the funds,” she said. “If you want to do something large-scale, you need the financing methods—where can we get the funds?”

Vivian Tsai said that she appreciated the emphasis on education during the speech, but still wonders how the U.N. will work with countries to foster healthy emotional environments for students.

“I moved from Taiwan to the States five years ago, and there was a lack of empathy in education,” she said. “How does … the U.N. seek to combine the two?”

Tsai said that the empowerment component of Ban’s address was important because “he’s reminding people that even though you’re 18 you should have the capacity to change things.”

Ban began his time at the U.N. in 1975 working in the South Korean Foreign Ministry’s U.N. Division, and 31 years later he was elected Secretary-General.

The talk marked the start of the sixth annual Global Colloquium of University Presidents, with this year’s theme focusing on how to address the needs of the “largest generation of young people the world has ever known.”

University President Lee Bollinger gave the opening remarks, calling Ban an “inspirational leader.” “In these days, with rapid globalization, we have a tremendous responsibility to lend our collective scholarship,” he said.

According to a UW Police Department statement, Paul spoke to a crowd of 2,500 supporters at the Memorial Union Terrace. Despite the cooler temperatures, the crowd was enthusiastic chanting “End the Fed” and “President Paul.”

Paul said youth are interested in his campaign because they are going to get a “bad deal.”

“You’re inheriting a mess. You have a big debt to deal with. You have perpetual wars that never seem to end for various reasons. Personal liberty is an issue…and there’s a lot of problems,” Paul said. “But also we’re winning these arguments.”

He said he and his supporters are especially winning on arguments concerning the Federal Reserve. He said the Federal Reserve has been around for 100 years and this is the first time the country has had a serious debate about whether it should exist.

Paul also said the Federal Reserve counterfeits money and the founding fathers only wanted gold and silver as legal tender. He added the constitution does not have a clause establishing a central bank.

He said his supporters are also winning on issues such as getting out of the foreign wars because he said 69 percent of Americans said in a poll they want the military out of Afghanistan. By “fighting wars that are undeclared and make no sense,” Paul said the nation has increased its national debt by $4 trillion.

“It wouldn’t be too difficult to figure out a solution to this if we just have a daydream for a moment,” Paul said. “What if we only had people in Washington who actually read the constitution and were guided by the constitution?”

Paul said the country has not formally declared war since World War II and if the U.S. had stayed out of other wars it would have a lot more allies and money. He added the military should not be policing the world and he would bring the troops home.

Paul also said the government cannot protect people from themselves and this belief would lead to the government regulating every personal habit. While total freedom leads to misuse, he said a mistake in government is a mistake for everyone while a mistake for an individual leads to individual consequences. He added the government allows people to think whatever they want.

“But somewhere along the way we’ve come up with this idea that we’re allowed to regulate what goes into our souls and into our brains but we’re not allowed to regulate what goes into our body,” Paul said. “I think in a free society you ought to make the decision what goes into your body. I’m so convinced this is a good idea that I would even allow you to drink raw milk if you wanted to.”

UW senior Dan Boehm said he has been a libertarian minded person since high school and he believes Paul is the only Republican presidential nomination candidate who is really working to bring freedom back to the country.

“I support Ron Paul because a) I think his ideas are spot on and b) what he says is what you get,” Boehm said. “He has had the exact same ideas for better or for worse since the beginning of his political career.”

Meg Healy, a UW freshman studying political science, said she is a strong Obama supporter and attended the rally out of curiosity.

She said she found it interesting Paul focused on specific foreign policy, rather than just on more general political rhetoric.

“I guess I respect his consistency and his convictions behind his policies more than other candidates,” Healy said. “You can definitely tell he speaks what he believes but I disagree with what he says anyway.”

The Center for Politics hosted the event in the Rotunda Dome room, where Chaudhary, who received his degree in film theory from Cornell University and served an adjunct instructor at New York University, spoke about his experiences while filming Obama.

Chaudhary’s lecture also included video clips of the weekly podcast he produces, “West Wing Week.” The podcast is released every Friday and follows the president’s week.

During his talk, Chaudhary emphasized his goal to portray the president as he truly is. “There is a lack of clarity in politics,” he said. “My mission is to try to find clarity in messaging to show people their leader in the most authentic way possible. If you actually have the real thing, use it.”

Chaudhary said his video clips offer a “different tone,” and insight into executive affairs.

Chaudhary’s work often captures Obama during casual moments, acting in a relaxed way which is difficult to find in a speech or press conference.

“People want an authentic response,” Chaudhary said. “What’s interesting to me is the special space between the public and private, the time right before he goes out to make a speech.”

Chaudhary also discussed the difficulties he faces while working in politics as a videographer. “There is an uneasy relationship between the arts and politics,” he said. “People are very suspicious about new things in politics.”

Chaudhary said he aims to create a bridge between online and traditional media during his time at the White House. “[Chaudhary] is an early pioneer with what campaigns are doing …online,” Center for Politics spokesperson Kyle Kondik said. “This is an emerging medium, a different role doing online video. I expect future presidents will have videographers as well.”

Giuliani’s speech informed students that leadership can be taught, learned and improved.

“People always ask me, ‘Are leaders born or are they made?’ And I say, they are made. But they are born, first,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani believes that there are six principles of leadership that can be applied in any workplace or organization.

The first principle of leadership is having strong beliefs, Giuliani said.

“You have to know your beliefs and your goal in order to achieve and lead,” Giuliani said.

Leaders must set goals in order to grow and thrive, Giuliani said.

“The quintessential leader is the captain of a ship. For the ship to work, the captain has to do one thing: They must set a destination,” Giuliani said.

Two contemporary leaders who set goals based on their beliefs were Ronald Reagan and Martin Luther King, Jr., Giuliani said.

“They had intelligent, strong beliefs based on studying and learning,” Giuliani said. “You’re only going to be able to lead if you have a goal.”

The second principle of leadership is to be an optimist, Giuliani said.

“To be an optimist is to be a problem solver,” Giuliani said, “to absorb the problem and think of a solution.”

Giuliani described the difference between an optimist and a pessimist by re-starting his speech in a pessimistic light.

“Things are bad and they are just gonna get worse. There’s no hope. Follow me,” Giuliani said, “No one followed me, except some kooks in New York.”

When Giuliani worked as the District Attorney of New York City, he often encouraged lawyers who came to him with problems to come back later with a solution rather than dwelling on the problem, Giuliani said.

“If we have any time at all, I ask (the lawyers) to go to their desks, take a deep breath and come back with a suggested solution. It could be a crazy solution, but at least it’s a possible solution,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer and viewed the opportunity of being diagnosed as a gift, Giuliani said.

“People who deal with a disease with optimism have a greater chance of living than those who do not. A lot of people are given the chance to be aware of the fact that there is something inside them that could kill them, and I was. I considered myself a lucky man,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani believes that optimism is the power behind all wins in life.

“Optimism is enormously powerful,” Giuliani said.

The third principle of leadership is courage, Giuliani said.

“Lots of people don’t think they’re brave because they aren’t super human,” Giuliani said.

The fear of failing will impede one from succeeding, Giuliani said.

“If you are afraid to fail, you will never succeed,” Giuliani said. “Everyone who has ever known success has failed greatly.”

“Courage is being able to take risks, preparing to tackle the problems. And if you fail, pick yourself back up again,” Giuliani said.

The fourth principle of leadership is preparation, Giuliani said.

“Relentless preparation is the key to success,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani spoke of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City during his time as mayor and how preparation for everything imaginable made him prepared for the unthinkable, Giuliani said.

“When I was first at the site, I said, we don’t have a plan for this but we’ll do the best we can. Afterwards, I realized that by over-preparing for other things like terrorist bomb threats and blackouts, we had indeed prepared,” Giuliani said.

“If you are prepared for everything you can think of, you are prepared for the unthinkable,” Giuliani said.

The fifth principle of leadership is teamwork, Giuliani said.

To develop a strong team, one must find his weaknesses and then find people whose strengths are the same as his weaknesses, Giuliani said.

“We all have weaknesses. After you’ve identified your weaknesses, find someone who balances them,” Giuliani said.

The sixth principle of leadership is communication, Giuliani said.

“It’s not that hard to do, a lot of times it’s just being yourself,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani added that in order to be a leader, one must love people.

“If you don’t love people, do something else. Be a monk,” Giuliani said.

“It’s more important to go to a funeral than a wedding. You have to be there when things go wrong,” Giuliani said.

The strongest social safety net is friendship, Giuliani said.

“They’ll take care of you because they love you. The government doesn’t love you,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani said, “Be there for other people, if you want to be a good leader, you have to be.”

“We’re not on a course to greatness in this country. We’re on a course to social decline,” Perry told a small audience in the Katzen Recital Hall on March 23. “It’s time to return to what makes America great, and that is competition.”

He also called for an end to taxpayer-funded bailouts of private businesses.

“America was not built on the generosity of the federal government, but on the grit and determination of private sector workers,” Perry said.

He appealed to the students in attendance and challenged them to get involved in campaigns and work on the Hill.

“Work your way to the top, so one day you will lead the next conservative revolution in America,” he said. “Returning power to the people, restoring the primacy of the United States Constitution.”

“It’s your country, take it back,” Perry said. “The American dream is your promise. The Constitution is your blueprint to freedom. Defend them as if your life depends on them, because it does.”

Perry also encouraged young people to fight for their beliefs.

“You don’t need to wait until your hair starts to gray before your voice needs to be heard,” he said. He then quoted the Apostle Paul, who said to “march into the public square fearlessly.”

And students did just that.

During the question and answer period following Perry’s speech, about 15 students holding plastic LED candles stood up and silently left the room. The students were protesting the 234 deaths by execution that occurred while Perry was governor.

AU College Republicans President Todd Carney said he felt the protests were disrespectful. College Republicans sponsored the event.

“I just think it’s wrong to try to disrupt anyone’s event,” Carney said.

Outside Katzen, messages scrawled in chalk said, “234 killed by Perry” and “9 murders of mentally ill.”

Before the event, a group of about 25 students marched down Massachusetts Avenue to a recording of “Amazing Grace” played on bagpipes. Most were dressed in black as they carried protest signs, daffodils and a black casket.

School of Public Affairs junior Sylvan LaChance said she didn’t appreciate the chalk drawings and wanted the discourse to be respectful.

“I think we should be able to have a dialogue without attacking each other like this,” she said.

But Stephanie Acs, a sophomore in SPA, said the students have a constitutional right to peaceful protest.

“I feel it’s very divisive and there’s tension, but people are only going to take so much, and things won’t change unless people raise their voices,” she said.

After the event, protesters, AUCR members and other attendees stood outside Katzen, where they debated with one another while clearly dividing themselves into two halves. On one side, the protesters utilized “Occupy” methods like a “mic-check” to make themselves heard.

“This is an event because we fundamentally disagree with killing no matter who it is,” one student protester through the human microphone. One AUCR member immediately fired back and said, “What about the unborn?”

Josh Jacobs, a senior in School of International Service and an AUCR member, said he stuck around for about 20 minutes after the event to speak with lingering protesters.

“One of the points of a liberal arts education is that you’re supposed to have an intellectual discourse and exchange of ideas between radically different schools of thought and people,” he said.

Mana Aliabadi, a freshman in SPA, said she and the other protesters didn’t target Gov. Perry and Gov. Jan Brewer’s, R-Ariz., Feb. 24 speech because of their affiliations with the GOP.

“The reason we protest is because their policies and the effects of their political actions are so fundamentally flawed against anything that we as enlightened students stand for, that we do not believe [Perry] deserves any degree of respect,” she said.

Aliabadi had the last word before leading the protesters away from their post.

“Before we leave we would like to make one point clear: We will not stop protesting,” she said. “We will keep coming back until you stop bringing people like that to this campus.”

Soetoro-Ng delivered a lecture titled “Education for Peace and Global Awareness” at U. Michigan last night in honor of Asian Pacific Islander month, during which she emphasized the importance of equipping children with the ability to understand multiculturalism, language and personal identity.

The lecture marked Soetoro-Ng’s second visit to UM as she campaigns to transform education. Her first trip was in 1986, when she visited the University with Obama.

During the lecture, she focused on changing expectations in education, which is a central goal of her non-profit organization, Our Public School.

In an interview after the event, Soetoro-Ng encouraged students to take an active role in world events and causes they believe in.

“You don’t have to wait for anyone to tell you that your voice is valuable or that it matters,” she said. “There are so many open spaces for dialogue and for action … I want all young people to raise their voices. I think it would be a great idea — bring on the cacophony.”

Soetoro-Ng said during her speech that few Americans she met while on the campaign trail for her brother during the 2008 presidential election took an active interest in the country’s public education system.

“People who had kids in the public schools or who were teachers … those were the only folks who were actively engaged in the discussion about what public schools and public education should be, what should happen in the classroom, and how policies should be impacted,” she said. “I want to make sure that we remind ourselves that these schools belong to all of us.”

Soetoro-Ng works with schools and teachers to remedy the disconnect between teachers and students that she said hinders learning initiatives. She added that young teachers can become “overwhelmed” and resort to lecturing students instead of allowing them to learn through experience and culture.

“The additive approach of bringing in people and names in events in the margins in the textbooks, that is not enough,” Soetoro-Ng said.

She urged students and educators to examine information from more than one perspective and include students’ personal identities in the learning process, noting that her mixed ethnic background taught her the importance of flexible cultural expectations.

“The notion that culture never changes, and that identity never changes — that what existed 30 years ago is the same as what exists today — is not the case,” she said. “We need to be able to negotiate the truths that exist today.”

Soetoro-Ng implements her ideas through a peace education course she teaches in Hawaii. She said these classes have helped her identify obstacles facing education, such as a lack of cultural awareness among teachers.

She said many of the teachers who attended her multicultural education classes could not fill out more than half of a world map.

“This is a problem,” she said. “There are so many parallels between what happens over there and what happens over here.”

She added that children often struggle to think beyond their most pressing and immediate realities and part of building global competence, multiculturalism and peace education is to help students find their voice.

She encouraged others to engage in conversations with young people about their experiences and make them aware of their surroundings.

“You don’t show (children) high levels of violence, but you can certainly begin to talk to them about what to do afterwards, how to rebuild their own power, how they can help each other,” Soetoro-Ng said.

UM sophomore Katie McGraw said she heard Obama speak at the University in January, and she attended Soetoro-Ng’s lecture because she was interested to hear what his half-sister had to say.

“I don’t honestly know a lot about the topic but I figured I would kind of come and learn more and learn her philosophy,” McGraw said.

UM sophomore Sophie Boudreau also said she attended the event to learn more about Obama’s family.

“It was perfect because I just finished reading (Obama’s) book, ‘Dreams From My Father’, which talks about Maya, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to tie an event into what I’m studying,” Boudreau said.

The US has turned their attention away from international affairs and is focusing only on its internal situation, Bolton said.

“It is simply not possible to have sustained American prosperity at home unless we have a strong international presence,” Bolton said.

“Whatever stability there is in the world is essentially provided by the United States.”

Bolton said President Barack Obama doesn’t see the world as a “huge” threat.

The US has the lowest number of navy ships overseas since 1916 and the number is projected to decrease. Cuts will also be applied to the Air Force and Army while international threats are continuing to rise, Bolton said.

“The relations of the United States and Russia are exceptionally low,” Bolton said.

“In August 2008, Russia invaded Georgia. Candidate Obama said that both sides should exercise their strength — Georgia on one hand and Russia on the other.

“This didn’t sound comforting to the people of Georgia. Their army can probably fit in this room. This also signals to the Russians that presidential candidate Obama didn’t understand what worked.”

Bolton also said the Obama administration is not doing anything to stop North Korea.

“We know that they’re making enormous progress with their missiles. Communication satellites have been used to celebrate the hundredth anniversary,” Bolton said.

“Obviously, if you can put missiles in earth’s orbit, you can put it on any target on earth. They are certainly well on their way. It is the most heavily sanctioned country. What have we done about it? Nothing.”

The US relationship with Iran was also criticized.

“When you let missiles get in the hand of crazy, religious fanatics who don’t share the same values as we do here, it is something that needs to be concerned about,” Bolton said.

But this did not discourage Bill Rasmussen from co-founding ESPN, the first 24-hour sports network.

“Our idea was to provide as much sports to as many fans as we could, and that’s exactly what ESPN does today,” he told an audience last night at a lecture at Rutgers U.

Rasmussen, who graduated from Rutgers in 1960 with a masters in business administration, said he and his partners were sure the idea would work, but it was difficult to convince investors.

“One of the seven [investors] said to me that not only is this idea not going to work, but that cable television won’t be around in a couple of years,” he said. “But I think we were really determined because we had a huge, huge audience.”

Rasmussen said the goal of ESPN was to target an audience that ranged from young children to senior citizens, and once Getty Oil became its first major investor, the channel did just that.

The first words broadcasted on ESPN came from announcer Lee Leonard on September 7, 1979.

“If you’re a fan, if you’re a fan, what you’ll see in the next minutes, hours and days to follow may convince you you’ve gone to sports heaven.”

ESPN now brings sports coverage to an array of media devices besides its original television format.

“We didn’t know, of course, that the Internet was coming. HD, 3-D, cellphones — we didn’t know all that stuff was coming,” Rasmussen said. “Basically it’s still the same product, but it’s now delivered over a lot more platforms. [ESPN] serves the largest demographic sports fans.”

While Rasmussen acknowledged there were skeptics when he pitched his idea, he felt safe with what he said was an ace up his sleeve — a deal that would likely strike a contract between ESPN and the NCAA.

Once the contract was closed, talk began to surface that the Big Three networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — were afraid of this fledgling sports network.

“In fact, they often said disparaging things about us hoping we would go away,” he said.

Rasmussen said a huge accomplishment for ESPN was the 2006 acquisition of Monday Night Football.

He said that filling a 24-hour demand for programming is not hard, despite what skeptics said.

“If you remember the basic concept it was that you were going to be current on sports 24 hours a day,” Rasmussen said. “With a story like ‘Linsanity’, if you came home at 2 a.m., you’d have missed something, so big stories get repeated from the top down.”

Rasmussen said stories like that of New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin are not overhyped because of the 24-hour format.

Rasmussen said there is always content available to fill vacant time slots.

“The Big Three do 1,300 hours combined, and we went on the air — brash young men that we were — saying we were going to do 8,760 hours,” he said.

Jim DeLorenzo, Rasmussen’s public relations representative, has been working with the ESPN co-founder since June 2008, he said.

“I knew of him since ESPN went on the air when I was 18,” DeLorenzo said. “I knew his story, and to get the chance to meet him in 2008 was an unbelievable thrill because I’ve been involved in sports all my life.”

DeLorenzo said it has been rewarding getting to know Rasmussen over the last four years. “Spending the last four years with him one-on-one traveling around the country, he’s almost like a father figure to me,” he said. “I’m proud to work with him, and I’ve learned so much from him.”

DeLorenzo called Rasmussen an entrepreneur and patriot, inviting a contemporary comparison to another famous entrepreneur.

“He was Steve Jobs before Steve Jobs,” he said.

Anthony Vassallo, a School of Engineering first-year student, said he learned a lot about ESPN through Rasmussen’s presentation.

“I thought [Rasmussen’s] story was inspiring,” Vassallo said. “To see a man go from being fired from a job one week to founding ESPN the next is a pretty amazing thing.”

Vassallo also said Rasmussen was courageous to take on the Big Three networks at the time of ESPN’s conception.

“Those networks were the kings of the hill,” he said. “For [Rasmussen] to take them on speaks volumes of his will power.”

Rasmussen said ESPN’s future is bright.

“There’s just so many [ESPN channels], you can’t help but watch them,” he said. “I think [ESPN] is here to stay.”

Cupp, a host on Glenn Beck TV and a New York Daily News columnist, began with an excoriation of what she perceives as liberal conformity on college campuses. “Your youth is supposed to be about rebellion. College is supposed to be about self-exploration, in more ways than one. It is supposed to be explorative, rebellious,” she said. “I do not know what is rebellious or explorative about trusting your professors or mimicking your other classmates.”

Citing an example of liberal conformity run amok, Cupp said, “There is nothing rebellious about sitting in a coffee shop smoking clove cigarettes and discussing The Communist Manifesto, or its sequel, The Feminine Mystique. There is nothing rebellious about marching through the quad with 300 other teenagers who have never had to pay taxes or seen a doctor’s bill, protesting war, inequality, global warming, meat, corporate corruption, etc.”

She extended this criticism to popular attitudes on religion, saying, “And there’s nothing rebellious about railing against the evils of organized religion, making fun of Christians [and] mocking morality as antiquated or philosophically problematic.”

Cupp provided a solution for the dearth of rebellion on campuses. “What would actually be rebellious is a march for fiscal responsibility,” despite the fact that it “does not sound sexy,” she explained.

Concluding her speech, Cupp conjectured that it is unnatural to want a powerful government. “We are all natural conservatives,” because “we are instinctively and biologically self preservationists,” she surmised. We want to live “in a free and decent society, where we have total, or near total, control over the sovereignty of our own lives, our destinies, our families, our wallets. We are not programmed to want the state to make our decisions, to decide how we spend our money, to take away our inalienable rights in the interest of feigned fairness.”

Cupp did acknowledge the limits of downsizing government and conceded that libertarianism was impractical on a large scale.

She put forth a critical view of previous and contemporary American protest movements. She labeled the generation of student protestors in the 1960s as a “weird, drug-addled cult of unwashed morons.” She stated that they were foolish for challenging the establishment because the Democratic Party was in power. She also said this is similar to today’s Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Speaking on the Occupy movement, Cupp asserted, “when they take up Obama’s class-war narrative, they are not … fighting the establishment. They are really just pawns for a reelection bid. They are empowering the establishment, of course. They are not standing up for the little guy.”

“It is about taking power away from individual voters and giving more of it to the government, specifically a really, really small group of people in the government, literally the one-percent,” she added, decrying that this generation of liberals believes “growing government counts as a cause.”

Asked to speak about her atheism, Cupp replied that she still respects religion and that her non-belief in God “does not make me mad at Her,” adding, “I’m not a militant atheist.” Cupp emphasized that she does not criticize those who do believe and that it is acceptable, for politicians like Rick Santorum and Sarah Palin to be influenced by religious belief.

Preceding the event was a controversy on the event’s Facebook page between BLCU members and Brandeis feminists, who objected that the first line of the event description read, “Do you like beautiful women? Do you like politics?” Asked for her opinion on the matter, Cupp responded, “I am careful about how I present myself. … I don’t believe that, just because I’m young and female, … I should have to ugly up, or dress like a man to be taken seriously.” eliciting near-unanimous applause from the politically diverse audience.

There was also a dispute over the financing of the event, causing the BLCU to seek funding from outside of Brandeis, according toBLCU vice-president Ricky Rosen. “Because the [Finance] Board would not give us sufficient funding for the event, we worked with Young America’s Foundation, a national organization that provides funding for conservative speakers to come to college campuses, and they provided financial assistance for the event,” he said in an interview with the Justice.

Rosen added that the event, which had a turnout of roughly 50 students, had the potential to broaden the influence of conservatives on campus. “The common perception among Brandeis students is that there are not a lot of conservatives on this campus,” he said. “We hope that this event is the beginning of a more diversified political culture here at Brandeis and that BLCU can build off this momentum and become a legitimate political force on campus.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum made a campaign stop at the Tigers’ game against Mississippi St. to meet his supporters and baseball fans just less than a week before Louisiana’s presidential primary, scheduled for March 24.

About 20 people with Santorum signs and stickers greeted the candidate as his motorcade arrived. He signed autographs and made his way to a suite just left of the press box, where he chatted with former LSU athletic director and baseball coach Skip Bertman during the game.

Santorum seemed to enjoy the experience, taking pictures with children and participating in games on the jumbotron.

Although LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri was not aware Santorum was there, he said it was great that Santorum attended the game.

“I’m not going to divulge [my political views] to people, but I think it’s neat a presidential candidate thought enough of what we do here to make an appearance,” Mainieri said. “Hopefully our fans welcomed him and were very hospitable to him.”

Santorum won the Alabama, Mississippi and Kansas primaries last week with 34.5, 32.8 and 51.2 percent of the vote, respectively.

According to a WWL-TV poll conducted in early March, Santorum is favored to win the Louisiana primary with 25 percent of the vote.

While in Louisiana on Sunday, he also visited Bossier City, Shreveport and Greenwell Springs.

Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are also spending time in Louisiana. Gingrich gave a speech in Covington and visited the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans on Friday.

Romney will attend a fundraiser in Shreveport on March 23, according to The Shreveport Times.

But the spotlight was on Santorum as fans young and old came to Alex Box to catch a glimpse of the former Pennsylvania senator.

Along with Santorum came a cadre of national journalists covering his campaign. Time Magazine’s Alex Altman tweeted his take on Alex Box Stadium during the game.

“LSU’s stadium is nicer than most minor league parks. Santorum watching from a box, wearing Tiger purple,” Altman tweeted.

LSU bat girl Erin Giffin said it was exciting to see Santorum because a “possible future president is in our midst.”

Matthew Bollin, a 17-year-old Catholic High School student, said he wants to show Santorum that the younger population in Louisiana does care about politics.

“It’s never too early to get out here [to show support],” Bollin said.

Dave Persyn, a Baton Rouge resident, said he thinks Santorum came to Alex Box because “he’s looking to meet with the everyday kind of people that come to an LSU baseball game.”

Persyn, who operates a Louisiana Santorum support group on Facebook, said Santorum’s views align with his own as a pro-life Catholic. He said the U.S. Constitution’s protection of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” guards peoples’ rights to life.

Michael Banham, a Chalmette native, said Louisiana is going to have “a very important role” in the upcoming primary.

“We want to show that Rick has support across the state,” Banham said. “He is going to be the best candidate to run against Obama.”
Sports writer Hunter Paniagua contributed to this report.

“Some people get discouraged because they say … 51 percent of the vote, you have to have it, but it isn’t true,” Paul said. “What you need is an irate and tireless minority.”

The representative was brought to the UI in large part because of U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-15, who voted absentee for Paul.

Johnson and Paul have shared “a long standing relationship built on business and friendship” for about 12 years, Johnson said.

“I think it’s important … our part of the state knows what he offers and what he brings to America, so this is an opportunity to do that in a personal way,” Johnson said.

Paul mainly stressed that the government needs to have a smaller role so that the people can “get their liberty back.”

“We have a good constitution,” he said. “We just need to use it every once in a while.”

One of his main talking points was the country’s foreign policy in terms of military involvement. He said he wants to end all foreign wars and bring all troops home.

“Since World War II … think of how many trillions of dollars have been wasted. In the past 10 years, 4 trillion dollars added to our debt for foreign expenditures,” he said.

Paul also pointed to the Stop Online Piracy Act, which received major backlash from the public. He used this as an example of Americans standing up for their privacy rights.

“Your privacy is what the government should protect, but unfortunately, it’s the other way around: we have no privacy and the government becomes more secret every single day,” he said.

Paul then spoke, to the loud applause of the audience, about his desire to end the Federal Reserve, which he said would lead to a “return of prosperity in this country.”

Other areas of government Paul spoke about eliminating were the federal income tax and the Internal Revenue Service. At the end of the event, Paul again spoke to the young audience.

“I see what’s happening in Washington, and I see what’s coming from the other candidates – I see them as the past,” he said to the audience. “I see you as the future.”

Paul is the first presidential candidate to come to the University in 2012.

“I follow Ron Paul; I have been since 2007, and I’m on his email list … I’ve been waiting for five years to see him in person,” said Isaac Hankes, graduate student.

Meyers set the tone for the evening as Hannah Cockrell, co-president of the Brown Lecture Board, introduced him and mentioned his appearance in the almost universally panned romantic comedy “New Year’s Eve,” released in December. In response to a collective bout of giggling from the audience, Meyers poked his head out from behind the curtain to shout, “It’s not a joke!” to raucous cheers.

When Meyers took the stage, he mocked his appearance in the film but quickly turned the tables. “The weirdest kid in my high school went to Brown,” he said pointedly. “I know you want the whole world to think you’re a bunch of John Krasinskis.”

Meyers attended Northwestern U., where he performed in an improv troupe. After graduating, he stayed in Chicago to take classes and perform with IO, formerly called Improv Olympic. He then moved to Amsterdam, where he said he had the “greatest two years.”

“It’s not what you think,” he said in response to audience laughter at his mention of Amsterdam. “I lived in Amsterdam because weed is legal there,” Meyers clarified. But he later explained that he enjoyed his time there because he was constantly on-stage.

Meyers returned to the United States two years later, and in 2001 he joined the SNL cast after being discovered at his two-person comedy performance in Chicago. In 2006, he was promoted to head writer.

Meyers began his stand-up routine discussing topics he said college students know well — futons, weed and those annoying friends who return from studying abroad and complain about drinking American beer and eating American chocolate.

Meyers then turned to politics, a frequent subject of his jokes. One of his more famous skits, former SNL head writer Tina Fey’s impression of Sarah Palin, drew national attention during the 2008 election.

“I think the best show on television this fall has been the GOP debates,” he said. “I miss Michele Bachmann,” he added. “Michele Bachmann to me has the eyes of a woman who just heard Michele Bachmann was elected president.”

He also expressed incredulity at the number of politicians involved in sex scandals, saying there is “nothing stupider.” Texting an inappropriate picture — or tweeting one, like former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner — is “super high-risk,” he said. “The woman who will be angriest is the woman who is most likely to recognize it as your genitals.”

Meyers also showed his human side to a wide-eyed and admiring audience, describing the awkwardness of greeting President Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondent’s dinner when he prematurely stuck out his arm and intercepted Obama’s handshake with Meyers’ girlfriend.

“I had to access the part of my brain that comes up with witty comebacks when you’re in awful situations to diffuse the most awkward situation I’d been in in my life with the most powerful man on earth,” Meyers said. “So here’s what I came up with … I said, ‘Hahahaha, I know’ and ran away.”

Meyers said he was the only man in the country who was disappointed by Osama Bin Laden’s death. Since Obama announced the death the day after Meyers’ performance at the dinner, he explained that he felt robbed of the press’ attention.

But Meyers added that he was reassured when he realized Obama had probably sent forces to capture Bin Laden to take out his anger about Meyers’ jokes upstaging his. Continuing on the topic of terrorism, Meyers said many people believe the Koran promises 72 virgins to martyrs, but added that he had recently heard that might be a mistranslation — the word may actually mean grapes. “That would be the best burn! You’re a suicide bomber and you get to the afterlife … and it’s like … here are your grapes!”

Students said Meyers lived up to their expectations. Kathryn Graves ’15, the first student in line last night, arrived at Salomon Center at 2 p.m., though the doors were not set to open until 6:15. “I love Seth Meyers — even if he’s just reading the dictionary, that’s fine,” she said.

Meyers did her one better. During one of the evening’s many highlights, he recited “Weekend Update” jokes that were deemed too inappropriate for SNL.

“According to Alaskan expense reports, Sarah Palin charged the state of Alaska for $21,000 for her children to travel with her on official business. In fairness to Palin, when she leaves them home alone, they get pregnant,” he said to wild roars of laughter and applause.

Meyers also responded to questions from students, discussing the “really, really, collaborative” relationship between writers and his love for Stefon, the flamboyant “Weekend Update” guest portrayed by Bill Hader.

On last weekend’s episode, Stefon planted a lengthy kiss on Meyers’ lips. But Meyers said, “I kissed Fred Armisen a lot deeper than that.”

Meyers’ love for his job was evident throughout the evening. He recounted a story of bumping into a fan in the middle of the street in New York City. When the fan screamed, “Oh my god!” Meyers was poised to turn, face him and “make his f***ing life,” only to realize the man was actually screaming about a woman who had gotten hit by a car, not Meyers.

He felt bad about his assumption, he said. “But then I thought, what if the driver of the car also saw me?”

Cameron, the wife of British Prime Minister David Cameron, was accompanying her husband on an official trip to Washington when she joined the First Lady for the celebratory student Olympics.

About 60 elementary school children played each other in tennis, basketball and soccer.

Obama showed off her own athletic skills as she walked into Bender Arena halfway through the games, picked up a tennis racket and played against a team of grinning students on the other side of the court.

“You guys know Let’s Move is about me ensuring that young people like you guys get up and get moving,” she said in a speech addressing the children. “And we want to use these Games as a way to jumpstart.”

After the student games came to an end, Obama announced that she will lead the presidential delegation to the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic Games.

“I’m particularly excited that the Camerons are visiting our country this week because, as it turns out, I will be visiting their country this summer,” Obama said.

But she also said the Olympic games are not about winning – they are about commitment, determination and teamwork.

“The Games are about finding our inner strength,” Obama said. “It’s about digging down deep and finding the thing that makes you want to do more.”

She referenced Dominique Dawes, a now-retired gymnast and three-time Olympian who spent as much time in a gym as people spend at a full-time job. Obama also praised Kortney Clemons, a former combat medic who lost his leg in Iraq at age 24, who competed as a sprinter in the Paralympics.

“He didn’t let that stop him from reaching his goals, see?” she said. “And that’s the beauty of it.”

Other Olympians and Paralympians who helped lead the event included Lisa Leslie, Lori Ann Lindsey, Dan O’Brien, Becky Sauerbrunn and David Wagner.

Obama asked the children to join them in an initiative to promote Let’s Move.

“You guys are going to get some medals, but I need you to be our ambassadors,” she said. “I need you to send the word out to people in your lives and in your community about how important it is to stay active and healthy.”

Anita McBride, former Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush and an AU executive in residence, said Obama has an important role in making a difference for Americans. This event is one of many examples of Obama’s ability to use her status to have the voices of her cause be heard, she said.

“It demonstrates for us the power of a first lady’s platform,” McBride said. “This is clearly something Mrs. Obama has cared about and has cared about since she has come into the role of First Lady.”

First Ladies are required to write their own job descriptions and build these around initiatives they care about.

“They really are best at it when they engage in something they really care about deeply,” she said. “Because they bring a lot of credibility and authenticity to it.”

To thank AU for allowing Obama to host the event, the First Lady presented a gift to the university’s arboretum: a seed from a famous magnolia tree on the south grounds of the White House, planted by Andrew Jackson in 1835.

“She’s bringing a seedling of one of the most important and iconic trees of the White House grounds,” McBride said.

Franken touched on some of his successful initiatives that passed during a difficult legislative term for Democrats. Franken authored a health care provision requiring insurance companies to adhere to a minimum medical loss ratio, which would designate at least 85 percent of premium payments to be used strictly for medical care in large group plans. The provision passed and has already helped lower the cost of large-group insurance plans, in some cases by as much as 10 percent, according to Franken.

“There is plenty to celebrate,” Franken said of recent legislative action, citing the overturn of the ban on stem cell research and the conclusion of the war in Iraq, but he added that Democrats need to significantly step it up in the future to push legislative goals. “Every minute we stop pushing … is a minute Republicans spend pushing in the other direction,” he said.

Franken did not shy away from explaining his convictions on the ineffectiveness of Congress. “You hear that the Senate is the greatest deliberative body in the world,” he said. “It’s not.”

Though Franken said bipartisan efforts occur more frequently than the news media conveys to the general public, ideological roadblocks to passing initiatives generally originate from conservatives.

“The blame is asymmetrical,” he said, adding that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConell, R-Ky., and his public statements prioritizing President Obama’s defeat in 2012 “(tell) you everything you need to know.”

When asked if his Republican colleagues were concerned about the trajectory of the Republican presidential primaries, Franken said, “I don’t talk to them a lot.” But, he added, he suspects most of them are too intelligent not to be concerned about the primary. “And you can’t be a Democrat and not enjoy it,” he said.

Franken said Mitt Romney will likely be the eventual Republican nominee. “That will be very exciting,” he deadpanned.

Franken had choice words for the current Supreme Court bench, which he referred to as “an activist court of the worst kind.” He alluded to what he expressed as a far-reaching decision in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, where the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that the government cannot set limits on political expenditures by corporations.

Though Franken said he is cautiously optimistic about the upcoming health care reform arguments, he said the activist ideology of the justices, particularly Clarence Thomas, is cause for concern. “These guys are awful,” he said.

Franken defended his support of the Protect IP Act, about which he said there are “legitimate qualms, but a lot of misunderstanding.” While citing the need to “protect intellectual property,” he said the act would also protect online users from websites such as fraudulent pharmaceutical distributors.

“It’s stealing,” Franken said of online piracy by foreign sites, adding that piracy has far-reaching financial consequences for thousands in the entertainment industry. “This isn’t about getting Brad Pitt more money,” he said.

Franken said many uninformed reporters and opponents confused the act with the House of Representatives bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act.

“You’ve got to change your support of SOPA,” Franken said people have advised him. “I can’t because I’m not in the House,” he said he responded.

Franken said he finds the “slippery slope” argument that opponents of PIPA and SOPA rely on reminiscent of arguments used to rationalize lax gun control.

Franken’s environmental positions received the most support from the audience.

“I’m wary of the Keystone pipeline,” he said, provoking enthusiastic applause. Franken said reports from TransCanada, a company that backs the pipeline by claiming that the project would create 260,000 jobs, are deceptive. “See how many (of those jobs) are bartenders,” he said. “You get suspicious.”

Franken also expressed concern for governmental neglect of climate change. Citing expert opinions linking global warming and forest fires, Franken said leaving climate change unchecked has financial as well as environmental ramifications, adding that approximately 40 percent of the forest service budget is used to combat preventable wildfires.

Franken said conservative talk radio, which he called “a circuit for climate deniers,” adds extra opposition for legislation improving climate change by swaying public opinion. Polls show overall skepticism of climate change has increased in recent years, he said.

Though Franken did not back away from strong critiques of his legislative opponents, he had considerably less harsh things to say about one commonly criticized group ­— the current cast of Saturday Night Live. “They do some wonderful stuff,” he said, adding that he still watches the show. “It’s spotty, but we’re always spotty.”

Cameron Parsons said he was surprised by the less-than-full turnout for the lecture.

“Brown students need to get their priorities straight,” he said, calling such events “a central part” of the college experience. “This is what you pay for,” he said.

The event began with President Michael Roth introducing Justice Scalia to the crowd. During his talk, Scalia argued that originalism, which advocates basing court rulings on the original intent and language of the Constitution, was the best method to determine all court cases. According to Scalia, any other form of judicial interpretation would result in a judge politicking from the bench.

“The reality is that originalism is the only game in town,” Scalia said. “The only real, verifiable criteria that prevents judges from making the constitution [say] whatever they think it should say. Show Scalia the original meaning and he is prevented from imposing his nasty conservative views upon the people. He is handcuffed.”

Justice Scalia stated that every ruling he has made as a judge has been based on the originalist approach—even when his personal politics disagreed with the ruling. He cited Texas v. Johnson, a 1989 case in which he ruled that an attempt to ban flag burning was unconstitutional, as an example of an instance when his adherence to originalism took precedence over his personal beliefs.

“The court held that it was unconstitutional to ban the burning of the flag,” Scalia said. “It was a five to four decision and I made the fifth vote. You should be in no doubt, as that  patriotic conservative that I am, I detest the burning of the nation’s flag. If I were king, I would make it a crime. But as I understand the First Amendment, it guarantees the right to express contempt for the government, Congress, Supreme Court, even the nation or the nation’s flag.”

Scalia specifically argued against the concept of a living constitution, which he explained as the idea that the Constitution is an evolving document and can be interpreted based on the present state of the American people. Scalia held that any attempt to do this was undemocratic, as it allowed judges to go against the letter of the law without an amendment from the nation’s people.

“If you care passionately about [something], it’s there in the Constitution,” Scalia said. “That’s the only criteria [for a living constitutionalist]. Never mind what the people have voted to put in the Constitution, and thus removing it from the realm of democratic debate and democratic choice. Only originalists care about that. It is there if it ought to be there. I urge you not to yield to that seductive and extremely undemocratic falsehood.”

Following his speech, Scalia answered several questions form the audience. Many of these questions were about how he applied the originalist concept to political issues such as corporate personhood, gender rights, and gay marriage. Scalia remained adamant that all of his rulings were based on the original intent of the Constitution. Scalia drew laughs from the crowd over his response to a question about the Bush v. Gore decision.

“Get over it,” he said.

Prior to the lecture, approximately 40 students and members of Occupy Connecticut gathered outside the Chapel and engaged in a protest that was informally referred to as both Occupy Scalia and the Scalia Welcoming Committee. These protesters carried signs, distributed literature on Scalia to people waiting for admittance to the lecture, and chanted several different slogans, including “legacy of blood and war, what’d you make George president for,” “money is not free speech,” and “the people united will never be defeated, citizens united will be defeated.”

According to several protesters, Public Safety had announced that any protesters unaffiliated with the University could be subject to arrest. However, student protesters said that after they stated that all non-University protesters were their guests, there were no attempts to make arrests.

The protestor’s reasons for picketing varied, from those who were protesting Scalia’s policies and court rulings to others who opposed his invitation to speak at the University.

“I disagree with the way he forms opinions, pretty much all of his opinions that I’ve read,” said Alma Sanchez-Eppler. “I think that it is disrespectful to a lot of people on this campus to have brought him here because he is such a violent presence.”

She said that while she believed Scalia’s talk fit with the free speech theme of the lecture, she was unhappy that the event also gave him a platform to voice his opinions.

“It’s not that he shouldn’t be here, for a free speech address it’s perfect as I don’t think there’s anybody who exercises free speech more often than he does,” she said. “My only problem with it is that his particular form of speech holds a lot of power and a lot of sway and makes a lot of things possible that I think really go against what I hope and have always felt this country stands for.”

Though many of the protesters said they had no intention of preventing Scalia from speaking, they believed their protest was an important act for the University and protest movements across the country.

“I think that [the protest] has already done its job,” said Paul Blasenheim. “The main purpose of demonstrations like this is not to change Scalia’s mind, as his mind is not changeable. I think it’s more to demonstrate that people are not willing to stand back and allow Scalia’s presence to go unchallenged, utilizing our rights to assembly and speech. There has already been lots of media coverage of this and that builds the overall movement against everything that Scalia stands for.”

After Scalia finished his lecture, approximately five student protesters stood up in the Chapel wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods on their heads to resemble prisoners of Guantanamo Bay. At the same time, two anti-Scalia banners were unfurled and condoms with labels stating “practice safe sodomy” and “stops more abortions than Scalia” were dropped from the Chapel balcony. Soon after this, the protesters who were dressed up as prisoners were quietly escorted out of the lecture and the banners were removed. Upon seeing these actions, Scalia continued the question and answer exchange with only a brief acknowledgment of the protests.

“Very persuasive,” he said.

Some students in attendance at the event believed that the protesters were simply expressing their different views.

“For the most part I thought they were tastefully done,” said Chris Martinson. “They allowed him to have his words, which I think is essential because it was about freedom of speech and I think it was the student’s right to do so.”

Meanwhile, others contended that the demonstrations could be seen as disrespectful to Scalia.

“I appreciated that it didn’t disrupt the flow of the speech to the Q and A,” said Victoria Rowe. “I thought having the protest inside [the chapel] was disrespectful no matter who’s speaking. I fully support wanting to protest, but I don’t think in this forum is the most appropriate time, [though] I think it was handled well in that we were able to continue without wasting time.”

Of the students who attended the lecture, many expressed interest in hearing Scalia’s argument, despite their disagreement with his judicial opinions.

“It made me think about my preferences with the way justices viewed things,” Martinson said. “ I thought it was an interesting argument, which made me think about my moral stance versus what I think the overall best result would be. It made me reappraise my position on how I view Supreme Court justice rulings.”

Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, talked about black empowerment and also discussed the education system in the United States, as well as the nation’s international politics and the histories of different racial groups in his approximately two-hour speech.

“You like to sugarcoat things so you can get along with your former slave masters,” Farrakhan said, commenting on the history of African Americans in the United States and their attitudes regarding their current place in society.

Additionally, Farrakhan likened the United States to a “troublemaker, meddling in the internal affairs of other nations.”

In another part of his speech, Farrakhan addressed those concerned by his appearance, telling his predominantly black audience that some on campus opposed his speech because “they’re so fearful that you’re going to hear a word that will break the chain off your mind.”

Farrakhan also critiqued the educational system, commenting on the disjuncture between applicable knowledge and material taught in schools and universities. After citing accomplishments and notable moments from black history, Farrakhan said such facts are not well known because of bias in United States’ education regarding black history.

“This is what you call an education in white supremacy,” Farrakhan said. “So when you come out, you come out bowing to them.”

UC Berkeley junior Mariah Cochran, a participant in the conference, said she thought the controversy surrounding Farrakhan’s speech was blown out of proportion considering the topics his presentation covered.

“In my opinion, (Farrakhan’s speech) was mainly about black empowerment – focused on black students,” Cochran said.

Still, ASUC Senator Noah Ickowitz, who watched Farrakhan’s speech via webcast, said he felt the talk promoted anti-Semitism and hatred.

“Farrakhan made countless references and spent a significant amount of time, talking about the Jewish people in the most anti-Semitic of terms,”  Ickowitz said. “There was also a reference in the speech mocking Asian languages that I know one student I was passing out fliers with was offended by.”

Farrakhan told audience members that before they interact with Jews, they should read “The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews,” a book that connects Jews to African American enslavement in the Western Hemisphere.

“Why don’t you teach them that the first wonder of this world was not something that Jewish people built when they were enslaved in Egypt. Otherwise they would know how it was done,” he said. “That’s why it’s called the first wonder, because they wonder how it was done.”

While trying to distinguish between the history of blacks in America and other ethnic groups, Farrakhan also crudely mimicked an Asian accent, and proceeded to ask the audience, “Can you imagine Ching Lee Joong with a picket sign?”

In a statement released Saturday, UC President Mark Yudof called Farrakhan a “provocative, divisive figure with a long history of racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic speech.”

“It was distressing in the extreme that a student organization invited him to speak on the UC Berkeley campus,” Yudof said in the statement. “But, as I have said before, we cannot, as a society or as a university community, be provoked by hurtful speech to retreat from the cherished value of free speech.”

Several UCPD officers were present, which UCPD Lt. Alex Yao said was “no different than at any other special event of this scale.”

The conference – which started Friday and will run through Sunday  – features workshops, keynote speakers and social activities with the aim of unifying black students across the UC system, according to the event’s website. Farrakhan’s inclusion as one of six featured speakers led to outcry from numerous campus community members, with a petition opposing Farrakhan’s speech circulating in the week leading up to his appearance.

Ickowitz said representatives of both the black and Jewish student communities – including himself, Black Student Union Chair Salih Muhammad and ASUC External Affairs Vice President Joey Freeman – met with Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard on Tuesday and addressed “the impact that this has had on each of our communities.”

Following Farrakhan’s speech, about seven students passed out copies of the petition — which gathered over 350 signatures — outside of Wheeler Hall to demonstrate their opposition to Farrakhan’s speech, Ickowitz said.

The petition – begun by Ickowitz, Student Action Senator Aviv Gilboa and other Jewish student leaders – opposes Farrakhan’s speech and character, not the Black Student Union’s right to bring him to campus.

“He has every right to come, all I’m doing is shedding light on the negative impact he has had on the community,” Ickowitz said. “We wanted to do so respectfully, so we had no signs and a large number of people who were exiting the conference were very receptive and very understanding.”

Ron Paul supporters lined up hours before doors opened, and Paul met their expectations. Paul received many standing ovations from a booming audience and touched on topics ranging from war to the government debt.

Minutes before Paul was scheduled to speak, “President Paul” chants hailed from the Lied Center balcony and quickly made its way down to the rest of the auditorium. Paul said the younger generation has been very important for his campaign.

“A lot of young people say that I energize them, but young people energize me because they are so enthusiastic and they have so much at stake,” Paul said in a Q and A following his speech. “Young people are inheriting a mess.”

Paul said it makes me him excited that young people are listening to his campaign and have been for four or five years now. He would like to see students’ frustrations with the ongoing war and country’s debt explode into a victory this year.

While Paul thinks he has a chance at the Republican nomination, he understands that it will be an uphill battle to gain the nomination.

“We have to convince a lot to people, work on our organization, raise a lot of money,” Paul said. “We get small donations, and our job is a little bit more challenging. We don’t always get the recognition we think we should be getting from the media.”

In addition to being in Lawrence Friday night, Paul was in Topeka and Wichita earlier that day. The KU event was organized by Lawrence’s Youth for Ron Paul group, and President David Conway said he was more than pleased with the turn out.

Conway said people were turned away at the door because theLied Center was filled to capacity. Conway also hoped that this event could help Paul in the Kansas Caucuses which took place Saturday afternoon.

Results were announced at 5 p.m. on Saturday, and Rick Santorum captured Kansas earning 33 delegates while frontrunner Mitt Romney received the remaining seven delegates. Ron Paul finished in 4th place.

“Kal, you’re a great example of a young person who has dedicated his time, and his efforts to helping this country, and your president. And most importantly, the public perception of White Castle,” Dingell said.

Penn, who volunteered for the Obama campaign in 2008, and held the position of associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement from 2009 until 2011. Penn joined Dingell; Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s deputy campaign manager, and Broderick Johnson, a senior adviser to Obama and a Law School alum, in a discussion before Obama supporters and University students last night.

The event was the latest stop on Young Americans for Obama’s Greater Together Student Summit Tour — a series of events held on college campuses across the nation to promote student participation in the upcoming election and to boost Obama’s re-election campaign.

Students at the event were told of ways they could contribute to the campaign, such as donating money, volunteering and urging friends and classmates to vote for Obama. Campaign workers staffed tables outside the ballroom so students could sign up to volunteers for the campaign.

The forum also included two University students — LSA freshman Pavitra Abraham, a campus organizer for the Obama campaign in Ann Arbor, and Business junior Taqee Vernon, the spokesman for the Black Student Union — Matt Kerry, a student at the University’s Dearborn campus, also participated. The three students shared personal stories about why they decided to support Obama.

Penn said he decided to join the Obama campaign primarily because he was bothered the handling of national affairs by former President George W. Bush, noting examples of how faulty policy negatively impacted his friends.

Specifically, Penn said Bush’s lack of priorities were exemplified by one friend of his who couldn’t afford eyeglasses due to financial strife, while another friend of his was offered a $90,000 contract to work for the organization formerly known as Halliburton, a defense contractor, in Iraq.

“I thought it was absolutely crazy that my friends had to make a decision in the world’s richest, most powerful country, to make a decision between a minimum wage job and 90-grand for driving a truck through a warzone for a private company, or eyeglasses or textbooks,” Penn said. “To me, that seemed nuts.”

Penn said he learned about what youth voters cared about by working as Obama’s youth liaison.

“I realized that most young people, regardless of their political affiliations, agreed on quite a lot,” Penn said.

He added that it is important Obama is re-elected so that he can continue to strengthen achievements made during his first term.

“It was a distinct honor to serve the president as he doubled the Pell Grant, created the American Opportunity Tax Credit, repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ ending the war in Iraq — taking care of bin Laden wasn’t so bad — and making sure that 2.5 million young Americans could stay on their parent’s health-insurance plan,” Penn said.

In an interview with the Daily after the event, Penn said though he understands that though citizens may be cynical about the political climate in America, Obama is a better choice compared to the current field of Republican challengers.

During the panel, Dingell lauded the importance of college students in comprising the American workforce of the future.

“You’re only 25 percent of the population, but you’re 100 percent of our future,” Dingell said.

Dingell criticized Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum for recent comments in opposition to Obama’s priority on increasing college affordability.

“(Santorum) said President Obama was a snob for wanting everyone to go to college,” Dingell said. “Well I was of that generation that fought in World War II, and we came back and they gave us an education to thank us for what we did for our country. It was great for us, but it was even better for the country.”

Kerry, who accepted a job as a field manager for the Obama campaign, became paralyzed from a dive into shallow water several years ago. Kerry spoke about how his family ran into financial issues following his accident, noting that he is grateful for Obama’s work toward passing the Affordable Care Act.

“I no longer have to worry about my pre-existing condition in the future. I can’t be dropped from plan for my condition,” Kerry said. “Even more than that, tens of millions of young Americans will have insurance now.”

He swan dives of out an airplane, rips off a jumpsuit to reveal a tuxedo and has a beautiful woman on his arm to help him steal international secrets at dinner.

Two CIA members discussed the unrealistic practices of James Bond and other government agents from movies and what it really takes to work for the agency, as well as career opportunities with the CIA on Tuesday evening. The two talked with students during an information session at the U. Kansas Visitor Center.

The two work for the National Clandestine Service (NCS), a division of the CIA, which focuses on national security and foreign policy through counter intelligence and covert action. In other words, this is where James Bond would work if he were American.

The pair, a man and a woman, discussed a variety of careers with NCS and other divisions within the CIA, including language officers and advanced positions, but focused on field-based positions through the NCS, in which employees work overseas to gather intelligence.

The woman candidly discussed lying to her children, her mother and everyone except her husband about where she works. She wanted the audience to understand that applying for any NCS position is not for the faint of heart.

“People ask me how I can lie to my own children, but I do it for my country and for my own safety as well as theirs,” she said.

The ability to keep a low profile is essential to the program. Those attending were asked not to share they went to the meeting on Facebook or with others, and the pair said the CIA does not have a Facebook page. Trying to accessing any Facebook page that claims to be the CIA, they said, may cause malware to infect the computer, because the site is a fake.

Both the man and the woman had worked in field-based positions and discussed how to be selected for one.

An applicant can obtain a field-based position through two programs: the Professional Trainee (PT) program and the Clandestine Service Trainee (CST) program. In the PT program, an applicant must be between 21 and 25 years old and have a college degree. It is for people with limited professional or military experience. The CST program is for people with professional or military experience who are between the ages of 26 and 35.

The two made it clear that anyone applying to work for the CIA must be willing to work in Washington D.C. and wherever they are sent for field positions. They also stressed the need for integrity and good judgment.

“We’re looking for diverse people who can solve problems, and common sense is critical,” the man said. “If we could find a program offering a degree in common sense, believe me, we’d promote the hell out of it.”

They asked anyone applying to take interest in international affairs and recommended seeking news through international outlets, such as BBC and Al-Jazeera.

The same extensive application process is required for any job with the NCS. Applicants must apply online at cia.gov and the entire selection process takes between 12 and 18 months. It includes interviews, trips to Washington D.C. for aptitude tests and examinations by medical personnel and members of security.

The CIA receives 10,000 applications a month, but the man said those who are selected will never be bored with their jobs.

“If I can look back on my life and say ‘I can’t believe this is my life’,” the man said, “that’s a pretty amazing thing.”

Kosovo, which gained independence from Serbia in 2008 “thanks to nationwide resistance and armed struggle” following the 1998-1999 Kosovo War, has been grappling with ethnic divisions that are characteristic of the Balkan region, according to Jahjaga.

“There are three municipalities in northern Kosovo with ethnic Serb majorities and ground access to Serbia,” Jahjaga said. “These municipalities do not recognize the authority of the Republic of Kosovo, but I believe there is no need for further fragmentation.”

Jahjaga, the first woman to serve as president of a Balkan nation, discussed her experiences with the education system in Kosovo, in which students were forced to attend university in private homes to avoid punishment. She said that prior to the creation of Kosovo, a “fear of repression was attached to my desire to learn” because Serbian officers used to “break into classes to imprison teachers and stop us from being knowledgeable.”

Jahjaga praised the progress that has been made in Kosovo’s education system.

“Now, students can learn in a regular school environment,” she said. “Youngsters of my country, and I consider myself as such, can learn through contemporary programs in other cosmopolitan places.”

At the end of her speech, Jahjaga presented the Mother Teresa Award for contribution in the field of humanism to James Strickler, who led Dartmouth’s efforts to provide resources to Kosovo and help the nation reconstruct its health education and health care systems.

The College first sent aid to Kosovo in conjunction with Dartmouth Medical School faculty who provided critical care to refugees after the war, according to College Provost Carol Folt. Dartmouth now offers opportunities for medical students, physicians and nurses to participate in exchange programs, and there have been more than 200 exchanges of medical faculty and students between Dartmouth and Kosovo.

“I am inspired by the progress and steps that have been taken to improve health care in Kosovo,” Emily Carson, who plans to travel to Kosovo with DMS next year, said. “I am also excited to be able to keep the tradition of Dartmouth Medical School’s involvement with Kosovo alive.”

Dartmouth and the American University in Kosovo created a partnership two years ago that includes conducting faculty and student exchange programs and supporting curriculum development. In June, a group of Dartmouth students and recent graduates traveled to Kosovo with Project Preservation and, working with American University in Kosovo students, helped restore a Jewish cemetery in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital.

“The long-standing relationship Dartmouth has had with Kosovo is an important one to our community,” College President Jim Yong Kim said. “We are proud of our ongoing commitment to help the Kosovar people improve their health care system and excited about our more recent efforts to help the American University in Kosovo prepare its next generation of leaders. President Jahjaga’s visit gives us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our partnership.”

On Wednesday, Jahjaga will attend an undergraduate class on state creation taught by government professor John Carey. Following her visit to Dartmouth, Jahjaga will participate in the Women in the World Summit in New York City, a conference featuring women who are leaders and activists around the globe.

Jahjaga began her professional career as a police officer, rising to the position of acting director of police in 2009, a post she held until her election to the presidency last April at the age of 35.

Folt introduced Jahjaga, discussing Dartmouth’s involvement in the Republic of Kosovo and sharing her own experiences visiting the Balkans.

“Your efforts have been profoundly moving to me because you are bringing democracy to that region,” Folt said. “The first time I visited the homeland of my ancestors, I was filled with optimism for the future.”

Caroline Liegey said she attended the event with fellow members of Sigma Delta sorority to hear the perspective of a female leader.

“I thought she made some very interesting political points,” she said. “In fact, most of her speech was focused on politics. I found it to be a good sign that it doesn’t have to be about being a woman.”

Holder spoke to a crowd of law students and judicial officials that filled the law school’s 700-seat Thorne Auditorium. He concentrated on the need to consider both constitutional freedoms and security in the fight against terrorism.

“In this hour of danger, we simply cannot afford to wait until deadly plans are carried out – and we will not,” Holder said.

His remarks came in the wake of controversy over the death of Anwar al Awlaki, an American-born Islamic cleric who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in Yemen in September. Civil liberties groups such as the ACLU have said Awlaki’s death violated the Fifth Amendment, which states that no American may be deprived of life without due process.

“‘Due process’ and ‘judicial process’ are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security,” the attorney general said. “The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.”

Although Holder did not specifically address Awlaki’s slaying, he described testimony from another would-be terrorist, Umar Abdulmatallab, that Awlaki had trained him to carry out an airplane bombing.

Three criteria must be met in order to justify the targeted killing of a U.S. citizen, Holder said. The individual must pose “an imminent threat of violent attack.” Capture must not be feasible. And the operation must be conducted in accordance with applicable laws of war.

The attorney general added that civilian courts must continue to play a significant role in terrorism prosecution. He criticized the suggestion that the United States should deal with all terror-related proceedings through military means.

“These calls ignore reality,” Holder said. “And if heeded, they would significantly weaken — in fact, they would cripple — our ability to incapacitate and punish those who attempt to do us harm.”

Katie Donn, a 1996 NU law graduate who attended the speech, praised Holder for outlining a nuanced counterterrorism policy.

“I just think he’s brilliant,” she said. “I was impressed by the sensible approach of balancing liberty against security concerns.”

But Liza Kostinskaya, a current law student, questioned Holder’s definition of due process, saying he had not explained how it differs from judicial process. She also noted that Holder had not engaged in a question and answer session with the audience, as guest speakers at the law school typically do.

“I think they’re trying to get out of something there,” she said.

University spokesman Al Cubbage, who also attended the speech, said he found it to be a well-reasoned legal argument. The attorney general’s chief of staff, Gary Grindler, is an NU Law alumnus, and the University has been trying to bring Holder to speak on campus for several years, Cubbage said.

Whether or not other listeners agreed with Holder, Cubbage said, “It’s good to hear directly from the attorney general.”

Panels at the two-day conference examined the two-state approach, questioned how a one-state solution would work, and discussed obstacles to the realization of such a solution. Students and scholars packed into the Institute of Politics Forum to participate in the event, often challenging speakers with lengthy and detailed questions and comments.

Though critics of the conference anticipated the panelists would only present arguments for a one-state solution, attendees emphasized that the conference facilitated discussion and dialogue on varied possibilities.

The conference was organized by the Harvard groups Justice for Palestine, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the Palestine Caucus, the Arab Caucus, the Progressive Caucus, and the Alliance for Justice in the Middle East.

In the weeks leading up to the conference, a number of groups and individuals came out in opposition to the event, inciting controversy about the nature of the discussion of a one-state solution and the issue of free speech.

On Friday, U.S. Senator Scott Brown called on Harvard to cancel the conference, the Boston Globe reported. He condemned the University for endorsing a “misguided idea,” according to the Globe.

A petition also circulated within the Jewish community calling on Harvard to disavow all affiliation with the conference. In response to the petition, conference organizers and speakers wrote a letter in defense of the event to University President Drew G. Faust and Kennedy School Dean David T. Ellwood.

As panels debated the merits of a one-state solution indoors, protesters from a local group called Christians and Jews United for Israel stood outside holding signs that said “Shame on Harvard, Haven for Jewish Hatred.”

Despite the protests, the event proceeded smoothly and remained unaffected by the opinions of some of its opponents, said Kennedy School student Ahmed Moor, an organizer of the conference.

Panels included discussion about issues of nationhood and cultural identity, the building a global movement, and the history of violence between Palestinians and Israelis. During some of the events, panelists responded directly to critics accusing them of promoting a one-sided dialogue.

Lena K. Awwad volunteered to work at the event with two other students from the Palestine Solidarity Committee, which co-sponsored the event.

Awwad said she has been involved with planning the conference for nearly a year, and was pleased with its outcome.

“Many people expected the conference to have one specific idea, but [the panelists] brought forth very different perspectives on a one state solution,” she said.

Tess M. Waggoner, a student at Kenyon College who traveled to Harvard specifically to attend the conference, echoed Awwad’s sentiments.

“I think if any protesters showed up and spoke to people here they would get many different opinions and none of them would be hateful,” she said.

Though Hillel president Sara Kantor did not attend the event, she did not agree with the manner in which the conference was presented.

“Harvard’s name has a certain power and it seemed to be presented as a Harvard one-state conference,” Kantor, who is also a Crimson arts writer, said. “It lends a certain legitimacy that this conference didn’t necessarily have.”

At the end of the conference, Moor said that the goal of the discussion was not to promote animosity between two groups, but to focus on the provision of human rights and equality at all times.

“This conference has been about what to do about reconciling between two peoples who deserve better,” Moor said.

Biden stepped up to the podium just before noon in the Howe Hall Atrium after introductions from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and John Solomon, ISU senior in mechanical engineering.

“The generation of students at this university are not going to hear much about outsourcing anymore,” Biden said. “I promise you, you’re going to be hearing a word that we didn’t hear in the last 25, 30 years … ‘insourcing.’”

Biden did not go into specifics of President Barack Obama’s proposals to give tax breaks to businesses that keep manufacturing jobs in America and raise taxes for those that choose to outsource, but discussed the importance of manufacturing jobs to the structure of the middle class and bringing those jobs back to U.S. soil.

“Our single greatest advantage, the reason [manufacturers are] coming home … every one of [the manufacturers] said America has the most productive, highly skilled, innovative workers and engineers in the world,” Biden said after stating that the work and research done at Iowa State “benefits all of America and has a rippling effect.”

Biden was given a private tour of Howe Hall before giving his speech, which included presentations from four ISU students.

“Exciting is the world I’ve been using a lot,” said Thomas Naert to describe his personal presentation with Biden.

Naert is a senior in agriculture engineering who presented work from a senior design project that improves the flow of fluid in agriculture sprayers through manufacturing, which in turn minimizes the amount of chemicals used on crops.

“It was an honorable opportunity to represent Iowa State,” said Jared Juel, junior in aerospace engineering,”and demonstrate what we’re doing here.”

Juel gave a presentation on rapid prototyping to the vice president with fellow student Shannon Krogmeier, freshman in agriculture engineering. Katie Goebel, senior in mechanical engineering, presented on industrial technology and the hands-on experience offered to ISU students in the engineering college.

ISU President Steven Leath felt that the vice president was “pleased” with what he saw on the private tour.

“I am thrilled that the vice president came to Iowa State University,” Leath said.

Leath said he feels this will raise the profile of Iowa state and help show what the university is accomplishing.

Innovation was just as prevalent a subject in the nearly hour long speech.

“It’s impossible to think differently in a country where you can’t speak freely. … It’s impossible to think differently where orthodoxy remains,” Biden said in describing why the United States continues to remain innovative while other countries do not. “We understand that change only comes through challenging.”

Biden explained that “skeptics” may miss the innovative nature of the United States.

“The American people are tired of being told they have to lower their expectations, they’re tired of being told that they can’t compete, they’re tired of being told that we’re not going to be the leading economy in the world,” Biden said, his voice growing louder. “They know better … more innovation means more jobs.”

Biden explained that he is not an “optimist” as he is often described but a “realist” who believes in the potential of America.

“We have the greatest research universities in the world … it’s the freedom we have to discover, the freedom to pursue ideas,” Biden said, who explained that he chose to come to Iowa State because the quality of the university’s programs.

“The fundamental message I want to leave with you is, believe … believe in this country,” Biden said in closing.

Biden opened the room to questions, addressing topics from aerospace funding, biofuel research and the conscientious clause.

Rob Schweers, director of the engineering college relations, said that nearly 700 tickets were given to the public with three-quarters of them going to students.

Biden also hosted a private event, closed to the press, at the ISU Alumni Center for volunteers and Iowa Democrats. This event required a special invitation.

Byeok began his career as a propagandist for the government of North Korea under the reign of the late Kim Jong-il over two decades ago. His art at the time depicted North Korea as a glorious country of privilege and power; however, when famine struck in the 1990s and Byeok was thrown into prison for trying to escape to China to find food for his family, the artist’s opinion of his country’s government turned toward contempt.

After enduring near-starvation in prison and the death of his family, Byeok successfully escaped the country in 2002 and resolved to show to the entire world the truth about the machine that is North Korea.

Byeok’s art now uses satire where it once showed propaganda on behalf of the state. A painting of Kim Jong-il’s face with the body of Marilyn Monroe is one example of Byeok’s unique style; he hopes to expose the unbelievably oppressive nature of the North Korean government simply by showing just how ridiculous it looks in his eyes. Other recent pieces by Byeok include a painting of expressionless, complacent North Korean soldiers, and one of a group of schoolgirls who are blissfully unaware of anything beyond the borders of their own country.

Sponsored primarily by the Tech Chapter of Liberty in North Korea (LINK), Song Byeok’s visit consisted of a lecture by the artist himself and a slideshow of artwork from his latest exhibition titled Departure.

“My goal is to be the light of hope… to people under oppression,” Byeok said about the underlying meanings of his artwork. “It is time to reform and open North Korea, so that North Koreans can see what the real world is. Freedom of speech has nothing to do with North Korea.”

And that is just what Byeok depicts in his artwork: the freedom to speak out against your government if you choose.

Many of Byeok’s pieces center on the caricature of Kim Jong-il; the glasses, the high hair, and the boyish smile of the former North Korean Supreme Leader are regular subjects of Byeok’s satirical work.

Byeok does not expect the recent death of Kim Jong-il to affect his artwork.

“He isn’t the god he [portrayed] himself to be,” Byeok said.

Therefore, it seems that Byeok depicts Kim less as a single person and more as a representation of the North Korean government as a whole.

Despite all the hardship Byeok has suffered through in the past, the aim of his artwork is not to promote hatred or spite against the North Korean regime, but rather to prompt change from within it.

“Instead of portraying North Korea as a bad country, I try to find a different perspective that will allow viewers to see it in a different light,” Byeok said.

Although it is so easy to label North Korea as an example of absolute oppression, through his artwork, Byeok hopes to change that label and convince people that his homeland is simply a country in desperate need of freedom.

Byeok plans to use his art to spread his message across the globe, beginning here in Atlanta and continuing on to cities like New York and Washington D.C.

Discussing his decision to work in Obama’s cabinet, LaHood compared the president’s election to that of former President John F. Kennedy.

“In 1963, when I graduated from high school, President Kennedy inspired everyone that was college-age and perhaps even some high schoolers with the speeches that he gave with the call to service,” LaHood said. “I want you to know I’m a Republican — I think that’s been announced — but that call to service was not from a Democratic president. It was from a young, energetic public servant who gave his all, gave his life for his country, and I can’t overstate the power of that call. It was a summons that sparked something in everyone I knew, both Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, much like the call that president Obama used on election day.”

He said his relationship with Obama when both men were members of Congress was an impetus for his decision to join the Obama’s cabinet.

“The president has given me the opportunity and the privilege of overseeing the best transportation system in the world and fighting to put Americans back to work in a very bad economy,” LaHood said. As the secretary of transportation, LaHood has encountered workers  “back on the job” at plants operated by General Motors and Chrysler, met with the Navy Seal team responsible for finding Osama Bin Laden and appeared on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show.

“Not everyone will hold high office,” LaHood said, though he added “everyone does have an obligation to make a contribution.” Scientists and businesspeople also have a responsibility to be good citizens, he said.

LaHood said he values education and hard work just as his parents and grandparents did before him, adding that his time as a social studies middle school teacher inspired him to go into politics. He is proud of his 35 years in public service, he said, from his time as a congressional staffer to his work as a member of Congress and as a Cabinet member.

“You see what’s going on in Washington,” Lahood said. “America needs you.”

After the lecture, LaHood answered questions from students about his son’s detention in Egypt, the future of the Federal Highway Trust Fund, working in the Obama administration and urban mass transit in Detroit and Los Angeles.

Spectator reported on Sunday night that several members of the CUCR have planned to invite Ahmadinejad, based on multiple documents reviewed by Spectator. CUCR’s statement, which was signed by all 10 executive board members, said that “at no meeting has Ahmadinejad been floated as a potential speaker.”

“At no meeting has Ahmadinejad been discussed on our board’s agenda; and at no meeting has any vote been taken on the possibility, realistic or otherwise, of inviting Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia University,” the board’s statement said. CUCR Executive Director Tyler Trumbach told Spectator that “even the suggestion that our board” discussed inviting Ahmadinejad is “completely ridiculous.”

But despite having signed the statement that CUCR has never planned to invite Ahmadinejad, one executive board member would not deny that several members of the board have planned to invite Ahmadinejad without the knowledge of the rest of the organization. That board member told Spectator it’s possible that a group of CUCR members have discussed plans to invite Ahmadinejad without the knowledge of most of the group.

That board member, who requested anonymity, said that CUCR members frequently form small task forces to discuss particular issues—like event-planning or fundraising—and that it’s not always clear to the rest of the organization who the members of these task forces are.

On Monday, Spectator also received copies of emails sent by CUCR Director of Finance David Paszko to two unknown members of CUCR. One of the emails discusses fundraising for an event, and the other describes the creation of two CUCR task forces that will “handle internal CUCR operations without full oversight from the board,” one focusing on “the recruitment of high-profile speakers” and the other focusing on response to campus issues.

They were dated Monday, Feb. 27. Reached by phone Tuesday morning, Paszko said he had no comment on the emails.

CUCR President Will Prasifka told Spectator on Monday that CUCR “never once considered” Ahmadinejad as a speaker, despite not denying that CUCR members had discussed the possibility when asked about it on Sunday.

Another source close to CUCR said that at a board meeting on Monday, Prasifka explained to other board members that his non-denial was an attempt at humor. The source, who also requested anonymity, said there is no way Prasifka or other board members would be interested in bringing Ahmadinejad to campus.

On Sunday night, Spectator reported that several members of CUCR were planning to invite Ahmadinejad to campus, based on multiple documents reviewed by Spectator.

One of those documents was a draft of a letter inviting Ahmadinejad to campus. Former CUCR President Lauren Salz confirmed that the draft matched CUCR’s template for writing invitation letters, as did the source close to CUCR. In its statement on Monday, CUCR’s board said that the ideas expressed in that letter were contrary to its beliefs.

Finn Vigeland contributed reporting.

Two CUCR Executive Board members denied that the group was looking to invite the Iranian president. But when asked for comment on Sunday, CUCR President William Prasifka sent Spectator a statement—signed “The Board, Columbia University College Republicans”—neither confirming nor denying that the group plans to invite Ahmadinejad to campus.

“Every year CUCR invites a series of speakers to campus,” the statement read. “Our aim is to enhance the intellectual diversity of the educational environment and to provide a forum for even the most controversial political figures.”

One draft of CUCR’s invitation to the Iranian president—dated Feb. 14, and signed “The Columbia University College Republicans”—says that the group would pay him a $20,000 speaker’s fee, with the money coming from “private donors and foundations in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi.” Another document obtained by Spectator breaks down the costs associated with a potential event, estimating $6,000 for security and technology, $3,000 for dinner, and $11,000 for transportation.

The invitation, however, was developed without the knowledge of some CUCR board members. CUCR Executive Director Tyler Trumbach said he didn’t know of any plans to invite Ahmadinejad to speak, and CUCR Regent Director of Creative Affairs Nashoba Santhanam issued a statement to the campus blog Bwog, saying that “the Columbia University College Republicans does not—nor has ever intended to—invite Iranian President Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia.”

“The CUCR remains opposed to Ahmadinejad’s hostile and intolerant regime,” Santhanam said in the statement. “Any other rumors are factually inaccurate and in direct contradiction to previous statements and positions of the CUCR.”

The Feb. 14 draft invitation also says that the group “would love to have the chance for our members to hear you speak about your feelings about American foreign policy, your experience as the president of a great nation, Iran’s role in the creation of a two-state solution in Palestine, and the important role of religion in government.”

Ahmadinejad spoke on campus during the World Leaders Forum in 2007, after being invited by the School of International and Public Affairs. That invitation sparked intense controversy on campus and ignited a national media firestorm.

Republican politicians and commentators were particularly critical of Columbia for allowing Ahmadinejad to speak on campus. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said at the time that “a man who is directing the maiming and killing of American troops should not be given an invitation to speak at an American university.”

The CUCR draft invitation to Ahmadinejad said that Columbia “remains an institution with limited ideological diversity, a fact that the administration has repeatedly refused to address, even in the face of increased media attention.”

“To fill the ideological void left by the university both inside and outside the classroom, we take the initiative to invite conservative scholars, politicians, and activists in order to broaden the discussion of issues and provide students with diverse points of view so that they can be challenged to form their own opinions,” the invitation says.

CUCR already made waves this semester by floating the possibility of bringing controversial immigration activist and Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist back to campus to speak. The Minuteman Project claims to provide legitimate aid to U.S. law enforcement by patrolling the Mexican border for illegal immigrants, but critics have accused the group of being a thinly veiled racist organization that practices vigilante law.

Gilchrist’s last trip to Columbia—in fall of 2006 and also at the request of CUCR—ended in a violent brawl.

In remarks introducing Ahmadinejad at the 2007 World Leaders Forum event, University President Lee Bollinger condemned Ahmadinejad’s views on Israel and his human rights record, saying that Ahmadinejad showed “all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.” But Bollinger also defended Columbia’s right to invite Ahmadinejad to speak in the interest of promoting freedom of expression.

“It should never be thought that merely to listen to ideas we deplore in any way implies our endorsement of those ideas, or the weakness of our resolve to resist those ideas, or our naiveté about the very real dangers inherent in such ideas,” Bollinger said at the time.

In his speech, Ahmadinejad defended his views on the Holocaust—he has questioned whether it happened—claimed that there is no homosexuality in Iran, and denied that his country has ambitions to create a nuclear weapons program.

Last semester, members of the Columbia International Relations Council and Association had planned to attend a dinner with Ahmadinejad while he was in New York City, but the Iranian mission ultimately rescinded CIRCA’s invitation.

Well over a hundred U. California-Berkeley students, faculty and visitors arrived on campus Thursday night to listen to Congressman Barney Frank speak about Israel and its relationship with the United States.

The event began with Frank’s 30-minute speech, followed by an open question-and-answer session in front of an audience that filled 155 Dwinelle to its maximum capacity.

“I’m a man of the left,” Frank said. “It is in that context that I am a strong supporter of Israel.”

Frank – a Democrat who represents Massachusetts – is the former chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services and announced in November that he will retire from Congress at the conclusion of his term in 2013.

“Congressman Frank is a well-respected politician,” said junior Jacob Lewis, co-president of the Tikvah Students for Israel. “What he’s done in his career appeals to Berkeley students, and he’s a champion of many progressive causes.”

Frank specifically touched on Israel’s democratic ideals, immigration policies, military and tumultuous and sometimes violent relationship with Arab countries.

“The Israeli government has been a wholly democratic one from the beginning,” Frank said. “It is one of the freest democracies in the world.”

Frank attributed the primary reason for Israel’s 64 years of war to his belief that Palestinians are unwilling to make concessions.

“Israel has ceded more territory after war than any other country… I do believe Israel should be cutting back on settlements,” Frank said.

Prior to the event, Frank attended a dinner at Berkeley Hillel with members of the ASUC and executive members of the Jewish Student Union and Tikvah Students for Israel.

“He was able to level with other students and hold a discussion with us,” UC Berkeley Junior Michelle Cohn said. “It was great for him to come here and acknowledge the Jewish culture.”

Holder spoke primarily about the Department of Justice’s response to the fraudulent lending practices and mortgage packaging that he said helped cause the economic downturn.

Several hundred Columbia students gathered in the Low Library Rotunda for the event.

University President Lee Bollinger, who introduced Holder, said that DOJ might have work left to do.

“One of the looming questions at this point in time is what left is to be done by legal authorities, at the federal and state level, to hold authorities accountable for the creation of fraudulent mortgage-backed securities and other investment instruments,” Bollinger said.

Holder listed several recent actions DOJ has taken to fight financial fraud, including reaching a $25 billion settlement with the nation’s top five mortgage providers over foreclosure abuses. He also said that under his watch, DOJ has identified, prosecuted, and convicted a record number of individuals involved in financial fraud.

World Leaders Forum speakers—who can range from presidents of foreign countries to renowned artists—generally take questions from audience members after they speak. For this event, though, audience members who wanted to ask questions had to write them down and submit them before the event began. Bollinger then posed questions to Holder.

One of Bollinger’s questions concerned the United States Supreme Court’s decision earlier this week to reconsider affirmative action. Bollinger was involved in defending affirmative action when the court declared it constitutional in a landmark 2003 case, and he said on Thursday that the court’s decision to revisit the issue is “ominous.”

Holder expressed support for affirmative action, saying that he “can’t actually imagine a time in which the need for more diversity would ever cease.”

“Affirmative action has been an issue since segregation practices,” Holder said. “The question is not when does it end, but when does it begin … When do people of color truly get the benefits to which they are entitled?”

He added that as a Columbia student, he “saw diversity and interacted with people who had different views.”

“People come from so many different backgrounds and bring so many different perspectives that the study of contemporary civilization is enriched by those people,” he said.

Holder—who was appointed Attorney General in 2009 by President Barack Obama—also fielded a question about why the Obama administration has not yet shut down the American detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

“Congress wouldn’t let us,” Holder said. “President Obama came in and he said we want to close Guantánamo in a year, and here we are four years later.”

During the event, several members of the Student Global AIDS Campaign protested Holder outside of Low. They criticized Holder’s handling of a case involving Antonio Davis, an HIV-positive activist at risk of losing his paralegal license because medicinal marijuana was found in his system.

“We were trying to get the message across that this treatment is unjust and that it needs to change,” SGAC co-president Amirah Sequeira, said. “Our message for Eric Holder was that he needs to make sure that these charges are dropped.”

Asked by Bollinger what he would like his legacy as attorney general to be, Holder said he wanted to be remembered as “a person who fought for justice, who tried to keep the Justice Department focused on great traditions that have always defined it.”

Obama’s visit to the Coral Gables campus was targeted at motivating the country to support the development of American-made energy in an effort to decrease dependence on foreign oil.

Several students who attended the event felt “inspired” by Obama’s remarks.

“This is exactly what we talk about at RSMAS,” said Ph.D. student Erica Towle, who is studying marine biology and fisheries at UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. “He nailed exactly what America needs right now.”

The decision to host the event in the Fieldhouse and to limit the attendees to students was made by the White House, which wanted to keep the event small. Approximately 1,000 students attended Obama’s speech, said Margot Winick, assistant vice president of university communications.

Before his speech Thursday, Obama toured the Industrial Assessment Center at the UM College of Engineering. The project, which has existed for 13 years, has given recommendations to more than 200 South Florida corporations about how they can increase industrial energy efficiency.

James Tien, dean of the CoE, said that the Industrial Assessment Center could serve as an inspiration for Obama’s federal energy policy.

“We need more engineers, so I could not be prouder of those of you who are studying engineering,” Obama said at the beginning of his remarks Thursday. “It was fascinating stuff. I understood about 10 percent of what they told me, but it was impressive.”

Obama said that the work at the CoE couldn’t be more important.

“Figuring out how our buildings can waste less energy is one of the fastest, easiest ways to reduce our dependence on oil and save a lot of money in the process,” he said.

The president opened up his speech by noting the current problem in the United States: Gas prices are rising – again.

“And that hurts everyone – everyone who owns a car, everyone who owns a business,” Obama said. “It means you have to stretch your paycheck even further.”

Obama said that, especially because it is an election year, other politicians may begin to push an increase in drilling for oil.

Although the United States has independently produced more oil today than in the past eight years, the president said that “anyone who says we can drill ourselves out of this problem.”

Instead, he said, his administration is focused on the production of more home-grown energy.

“Young people especially understand this,” he said. “You guys are so much more aware than I was of conserving our natural resources and thinking about the planet.”

According to Obama, the United States consumes more than a fifth of the world’s oil, while the country itself only possesses 2 percent the world’s oil reserves.

“And that means we can’t just rely on fossil fuels from the last century,” he said.

Obama said that, so far, there has been substantial progress made in promoting and developing clean energy, including the development of the first new nuclear power plant and the implementation of tougher fuel economy standards for cars and pickup trucks. And locally, in 2008, Miami was the first major American city to power its city hall entirely with solar and renewable energy.

But this progress is not a “silver bullet” to reducing dependence on foreign energy sources, Obama said.

For now, the president said, the federal government is working “to support discoveries that would get new energy ideas off the ground.”

“After all, it was public research dollars, over the course of 30 years, which helped develop the technologies that companies are now using to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock,” he said.

And America is capable of being optimistic and creative in making more progress in the development of alternative forms of energy, Obama said.

“Solving it will take time and effort,” Obama said at the end of his approximately 30-minute speech. “It will require our brightest scientists, our most creative companies, and most importantly, all of us – Democrats, Republicans and everyone in between – to do our part.”

Sophomore Vanessa Street said that until Obama reached out to youth specifically, she had never realized how large her carbon footprint must be.

“It was a smart move,” she said. “He is talking to our generation about something that matters to us. He’s being honest, blunt, and he was speaking in a way that reaches to us.”

Other students agreed.

“Hearing the president talk to you about how important it is made me take a step back,” sophomore Kiera Wallace said.

Before and after his speech, Obama interacted with students who attended the event by shaking hands, kissing cheeks and giving hugs.

“I got to shake his hand,” senior Coral Millican said. “He has really soft skin and I love that he looks you in the eye.”

Pelosi spoke Monday at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center at the George Bush Presidential Library Center. The first woman speaker of the House and California native made the trip to Texas on Presidents Day at the invitation of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation.

Roman Popadiuk, executive director of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation, explained the Bush Foundation’s desire to encourage meaningful dialogue through speaker invitations.

“One of the goals of the Library Center is to bring to public attention various views and opinions on the challenges facing our nation,” Popadiuk said. “In this regard, Leader Pelosi was invited by the Bush School to share her views on the current situation in Washington. Given the Bush School’s commitment to public service, Leader Pelosi … also discuss[ed] the importance of public service, which is a core belief of the A&M student body.”

Card moderated the conversation with Pelosi. Also present in the audience were former President George H. W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, former College Station Rep. Chet Edwards, and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston.

The sold-out event commemorated Pelosi’s 25th year of service in the House of Represenatives representing San Francisco, California. Pelosi is the first woman in American history to lead a major political party in Congress.

Before the event started, students from Texas Aggie Conservatives stood outside the conference center to protest legislation advanced by Pelosi. They were outside as Pelosi and event attendees arrived. The protest involved street theater and protest signs with the goal of labeling Pelosi as a job killer.

One student, dressed as a grim reaper, held a poster reading, “Pelosi, Job Killer.”

“We aren’t protesting her coming or the Bush Foundation’s decision to invite her,” said Cary Chesire, protester and sophomore political science major. “We just want to engage her in a dialogue.”

As Card introduced Pelosi, he emphasized her family’s commitment to public service and Pelosi’s response to an invitation to run for her congressional seat in a special election after the illness of a friend.

“I may not share the partisanship or her philosophy,” Card said. “But I share the service she represents.”

Pelosi spoke about the courage it takes to be a leader and a public servant. She referenced President Bush, Gen. Earl Rudder, Robert Gates, Chet Edwards and other Aggies — notably the Aggie engineers whose work saved lives at the World War II battleground of Pointe Du Hoc.

The conversation focused on Pelosi’s ascent into the political world, her life as a woman in politics and as a representative of San Francisco.

In 2002, when Pelosi took her seat at a White House meting in the cabinet room, she said she finally realized what she was representing.

“I could hear [all of the women who have come before me] say, ‘At last, we have a seat at the table.’” Pelosi said.

Pelosi encouraged confidence and sharing individual perspective.

“Young women, be ready. Have confidence in who you are because no one is like you,” Pelosi said. “It really is urgent that women take responsibility for leadership and the decisions that have to be made for our country.”

The audience pre-submitted questions for Pelosi. The only question Card selected challenged the leader’s stance with contraception, faith and the Health and Human Services Act. Several student protestors held pro-life posters when Pelosi arrived at the event.

“The issue is about women’s health. Not contraception,” Pelosi said. “Family size and timing is an issue of each person’s conscience.”

Pelosi said 98 percent of Catholic women in childbearing years use contraception.

“There is a sisterhood of an understanding of this issue amongst women,” Pelosi said. “Everybody knows that the management of a family should respect the discretion of the mother. Why should the federal government enforce something that the church couldn’t even enforce?”

Students from the Bush School in attendance said they were pleased with the candor of Pelosi’s message.

“I was pleasantly surprised,” said Taylor Davis, public service and administration graduate student said. “I don’t agree on her policy, but as a woman, she is very inspirational.”

Sarah Saunders, international affairs graduate student, said it was a great opportunity for the Bush School to be highlighted in this event with a person of a different ideology.

“As a woman wanting a career in public service, she really made it seem possible to still have a family. She was a wife and a mom first,” Davis said.

Jamil Salmi, who is the principal author of a new study on education strategy for the World Bank, defined world-class universities as those which produce leading graduates as well as high-quality research and dynamic knowledge.

He added universities can improve these resources by concentrating talent, having abundant resources and favorable governance policies.

However, despite the need for abundant resources to fund higher education, Salmi also emphasized that a common concern, especially in Western Europe, is a growing dependence on government funding.

“Money is not enough,” Salmi said. “We have this fixation on ‘just [give] me more money, and I will be better.’ In fact, if you look at the most expensive universities in this country, I’m not sure if you’ve heard of all of them.”

He said other factors contributing to academic improvements at universities include a good balance between undergraduate and graduate students, which is something Salmi said UW could improve since graduate students are currently 25 percent of the university’s student population.

Salmi added that attracting foreign students and faculty to universities, increasing the international dimensions of higher education, also improves education.

Currently, Salmi said universities in the United States receive more private funding than universities in Europe and spend about three times more money per student.

Salmi said the top universities in the world are very concentrated, coming mostly from the United States, the United Kingdom and a few from other western European countries.

“Building a university is not like making instant coffee,” Salmi said. “You really have to build patiently. Seventeen years ago, MIT was a local technical institute. Nobody knew about it. It’s decades and decades of hard work that has taken them where they are now.”

Salmi also said new rankings systems allow universities to be evaluated based on statistical data, instead of allowing colleges to simply declare themselves a top university or for them to be judged based on their reputation.

“We have to be thankful to the rankings for giving us an objective way for identifying the top universities in the world,” Salmi said.

However, Amy Stambach, associate dean of the School of Education, said including academic freedom in any ongoing ranking systems is now crucial. She added the lecture was thought-provoking and encouraged the audience to think critically.

Mark Johnson, an assistant professor of educational policy studies, said Salmi’s lecture offered a valuable lesson in warning educational experts against pursuing policies which focus simply on increasing resources for universities.

Johnson added Salmi’s research both analyzed this current trend of “pouring” resources for higher education and warned against it, instead offering other ways to consider improving universities.

“Our mistake would be to pour all our money in to UW-Madison and neglect the UW System,” Johnson said. “The other two-year and four-year universities all serve different missions and cutting off resources would starve them, and thankfully we have a political system which doesn’t allow that to happen.”

THON participants showed that nothing can stop them from fighting to cure pediatric cancer.

Compared to a total of $9,563,016.09 in 2011 and more than $7.8 million in 2010, this year’s total kept THON’s 40-year tradition of breaking barriers alive.

Many THON participants said recent events, including the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case and the cancelation of one of four scheduled canning trips due to inclement weather, made fundraising difficult this year.

“Obviously it’s a tough year with the canning issues and the scandal,” Morale Committee member Gabi Donchez said.

Donchez said that the growth of the total shows not only the Penn State community, but the entire world that “despite any setbacks, we will never stop fighting.”

A packed Bryce Jordan Center watched in awe as THON broke last year’s fundraising total of more that $9.5 million just 20 years after reaching $1 million for the very first time.

Sigma Alpha Mu dancer Zachary Macht said he thinks the fundraising growth may be due to contributions made in honor of the late football coach Joe Paterno, as well as the extended outreach of THON, both within the campus and surrounding geographical areas.

“I’m from West Chester, New York,” he said. “I never saw canners in my neighborhood before, but now that I’m a senior, they’re there.”

Macht said he believes the negativity surrounding the university’s recent events did not hinder the growth of the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. Instead, the increased recognition and support of others is what keeps THON growing every year, he said.

Though the Bryce Jordan Center erupted with the reveal of such a landmark, students understand they are there first and foremost “For the Kids.”

“It might seem weird to outsiders, but it’s about the emotional support we can bring to these families,” Public Relations Overall Kirsten Quisenberry said. “THON is about the families first and foremost, and about making sure no one has to go through the battle alone.”

“I like heroes that don’t kill people,” Matthews said in a Feb. 15 speech at the School of International Service.

Matthews, the host of the MSNBC talk show “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” spoke about his new book “Elusive Hero” about Kennedy.

“I like heroes that save people,” he said, adding that he believes Kennedy was that kind of hero.

Kennedy was the type of man who believed the insolvable was solvable, from rescuing his crew during an attack on his Navy unit in World War II to leading the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union into the Cold War’s first peace treaty, Matthews said.

“I want to talk about what a war hero looks like,” he said before describing Kennedy’s battle feats.

Young Kennedy swam four hours to shore while pulling a 42-year old injured man along with him, after a Japanese destroyer cut his boat in half in 1943.

“I keep thinking when I hear that story: It’s like “The Godfather” when Michael lights the cigarette in front of the hospital and he looks at his hand and realizes it’s not shaking, and he realizes he’s the Don,” Matthews said. “Kennedy was like that.”

Matthews reminded students how the early 1960s were filled with fear of a Third World War. He recalled hiding under his desk as a student, not knowing whether the alarm was a fire drill or warning of a nuclear attack. But Kennedy saved the nation, he said.

Kennedy said all man’s problems are manmade and solvable. Matthews credits him for bringing reassurance to Americans.

“You don’t hear politicians talk like that anymore,” he said. “The sense of possibility that if you do your job and lead properly and look for opportunities for success, not just blame-gaming, then you can actually get something done.”

Matthews predicts the government will still be divided after the next election. President Barack Obama is looking like the most likely winner, he said.

A politician’s objective should be serving the United States, not playing games or trying to unseat the president, he said.

“I don’t like how the first thing [U.S. Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.] says when a new president comes in is, ‘my number one goal is to get rid of this guy,’” Matthews said. “It should never be your number one goal. Your number one goal should be the republic.”

Matthews said there are a few Democrats and Republicans in the government today who, like Kennedy, gained respect through their service to society for their heroism in war, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., for their actions in Vietnam.

“I think we’d probably lose something if we don’t have leaders that had that war experience,” Matthews said.

Matthews recalled the 1963 commencement speech Kennedy gave at AU, titled “A Strategy for Peace,” which led to the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.

The Treaty, which led to an agreement beneficial to the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union, was a stunning example of what international policy has the potential to do, Matthews said.

“I’d be very proud to go to the school where that occurred,” he said, recommending that every student read Kennedy’s speech.

After recalling some of the highlights of Kennedy’s biography, he urged students to buy his book and stayed after the event to sign every copy.

“If you don’t buy it, you’re crazy, and I won’t like you,” Matthews said.

“Right now, we are on target to correct our budget deficit—steady actions the government has taken are sending strong signals to the financial markets about our determination to stick to our plans,” Kenny said, saying that Ireland saw its first economic growth in 2011 since the crisis began in 2008.

“This evening, I want to send a message to other countries that Ireland can be a role model for them,” he added.

Ireland was one of three countries in the euro zone that received a bailout loan from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to alleviate historically unprecedented deficits during the financial crisis. Since the bailout, Ireland has made significant progress in regaining what Kenny called “economic sovereignty.” Evidence that points to recovery, Kenny said, include a restructured and recapitalized banking sector, a drop in yield rates of Irish government bonds, and increased revenue without tax increases.

With the government deficit and national financial institutions stabilized, Kenny argued that the outlook is positive for Ireland’s standings in the international community.

“There is less talk about Ireland’s difficulties and more talk about Ireland’s recovery,” Kenny said. “Our exports are at record levels…with sectors [such as] software, pharmaceuticals, financial services, business services, and…[the] food industry performing particularly well.”

Kenny also cited the reduction of taxes in certain business sectors, modified access to credit, and other government tactics that will be key to further developing Irish exports and economy.

“What we have to develop is the challenge of stimulating our own indigenous economy,” Kenny said. “The government is focusing on improving the atmosphere and environment so that business can actually flourish.”

Ireland is expected to assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union next year, which Kenny said will be an invaluable opportunity to rebuild international trust and respect for the country.

“We will work to win the hearts and minds of Europe with a new sense of urgency, recommitting to…the ideal and possibility of a dynamic Europe,” Kenny said, mentioning agreements currently in progress aimed to strengthen budgetary discipline in the euro zone.

Kenny said that further recovery in Ireland and the euro zone will require more than just discipline and austerity measures.

“New fiscal rules will only restore confidence if they go hand in hand with greater efforts to support growth,” he said. “We need to do more to generate that growth and that confidence. We need bigger financial firewalls to protect countries pursuing sound economic policies.”

Fredrik Logevall, international studies and history professor at Cornell U., spoke about alarmism and how it has affected American politics and foreign policy since the mid 20th century, on Tuesday at Ohio State U.

Alarmism is a way of framing an enemy in such a way that makes it seem as if it can unravel society and its threat is much greater than it really is, Logevall said.

“It reinforced Americans’ moralistic tendency to see any hostility directed to their nation as legitimate and to want to frame those conflicts that did arise in black and white, good versus evil, terms — angels against devils, in which the very future of civilization was at stake,” Logevall said. “After all, a legitimate enemy is an absolute enemy, with whom you can have no dialogue or interaction until he disappears or is utterly transformed, abandoning his hostility.”

Logevall focused mostly on the Cold War but also touched on the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq, and how alarmism has contributed to those wars. He said the wars would not have had the public support they had if not for the alarmist ways the government presented the threats of the Soviet Union, Vietnam and Iraq to the American people, and that they might not have been such a focus of the public agenda.

Logevall said he hoped “to explain this exaggeration of the Soviet threat in the decades after World War II. … I would argue that the phenomenon that I’m describing outlives the fall of the Soviet Union, and indeed is still with us today.”

He argued although alarmism is certainly used in other countries, it is used differently in America because of the way our governmental power is disbursed. He went on to tell the audience of about 25 that U.S. political parties are weak, and because they depend on popular support, they tend to exaggerate a threat in order to gain that support and unite people in the face of a threat, real or imagined.

“Any satisfactory answer to the question before us and to understanding what I refer to as the ‘uses of alarmism’ has to involve giving due attention to the manipulation of fear by officials and interest groups to gain political and institutional advantage,” he said.

Sophie Shiloh, a first-year OSU student in international relations and diplomacy, said she agreed with his perspectives about alarmism. She said she thinks it is important for people to see the differences between something negative that is a tragedy because it was unavoidable, and a crime which is committed for personal gains.

“There is a lot more at play when people decide to go to war than, ‘Is it right?’ or, ‘Is this gonna help us?’ There’s money, there’s political gains, there’s, you know, societal pressure — there’s just so many more things than just the conflict itself and he really emphasized that,” Shiloh said. “I think that’s really important for people to understand, especially when he was talking about the tragedy versus the Machiavellian approach.”

Logevall is the John S. Knight Professor of International Studies and the director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies at Cornell. Logevall earned his Ph.D. in 1993 from Yale University after earning his Bachelor’s degree from Simon Fraser University in 1986. He has had eight books published, and is working on another.

Robert McMahon, the OSU history professor who invited Logevall to speak, said he chose Logevall because he has another book coming out soon and is one of the leaders in the U.S. foreign relations history field.

McMahon said the Mershon Center and the Department of History try to bring in three speakers annually as part of their partnership. He said speakers give a formal presentation and also conduct an informal seminar that focuses on graduate students. He said the audience for the formal presentation included undergraduates, graduates, professors and community members.

“I thought it was very stimulating, very provocative, and I was really pleased that there was so much engagement on the part of the audience with the points he raised,” he said.

Logevall ended by saying that journalists, as a whole, did not question the Iraq War when it first began, and that America has an addiction to alarmism.

“America still spends more on its military than, depending on how you measure it, either the rest of the world combined or the next 11 or 12 countries combined. It still spends about 10 times more than its closest competitor, that being China,” he said. “The addiction continues.”

Munter delivered this frank analysis during a speech at the Harvard Kennedy School in which he emphasized the importance of repairing strained ties between the nation he represents and the place he is stationed.

“Assistance to Pakistan should have the goal of ending assistance to Pakistan,” Munter said.

He said he hopes that the “assistance relationship” that currently exists will morph into a “partnership” fostered by U.S. trade, business, and investment in Pakistan.

Munter also said that the U.S. should have a more “modest” relationship with Pakistan—less extensive involvement in Pakistan’s affairs and “less bluster” in the dialogue between the nations.

Munter has spent his diplomatic career in Afghanistan, Czech Republic, Germany, Iraq, Poland, Serbia, and Washington, D.C.

Munter’s current post, Kennedy School professor Nicholas R. Burns said in his introduction to Munster’s speech, may be the most challenging of all American diplomatic assignments.

“The U.S.-Pakistani relationship is among our most important,” Burns said. Precarious negotiations surrounding terrorism, al-Qaeda, and U.S. engagement in Afghanistan make U.S. activity in South Asia the “heart of American diplomacy,” Burns said.

Kennedy School student Adam M. Levy said after Munter’s lecture that America’s involvement in Pakistan has been overbearing. “The United States is not there to solve clearly regional issues,” he said.

But he added that he trusted Munter to handle the difficult situation. “He is a dynamic, great guy. Our country is in great hands.”

Munter said that he believes the current strain in the United States’ relationship with Pakistan is in part the result of a “wave of idealism” in U.S. government in 2008.

Leaders at the time “over-promised” extensive commitments to Pakistan, aiming to strengthen the two countries’ relations, Munter said. But those assurances backfired when American leaders failed to deliver on their promises.

“I was interested by the geopolitics which he talked about, how the U.S. relationship with Pakistan is impacted by India and China,” Ben J. Lamont ’14 said. “We need to look beyond a bilateral relationship with Pakistan and examine the situation in a broader context.”

Such expansive conversations are difficult, attendees acknowledged. But Omer Aftab, who comes from Pakistan, said that he was “impressed with [Munter’s] willingness to tackle tough issues.”

As part of United Black World Month celebrations, the Ohio Union Activities Board and Multicultural Center welcomed Lee to the Archie M. Griffin Grand Ballroom Thursday. The director conducted a free lecture followed by a question-and-answer session for a sold-out crowd of about 800 attendees.

The Brooklyn-native came out sporting a New York Giants vest and made sure to exercise his team’s Super Bowl championship rights by telling the New England Patriots fans in the crowd right off the bat to “eat it.”

Soon after, Lee put all joking aside and dove into the main theme of his lecture: education. He stressed the importance of staying in school and the fact that students must pursue their dreams no matter who stands in the way.

“Often times, parents can be the biggest killers of dreams,” Lee said.

Lee said all the students in the room need to base their major on what they love to do, not what makes the most money.

“When you can make a living doing what you love, you are blessed,” Lee said. “I don’t wish anyone in this room the eternal hell of having to go to a job every day that you hate. Most of the people on this earth go to the grave with that situation, where they hate going to their job. Every morning (they) have to wake up (and) drag their tired ass to their job. They don’t want to be there. People don’t want them there neither. But because they’re responsible adults, they’re going do what they got to do to pay the bills.”

Tim Pawlenty ran as a Republican presidential candidate from May to August, 2011. He was previously governor of his home state, Minnesota, from 2003 to 2011. He also served as a majority leader in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003.

Bill Lacy invited Pawlenty to discuss politics, his support for Mitt Romney and to talk about the issues that America faces today. The Dole Institute student advisory board and College Republicans co-sponsored this event.

“I thought there would be a lot of student interest and there was. There were a fair number of students there. Governor Pawlenty is the kind of conservative who can attract a lot of support,” Bill Lacy said, “We had a fabulous crowd, a lot of interest and great questions from the audience. He’s a very engaging, very thoughtful and a very articulate gentleman. We were delighted to have him here.”

During the event, Lacy interviewed Pawlenty on stage and after he answered questions from the audience. Pawlenty talked about his thoughts on the upcoming presidential election and said he feels that the Republicans have the upper hand because of the status of the economy. Pawlenty also displayed great support for Romney and predicts that the election will be between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

“I’m a supporter of Governor Romney. He’s a knowledgeable, capable, gracious, electable candidate with a lot of executive experience. He’s mature, he’s grounded, he’s thoughtful, I think he’d be a very good president,” Tim Pawlenty said.

At the event, he wore a Jayhawk pin on his blue suit because he is also a supporter of KU, which is the new home to his daughter, Anna Pawlenty, a freshman.

Toward the end of the presentation, Pawlenty expressed his encouragement to college students.

“We need your talent, your energy, your creativity, your passion and vision for the future, your collaborative nature with us inter-generationally,” he said. “So I hope the young people in the room are inspired to be engaged and to be involved. I love the notion that we are put on this earth to serve causes and purposes bigger than just ourselves.”

Colin Thomas, a U. Kansas freshman from Baldwin City and Dole Institute student advisory board member said he was excited to meet Pawlenty himself.

“The opportunity to meet Governor Pawlenty and provide the Dole Institute introduction was a privilege for me,” he said. “Tim Pawlenty is a model public servant and an excellent example for future leaders to follow.”

And when he stood before the crowd that had gathered, he knew what he was about to say could land him in hot water with the U.S. Department of State. So the School of Policy and International Affairs’ spring lecture series began with an act of defiance.

“I am actually standing here committing an act of civil disobedience, conscience or a crime,” Van Buren said.

He came to talk about his book, “We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People,” which, as a 23-year veteran of the Department of State, he had been banned from discussing in public. Van Buren’s book examines the shortcomings of the Department of State and its reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

The first indication that his book would cause problems came after a post from Van Buren’s blog, which he was using to promote his book, was picked up by The Huffington Post . The blog post questioned the purpose of the United States Embassy in Baghdad, which is the largest embassy in the world with nearly 16,000 staff members, most of whom are contractors.

Van Buren was scolded by his boss but was otherwise unpunished.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the U.S. embassy in Baghdad’s presence in Iraq stands to be decreased by at least half.

Almost immediately after the book was published, Van Buren lost his security clearance for exercising what the State Department deemed poor judgment.

Not long after the book was published, Van Buren posted a link to Wikileaks on his blog. Van Buren then lost access to State Department computers, buildings and his passport, and was told he could be tried under the Espionage Act.

According to Van Buren, the government is committed to secrecy and will use intimidation to protect those secrets.

“The easiest book to stop is the one that is never written,” he said. “The easiest voice to silence is the one that is never raised.”

The Department of State has procedures that must be followed should an employee want to publish a manuscript. To ensure that an employee isn’t accidentally divulging state secrets, the manuscript must be made available for examination by higher-ranking employees for up to 30 days.

After electronically submitting his manuscript, Van Buren waited 30 days for approval or denial. He did not hear from the department and waited an additional 15 days in case there was a complication caused by federal holidays or weekends.

It was discovered that the department misplaced the manuscript, and since the time for review had expired, Van Buren submitted the book to his publisher.

Whistle-blowing, according to Van Buren, could spell the end of a career with the government.

“It shouldn’t be an act of courage, but it is,” he said.

He has been placed on paid administrative leave and was told that he would not be able to extend his job come September.

“For most of my career in the state department I have been very happy. I’m not a disgruntled employee. I’m very gruntled,” Van Buren said, adding that he had not wanted to stop working for the Department of State.

“Are we going to end up on some government list if we buy your book?” Codi Booher, a fourth-year anthropology and women’s studies student, asked jokingly during a Q-and-A session after the lecture.

“I learned a lot,” she said later. “I’ll probably buy the book and read it.”

The chapter “Spooky Dinner” is one of the more humorous chapters in the book, according to Van Buren. It talks about a night he spent having dinner in one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces with some friends from the Central Intelligence Agency.

Van Buren references CIA operations in Somalia and U.S. cooperation with Hussein. This information was deemed classified by the government, but Van Buren said he learned about the CIA operation in Somalia from the film “Black Hawk Down.”

A photograph of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein led Van Buren to believe there was cooperation between the leaders.

Van Buren was a member of a Provincial Reconstruction Team, which was created with the goal of finding citizens individualized solutions to problems caused by military actions. The idea of this counterinsurgency program was that economic opportunities would prevent Iraqis from attacking U.S. soldiers.

One reconstruction program Van Buren described gave sheep to Iraqi widows. Each sheep cost $5,000, and it was expected that the widows would sell the lambs in order to earn a modest income. Van Buren asked questions about the justification of this program, namely how it benefited the government or the widows.

“Nobody on my team understood what we were doing,” Van Buren said.

Another program translated classic American novels into Arabic. Van Buren said he had 80,000 of the books in his possession and quickly found that giving the novels away was difficult. He said he ended up having to bribe a school principal to take all of the books.

He said later it was discovered that the principal tried to sell the books on the black market and when no one purchased them, they were abandoned behind a public building.

Many of the reconstruction programs Van Buren was associated with were similar. He described them as a type of positive publicity for the government.

“Our goals didn’t work. We just didn’t get it right. We failed,” Van Buren said. “We could never have done it and made it work, but we could have done better.”

With the help of the Government Accountability Program, Van Buren has been able to receive the legal help he now needs as a result of publishing his book. Others who have allegedly been  targeted for whistle-blowing have not fared as well, he said.

“I am one little piece of a very big battle,” Van Buren said.

Although this was Chomsky’s first visit to the UA, he has a long lasting connection to the university. The UA has an “unusually large number of people” who have either been a student or department fellow of Chomsky’s, said Thomas Bever, a regents’ professor of linguistics.

“Imagine that we had Einstein or Newton come and speak. In the world of linguistics and cognitive science, Chomsky is like Newton or Einstein for physics,” said Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, a professor of linguistics who has collaborated with Chomsky for many years.

Thousands of people lined up to hear Chomsky speak. Those who were unable to get into Centennial Hall were taken to the Social Sciences building to see a recording of the event.

David Blechman, a political science senior, waited in line for more than four hours to hear Chomsky speak.

“This man is one of the premier intellects of our day,” he said. “It’s important to be on the forefront of intellectual thought, especially being in an academic environment like this.”

Chomsky was introduced as the most cited living author and third most cited individual in the world, behind Plato and Sigmund Freud.

At the start of the lecture, Chomsky addressed the question, “Who is education for?”

“For a long time there was a thought that education is just for the upper elite, they are the ones who should make decisions,” Chomsky said, adding that education should be accessible to everyone.

Chomsky also criticized instructional teaching, in which students simply memorize information.

“The early joy of discovery is ruined by memorizing the facts,” Chomsky said. “I remember when I was a 16-year-old freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, I had to take a general chemistry class that was exceptionally boring. So I never went to class, just memorized the book,” Chomsky said he received an A in the class.

Chomsky recalled a time when a professor who he had worked with at Massachusetts Institute of Technology was once asked by his students on the first day of class what material was going to be covered. The professor said, “It doesn’t matter what we cover, it matters what we discover. If you discover that everything that I’m teaching is wrong, that would be good.”

For the rest of the lecture, Chomsky focused on the relationship between people in power and the education system.

“The great charter that calls for preservation of the commons has been forgotten. Failure to attend to the commons is a serious problem,” Chomsky said. “Extraterrestrials watching must think that we’re all lunatics. Unless that is restored, we’re in trouble.”

A related problem, he said, is that fashionable consumptions are becoming more important than human values. People used to hold strikes for dignity, but this has been beaten back for generations.

“In fact, the Occupy movements that have be appearing all over have been reviving it (striking for dignity),” Chomsky said.

Chomsky talked about Tucson Unified School District’s decision to get rid of its Mexican-American studies program.

“It’s a particularly ugly part of the whole attack on the enlightenment ideal on higher education,” Chomsky said, adding it’s particularly dramatic that this happened in Tucson, a place that could be called “Occupy Mexico.”

Chomsky quoted Bertrand Russell, one of the founders of the modern university system, and said education is like a string in which the student progresses in his or her own way.

When Chomsky finished speaking, he spent some time answering questions from the audience.

Garrett Swenson and Kendra Hilty, retailing and consumer sciences seniors, said they had never heard Chomsky speak about education before.

“His insight to tuition increasing was great. We both think that everyone at the university should have attended and been able to hear what he had to say,” Hilty said. “Knowledge is power, and Noam Chomsky definitely understands that.”

Priebus told an audience at American U. Feb. 6 that America is in the midst of a battle for economic freedom perpetuated by Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.

“You can’t sustain a country when you’re about to spend 45 cents on every dollar made in America,” he said. “I happen to believe that a country that has to surrender its sovereignty to its bondholders can’t guarantee prosperity or freedom to anybody. A country that buries its kids and its grandkids in an avalanche of debt can’t rest in any vestige of a moral high ground. A country that has to surrender its sovereignty to China can’t actually compete with China.”

The Wisconsin native said he believes the Republican Party needs to save America from a president who has not delivered on any promises made during his 2008 campaign nor during his first term in office.

According to Priebus, Obama promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term and get the debt under control, but instead has introduced the biggest structural deficit in the history of the world and added $4.5 trillion of debt over three years.

“The question first is whether or not Barack Obama met the standards that he set for himself,” Priebus said in an interview with The Eagle before the event. “He can point the finger all day long at everyone under the sun, but in the end, he’s the CEO of this country. He’s the man in charge.”

Priebus said the president’s economic actions are negatively impacting young voters as well.

He credits college students for caring about the country’s economic future and being in tune with national financial issues.

“The unemployment rate among students and young Americans 24 and younger is a little over 18 percent,” he told The Eagle. “I think that, in order to start a career, you need to have prospects of good-paying jobs in this country.”

Though the chairman acknowledged that beating an incumbent is difficult, he said the GOP is strong and Republican candidates are ready for the challenge.

He made no predictions for who the Party’s presidential nominee will be, but said he will support whoever wins the nomination and believes any of the candidates will fare better in office than Obama.

“I think what we have on our side is a really good debate over how to get our country back on track,” Priebus said in a pre-event interview with ATV. “I think we’ve got great, diverse candidates.”

Priebus said he believes his pride in America, which stems from his childhood with a patriotic Greek grandfather, is a value all U.S. citizens can rally behind during election season.

“I think we’ve all been blessed in different ways, and we’re not going to agree with each other on every little thing … but I think we can agree that we love this country and we want to get this country back on track,” he said. “It’s not in the right place.”

“Educators should be attacking both in-school and out-of-school problems,” said Duncan to an audience that included Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville, Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell D. Chester, Superintendent of Cambridge Public Schools Jeffrey M. Young, and President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association Paul F. Toner. Approximately 360 watched the address, part of the Askwith Forum lecture series, by simulcast on the Graduate School of Education’s website.

Duncan said that wraparound programs, which target students’ general quality of life, are an important way to improve standards of education, especially in poverty stricken areas.

As CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Duncan opened health clinics with dental and vision services for students. He said that these resources were an example of a program that was effective in improving the quality of life of children and young adults within the Chicago school system.

Duncan said that one of his heroes is President and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, Geoffrey Canada, who was recently announced as the recipient of the Ed School’s Medal for Education Impact.

However, Duncan said that support services are not enough to bridge the achievement gap and that the quality of schools themselves must be improved.

“The education challenges facing our nation are both massive and urgent,” Duncan said. He cited the statistic that one out of four American students does not graduate high school in four years or does not graduate at all.

Duncan cited a recent study led by Harvard economics professor Nadarajan Chetty, which showed that the benefits of a high quality early education  included higher salaries as an adult.

Duncan also addressed the issue of teacher evaluations, a system which many see as broken.

“Teacher evaluation should never, ever be based on test scores,” Duncan said.

Speaking about the No Child Left Behind Act, Duncan said that he would like to make changes to the education strategies that it put forth.

“No Child Left Behind was very loose on goals,” Duncan said. Instead of following this model, Duncan said that he would rather set up a system that holds schools to high standards, but gives states greater ability to attain those goals in the ways they see fit.

A small group of demonstrators outside of Longfellow Hall voiced their support for reassessment of the No Child Left Behind Act before the event.

However, some attendees said they felt that Duncan did not take many risks in his speech.

“He pretty much said what I expected,” Ed School student Kathryn E. Nestler said.

History professor Niall C. D. Ferguson moderated the discussion, which focused on the relationship between technology and economic growth in the U.S.

Thiel addressed the uncertain future of technological development, an issue that he explored in a 2011 article entitled “The End of the Future,” published in the National Review Online.

Thiel argued that innovation in fields such as agriculture and transportation has become dangerously slow, leading to economic stagnation around the world.

“I think that we’ve seen progress in the virtual world, but not in the world of stuff,” Thiel said. “The U.S. has produced a ton of innovation in computers and finance over the past 30 years, but we have to ask if that implicitly twisted innovation in other areas.”

Thiel attributed this lack of innovation to structural defects in politics and education today.

When the conversation shifted to the 2012 election, Thiel had harsh words for politicians on both sides of the aisle.

“I think we are headed towards a period of chaotic austerity, because people in our political system are not able to discuss our true problems openly,” Thiel said.

He added, “Our government is not organized to find democratic solutions to problems, because our politicians are more focused on procedural issues than substantive ones.”

Thiel said that he believes the greatest hope for future technological and economic growth lies in free enterprise, and in particular, the innovation of young people.

Thiel said that he believes that young people need new creative avenues, citing his Thiel Fellowship, also known as the “20 Under 20,” which gives $100,000 to students 19 or younger to drop out of college and pursue creative expeditions in science, investment, and entrepreneurship.

Two Harvard students have received Thiel Fellowships, Ben Yu and Sujay Tyle.

Thiel—who is a self-identified libertarian—said he is skeptical of welfare programs, which he believes may hinder innovation and healthy economic growth.

“A lot of the New Deal economic theories were not quite correct. But in the 30s—a world of incredible economic advancement—there was a powerful tailwind of support,” Thiel said, later adding that “welfare states lead to horizontal movement.”

Thiel was unable to discuss Facebook’s recent initial public offering because of his involvement in the company.

“He has some controversial ideas, but I think they can be very helpful,” said Ha H. Le, who attended the event. “You don’t see a lot of people offering grants for students to drop out.”

Garcia was in attendance at Barnard College on Friday for the White House-sponsored Urban Economic Forum, an event focused on women succeeding in the business world. And her story was mirrored many panelists’, who shared their stories of breaking into the male-dominated fields of business ownership and entrepreneurship.

The forum—which was hosted by the White House Business Council, the White House Council on Women and Girls, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership Studies—also drew several big names, including Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama.

In a conversation with CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo, Jarrett said that the White House is starting a new initiative to encourage women to enter the predominately male fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.

“Many of those jobs are going to be the jobs of the future, and oftentimes girls shy away from math, from science,” Jarrett said.

The event largely consisted of panels, during which successful women discussed the obstacles they faced in starting their own businesses or breaking into the business world. Panelists highlighted gender bias and the economic recession as major stumbling blocks.

“I got hired at Time Warner, but three months after being hired, my whole department was laid off,” Garcia said. “For me, as a [recent] college graduate, I didn’t want that to be me 10 years down the road.”

Barnard President Debora Spar opened the forum by discussing the underrepresentation of women in positions of power. Women, she said, are falling into the “16-percent ghetto,” meaning that women make up less than 16 percent of entrepreneurs.

“Women max out at roughly 16 percent, and that is a crime, and it is a waste of incredible talent that this country has to offer,” Spar said. “So our job, all of us in the room, in this city, in this country, in the world, is to fix the situation so we can help generate the female talent and the female leadership that this country desperately needs.”

Naomi Cooper, an Athena Scholar, said that she was familiar with the “16-percent ghetto” concept.

“With respect to the 16-percent ghetto, I think that’s something I’ve definitely heard a lot about, because I take Athena classes and we talk about that a lot,” she said. “But I actually thought it was really nice and different and empowering to hear the panelists because they’re really impressive and they did a really good job.”

Huffington moderated the panel, “Investing in Women Entrepreneurs,” which focused on ways women could access capital. Joanne Wilson, a Gotham Gal blogger who invests in startups, said that women tend toward perfectionism, which limits their ability to take advantage of business opportunities.

“Women need to spend more time just jumping in the game and figuring it out later,” Wilson said. “Stop crossing your t’s, stop dotting your i’s. Move forward, stand on a table, and say, ‘I am fantastic, this is a great business, and I’m going to find someone who’s going to invest in me.’”

The forum was attended by both Barnard students and women in business, among others. Hallie Satz, the owner and CEO of commercial printing company HighRoad Press, was struck by the panelists’ discussion of challenges women face in starting their own businesses.

“Most of what I heard today was the message that, as women, when we talk about asking for capital, we’re cautious and we downplay our businesses,” Satz said. “We don’t overpromise ever and we are very careful in looking for investment capital, very conservative about our expectations. It is, it’s very true, and it hurts us.”

Nikila Kakarla, an Athena Scholar, agreed. Kakarla, who is majoring in economics, said she was struck by the idea that “women are scared to take risks” and, for example, tend to spend more time preparing for meetings than men do.

Another panel, “The Case for Women Entrepreneurs,” gave women the chance to tell their business success stories. Bartiromo, who moderated the panel, said she has seen that women have to work harder than men to be taken seriously as leaders.

“Women try hard. We work really hard,” she said. “We want to be the best, and we work really hard to be the best. Men don’t.”

Athena Center director Kathryn Kolbert said that the forum echoed the themes that the Athena Center emphasizes in its courses and workshops.

“In many ways, the panel has reaffirmed exactly what we at Athena have been saying for a long time, that … some men and some women approach leadership in different ways, and that women have obstacles to creating their own businesses that make it harder,” Kolbert said.

Some forum attendees, though, said that the conversations may have overlooked some key points. Sarah Belfer, an Athena Scholar, said that she would have liked to hear more about “certain barriers to women put up by men or organizations.”

Others, like Cooper, wanted to hear more about how the economy as a whole would impact job opportunities for women. Cooper said she would have liked some discussion of “where everything is going and what types of jobs are going to be available.”

Nina Ahuja, an Athena Scholar, said she appreciated the panelists who told their stories, including one who said she dropped out of investment banking and used her bonus to start a charity. She noted that she would have liked to have heard more personal stories.

“People dropping out of the jobs that we think that we’re doing, that we’re supposed to be doing, like investment banking and finances, especially in New York … I wish I heard more stories like that because it’s really inspirational,” Ahuja said. “And it gives you an idea that there are different ways of getting to do what you love.”

Aside from this brief deviation because of an audience member’s request for “the line” from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” Ben Stein stuck to the script at his lecture on Thursday, Jan. 26 at The College of New Jersey.

The economist, actor and political pundit spoke about the current financial state and its effects on college students and graduates.

“We just cannot go on having budget deficits of this size,” he said in an interview. “It’s going to be a disaster.”

According to Stein, current college students will witness a default on the national debt at some point.

A former speechwriter for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Stein is a Republican and stressed the importance of balancing the budget — something that has not been done since the Nixon administration, he said. Despite his political leanings, Stein did not pinpoint one particular party for the disaster.

“We (the Republicans) and the Democrats have just been living in cloud-cookoo-dreamland for several decades now — just in dreamland,” he said. “The result has been that we had maybe one trillion (dollars) of deficit at the end of the seventies and now we have 15 trillion of deficit.”

Stein focused on the severity of the crisis and its effects on the job market.

“The days when people wanted to be entrepreneurs and go into business seem to have vanished and I think that is because of the crisis in employment,” he said. “I have to say I’ve never seen a situation like the present situation for college students ever in my lifetime where it’s a serious crisis to try to get a job.”

In his speech, Stein forecast the likelihood of getting a job in a difficult field to break into. As an example, he said that a dream of becoming an art historian is significantly less likely to be accomplished nowadays.

Due to the crisis, Stein noted the change in college students and their aspirations.

According to Stein, careers in education, health and government work are now popularly sought after.

Stein marked work ethic and connections as the most important factors necessary to attain any job.

“Those of you who are the best students, and have the best work habits and have the best connected parents will be the ones who get the jobs,” Stein said.

Connections and hard work are exactly what helped Stein go from a trial lawyer practicing at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. to a presidential speechwriter.

Stein frequently submitted freelance op-ed pieces to the Wall Street Journal, defending Nixon during Watergate. Stein’s father happened to be the Chairman of the Council of Economic Affairs in the White House, which helped when Stein was invited to speak with the administration after receiving recognition for his articles.

Another connection helped Stein become a pop culture sensation, which began the start of a very random assortment of credentials and experiences. He credits “blind luck.”

“It never even occurred to me ever — at any time in my life — that I was going to be an actor,” he said.

One day, a producer-friend told the economist, “You’re just sort of innately funny”

After his first film “Wildlife” — a sequel to “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” — Stein was given a small role in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

“The day I worked on ‘Ferris Bueller’ was the best day of my life,” he said.

The success he would find, he said, “was the approximate equivalent of winning a good sized lottery ticket.” In fact, Stein said it was better than that.

Sitting in a dressing room in the bowels of the Hult Center at U. Oregon, he lounged on a couch on a far wall, devouring take-out Chinese food out of two Styrofoam containers.

When asked about his writing process, Cosby reminisced about his days in Temple U. in a remedial writing class. Though he received lackluster grades due to technical grammar issues, the professor and his classmates thought the material was a hit.

“But I wasn’t ready for the big time. I just thought that perhaps I could sell this material to some comedians who were working in a nightclub downtown,” Cosby said. “And (one) comedian was nice enough to come out. And I had my Temple hoodie on, trying to look collegiate. He got after me for not having a suit and tie to come and see him.”

When questioned about the identity of the comedian who had given him a hard time about the way he was dressed, Cosby replied with a sly grin, “None of your business.”

“So, I said, ‘Well, I write comedy. I would like to see if you would like to buy.’ He read it, he said, ‘This … This is not funny.’ I said, ‘No, look!’ And I performed it for him. And he said, ‘It still isn’t funny,’” Cosby said. “Nobody wanted to do my material. Now I still use the same method. If I feel funny about it, it will start out just as particular thought.”

Cosby would go on to become the first African-American lead in television on the show “I Spy” and then to become loved in his role as Dr. Huxtable in “The Cosby Show.” His success has spanned decades.

Cosby has also spoken out against profanity and violence in the media.

“To be an actor and to feel that you put across an emotion, to have profanity in it, does not show the depth of an actor’s character,” he said. “This industry of entertainment really lost its way, succumbing to what I feel is really and truly the entertainment industry’s putdown of its customers and patrons.”

John Low, Cosby’s publicist, stood center stage before the show and let his gaze linger on the cavernous, empty auditorium. “Well, the audience is getting older, but the reruns are bringing in new blood all the time. But … there’s nothing wrong with a full house,” Low said.

Though the show was of mixed ages, the comedian had no problem connecting with the whole audience. He frequently bantered back and forth with the front row.

His new comedy tour is centered around a feature on his website called “OBKB,” which is a reference to his “Fat Albert” character Mushmouth and the comedic conversation flubs of adults and children.

“I loved when people made fun of me for being wonkish because I figured that people wanted a President who actually knew something,” Clinton said.

Clinton received American U.’s first “Wonk of the Year” award Jan. 27 in an event sponsored by the Kennedy Political Union and the Graduate Leadership Council.

AU President Neil Kerwin and KPU Director Alex Kreger introduced Clinton, who previously spoke at AU in 1993 and 1997.

“[Clinton] has worked tirelessly in every corner of the planet to improve the lives of those in need,” Kerwin said to a the sold-out audience in Bender Arena.

Clinton addressed potential solutions to some of the world’s current economic and social struggles.

“If you want a world of shared opportunities and shared responsibility, you just can’t have as much inequality as we do now,” Clinton said. “It’s not healthy to have that much inequality.”

He credited increased global interdependence due to scientific advances as one of the most important factors in shaping the course of the human history, including increased inequality.

To help change that climate, Clinton told students to “Tap your inner wonk,” and suggested that students ask themselves, “What kind of world do you want to live in? You should always have an answer to that.”

Following the end of his presidency in 2001, Clinton developed a number of activist groups, including his Clinton Global Initiative, a series of annual summits with world leaders to discuss topics such as the environment and healthcare.

Clinton said the accomplishments of CGI, which include commitments valued at $69.2 billion, have been among his greatest achievements since leaving office.

“It’s my attempt to do what I told you to do in my speech,” Clinton said. “You need to pick an issue and bring it to the people. That’s what I tried to do.”

Clinton also discussed the economy and said the three most important factors for moving out of a recession are tax increases for the wealthy, an increased revenue and economic growth.

However, changes to the tax code shouldn’t be passed until employment reaches a better level in order to maintain economic stability, he said.

Clinton said the genetic differences between one person and another, such as skin color or height, are small when compared with the similarities.

“We are all at least 99.5 percent the same,” Clinton said. “And all of us spend that 99.5 percent that we have in common thinking about that 0.5 percent that’s different.”

As the arena grew quiet for Clinton’s final words, he echoed his theme of empathy and the shared experience.

“I grew up learning that everyone had a story and was inherently interesting,” Clinton said. “Empathy is nothing more than imagining how the world is received by someone who is not you.”

During his address at Al Glick Field House, the Michigan football team’s indoor practice facility, Obama unveiled a plan that would allocate $10 billion in federal aid each year to colleges and universities that limit tuition increases.

“We are putting colleges on notice — you can’t keep — you can’t assume that you’ll just jack up tuition every single year,” Obama said. “If you can’t stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down.”

Obama also proposed a $1 billion Race to the Top program that would award funding to states that make an effort to continue to fund higher education and limit tuition hikes.

“We’re telling the states, if you can find new ways to bring down the cost of college and make it easier for more students to graduate, we’ll help you do it,” Obama said. “We will give you additional federal support if you are doing a good job of making sure that all of you aren’t loaded up with debt when you graduate from college.”

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the administration is working to make more resources available to students. The president’s student aid reforms would mostly increase the amount of need-based Perkins Loans available to low-income students.

“We can’t do it by ourselves,” Duncan said. “So we’re going to try to put out a $1 billion tax incentive to states and to colleges to do the right thing. We’re challenging states to continue to invest even in tough times and we’re challenging universities to do two thing — keep tuition rates down and increase graduation rates.”

Obama put pressure on Congress to make the American Opportunity Tax Credit — which provides college students with up to $10,000 over four years — permanent, and to double the number of federal work study jobs available to students.

The administration will also boost its efforts to make financial aid information more accessible for families by creating several online tools that provide comprehensive information about what types of aid institutions offer.

“From now on, parents and students deserve to know how a college is doing — how affordable is it, how well are its students doing,” Obama said. “We want you to know how well a car stacks up before you buy it. You should know how well a college stacks up.”

Speaking under an array of Big Ten championship banners and atop a platform placed upon a block ‘M’ on the indoor field, Obama also congratulated the football team on its Sugar Bowl win, calling the team “a force to be reckoned with” under junior quarterback Denard Robinson, who was sitting among congressmen and state officials during the speech.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily before the speech, Robinson said he was impressed with the amount of student support.

“It’s great to see President Obama, I couldn’t miss it,” Robinson said. “A lot of people came out and came to support him.”

After the speech, University President Mary Sue Coleman lauded Obama’s attention to the need for the federal government to collaborate with universities around the nation in an effort to develop efficient policies that minimize student debt and increase accessibility.

“College affordability is extraordinarily important for all of us and I was so pleased that he recognizes the complexity — the fact that the state has a role, the federal government has a role, universities have a role — and all of them have to be working together to make this possible,” Coleman said.

Coleman stressed the need for the state to continue to invest in higher education, particularly following years of repeated cuts in funding allocation to public colleges within the state, including a 15-percent reduction in funding in 2011 under Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.

“One of the things that (Obama) did point out very clearly was the dramatic disinvestment that the states have made, and one of the most harsh has been in Michigan,” Coleman said. “We have suffered form that, and we’ve done a good job of cutting costs, we’ve continued to try to cut costs but we have to have a reinvestment by the state.”

Coleman added that achieving the goal of effectively working among universities, state governments and the federal government to increase college affordability is going to be challenging, but an endeavor she is optimistic about for the future.

“I think universities should be challenged to find more efficient ways to save money, and we’ve been doing that aggressively at Michigan for the past 10 years and I have no problem finding ways,” Coleman said “… And we’re unwilling to lower quality, because I think what the president said that is important, is that we have the best higher education system in the world. And we do not want to lose that, quality matters.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D–Mich.) said before the speech that investing in higher education is key to augmenting economic conditions in the state, particularly through utilizing its vast recourses in the industrial and technological fields.

“When we talk about the future and the opportunities for us in the technologies in the skilled trades, engineers, science, it doesn’t happen without education and it doesn’t work if when you get out of school you’ve got more debt than it would take if you were buying a house,” Stabenow said.

State Sen. Rebekah Warren (D–Ann Arbor) also said in an interview before the speech that Obama’s message of collaboration amongst all forms of government to decrease student debt and increase accessibility to higher education is crucial.

“The take away is the federal government and the state government can work together to provide as many resources as possible so that our young people who are bright and talented and willing to work hard to go to college have the financial resources to do this.”

Warren added that while it’s too early to tell how the state plans to craft its plans to invest in higher education, she encourages students to get involved and voice their opinions.

“We’ve got to invest in higher education,” Warren said. “What exactly that looks like, I’m open to a lot of different ideas, but I’m looking for as many young, smart people around the table saying what’s the best way to invest resources.”

Engineering junior Dan Caldwell said he didn’t expect Obama have a perfect solution to make college more affordable, but he wants “to feel like (Obama) cares about what’s going to happen to us.”

“They gave a lot of assistance to people when the mortgage crisis happened … I’d like to see that for people coming out of college that similar assistance will hopefully be given,” Caldwell said. “Obviously, kids coming out of college are the future of the country”

Senior Chaim Frenkel said that while Obama’s message should resonate with all students, he said he could personally relate to what the president had to say.

“Student loans are such a pain for all of us and I personally pay eight times the average student loans and it’s definitely going to be something in the future that needs to be amended and moving forward it’s clear that affordable education for all is a necessary part of progressing society,” Frenkel said.

American Culture Prof. Lori Brooks said she waited five hours yesterday morning to get tickets to the speech. Brooks brought her infant son to the speech because she wanted him to see the country’s first African-American president.

“I’m looking forward to seeing my son being educated in this country,” Brooks said, “And I’m hoping that I’ll be looking forward to my son’s educational future.”

“What happened with building seven, Rudolph?” a man from the audience at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts shouted.

“You are too rude to be entitled to an answer,” Giuliani said as the audience member was escorted out. “May I suggest a barber and a haircut?”

He responded with similar humor when a second audience member began shouting about the need for honesty.

“Oh, get lost,” Giuliani said. “It seems like I’m in New York. This could be Times Square. Any more clowns?”

Once the audience settled, Giuliani illustrated his six principles of leadership: strong beliefs, optimism, courage, relentless preparation, teamwork and communication.

Before the talk, mobs of people packed themselves outside the entrances to the orchestra section of the Phillips Center as officials conducted a routine security sweep, delaying the event.

Those already inside were asked to leave and wait in the lobby.

The doors opened at 7:25 p.m. and eager audience members pushed into the theater to hear the former New York City mayor speak. Giuliani took the stage at about 8:15 p.m.

“It seems that security sweeps could be done before everyone started lining up,” Gainesville resident Kelley Richardson said. “With that being said, I’d rather wait and see Rudy. I’m not going anywhere.”

Accent Speakers’ Bureau paid the Washington Speakers Bureau $65,000 for the event, Accent Chairman Corey Portnoy said.

The event was free and open to the public.

The former mayor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate offered his six principles of leadership to an audience of about 1,500.

Giuliani had the audience laughing throughout the speech, although he also mentioned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks five times.

Once Giuliani finished his speech, Portnoy asked seven previously screened questions from audience members.

Portnoy asked Giuliani’s opinion on which GOP candidate is the best choice to take on President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

“Take on President Obama? That’s not much of a task,” he said. “I think every one of the candidates running, with one exception, is ready for the task … that one exception is Ron Paul.”

Political science junior Marco Garcia, 21, said he thought Giuliani had a valuable message and delivered it well. He described Giuliani as “a true American hero.”

Garcia was not a fan of the protesters, however.

“Regardless of party differences, whether you agree with the speaker or not, I think it is disrespectful.”

The crowd, who was there to honor her late husband Joe, continued to stand as Sue hugged every member of her family. When Sue noticed her image displayed on the screens behind her, she buried her face in her hands.

Friends, former football players and Jay Paterno spoke at a “A Memorial for Joe,” a tribute to the winningest coach in NCAA Division I history.

The memorial began with a welcoming prayer by Father Matthew Laffey, thanking God for Joe, as many bowed their head in remembrance.

Following the prayer, the Penn State Glee Club sang the Penn State Alma Mater while many in the crowd stood swaying arm-in-arm. Sue sang along.

Kenny Jackson, Penn State’s first All-American wide receiver and a member of the 1982 national championship team, was the first of the former football players to express his gratitude for Joe in front of the somber crowd.

“He never took a compliment. He always deflected praise,” Jackson said. “He never thought he was the show — but today, my teacher, you have no choice. Today, we are going to show you how much we love you.”

When Joe’s son, Jay, reached the podium, he received a standing ovation from the audience before he even started speaking.

Jay used the opportunity to thank the thousands of people who offered support to his family over the last few days. He said people from five different continents spoke to him and his family, a sign of how far-reaching Joe’s support extended.

“He never sought celebrity,” Jay said. “Here is a man whose fame was accidental.”

While his father was dying of complications from treatment for lung cancer, Jay said he wanted one more lesson from him.

“He had no more advice to give. All I wanted was to hear one more word, to hear his voice,” Jay said. “His presence alone gave me one last lesson.”

Nike Chairman Phil Knight showed his love for Joe by publicly taking a stance against the Board of Trustees’ unanimous decision to fire Joe in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case.

Knight said one of the benefits of his job was meeting Joe Paterno, whom he considered his hero for the past 12 years. He said Paterno never let him down, not even in the past few months.

Long before Knight met Joe, former standout wide receiver at Penn State and Miami Dolphin Jimmy Cefalo said he met the coach when he was 17 years old.

Cefalo said Joe didn’t recruit him — he recruited Cefalo’s mother. Though Cefalo said he chose to attend another university, Paterno convinced Cefalo’s parents to choose Penn State.

“Joe promised my mom, ‘He will go to school, he will get a quality education and Gertie, he will go to church every Sunday,’ ” Cefalo said.

Cefalo said Joe’s selling point was complimenting Cefalo’s mother’s cooking.

“Joe said, ‘Mrs. Cefalo, this pasta is better than Mrs. Cappelletti’s,’” Cefalo said, referencing the mother of Penn State’s only Heisman Trophy winner, John Cappelletti.

Cefalo said when he was a freshman at Penn State, Paterno told him, “Cefalo, today you are going to get better or you are going to get worse, but you are never going to stay the same.”

He has continued to ask himself which it’s going to be everyday of his life, Cefalo said.

But Thursday, when Cefalo asked himself the question, he said he answered, “It’s going to be a little bit worse because of the sadness of not having Joe here, but the world is going to be a whole lot better from having known him.”

For former Lion and now ESPN broadcaster Todd Blackledge, the first thing that comes to mind when he thinks of Joe Paterno is “TLC” — team, loyalty and competition.

Blackledge spoke of his beginning at Penn State — when Joe hand-selected Blackledge’s roommate for him.

Blackledge said he quickly realized he and his roommate were not a good match. But through Paterno’s mediation, Blackledge and his roommate worked their problems out and focused on the team.

Paterno’s integrity is what separated him from his fellow college football coaches, as Paterno preached competing with honor, Blackledge said.

“It wasn’t just ‘compete hard and try to win,’ but ‘do it the right way,’” Blackledge said. “Always try to do it the right way.”

Current Seattle Seahawks fullback and former Penn State quarterback Michael Robinson, who led Penn State to win the Orange Bowl in the 2005 season, said the memorial was the only place he wanted to be at that moment.

He flew in from Hawaii, where he was practicing for the Pro Bowl, in order to speak in front of the crowd of mourners about his former coach.

Robinson said one of his favorite things about Joe was that he never lied to him.

He said the late head coach never offered him money or cars like other coaches did. He said Joe didn’t even promise him he would be a quarterback. But he did promise Robinson that his education would always be a priority. He also promised Robinson that he would play in front of the best fans in college football.

“Just because he’s not with us, don’t let the dream, don’t let the experiment, don’t let the values go away,” Robinson said. “He’s in all of us.”

Charlie Pittman , a speaker representing the 1960s, said he was one of Paterno’s first two black recruits. He said he received the news that Joe had died on Pittman’s birthday. Pittman said it was an “omen” to him, a signal that there is still much to do in the world.

Christian Marrone , a former football player representing the 1990s, spoke about his short football career at Penn State and long relationship with Joe.

Marrone came to Penn State in pursuit of a dream — one that ended shortly after it began because of knee injuries, he said. When Marrone thought he lost his purpose in life and considered leaving the university, Joe Paterno “would have none of it,” he said.

Current Penn State linebacker Michael Mauti said he had no plans to commit to the football team during his first visit, but Joe convinced him. Mauti said he was impressed with the personal relationships Paterno had and the memories he kept of everyone he encountered.

For now, Mauti said it is his and the football team’s job to uphold Paterno’s tradition of “Success with Honor.”

Penn State student Lauren Perrotti spoke of her relationship with Sue and Joe through the Paterno Fellows Liberal Arts Undergraduate Program. College of Liberal Arts Dean Susan Welch also spoke on behalf of the program.

The first “Mayor of Paternoville” Jeff Bast spoke about Joe even though he had never met him.

Bast thanked Joe for being a father figure to everyone at Penn State.

Jay led the crowd in reciting the Lord’s Prayer to end the service. Members of the audience held hands and recited the prayer, which Jay said was his father’s favorite because it used the words “we” and “us” and never the word “I.”

Following the prayer, a sole trumpet player, Kurtis Cleckner, representing The Blue Band played “The Nittany Lion.”

To end the memorial, the Paterno family filed out of the BJC to another roaring round of applause.

When Joe Paterno’s son reached the podium, he received a standing ovation from the audience of the Bryce Jordan Center. Joe Paterno and his wife, Sue, have five children and 17 grandchildren.

Jay said he is proud when he looks at his driver’s license and reads the name “Joseph Vincent Paterno, Jr.” — named after his father.

Jay coached the football team alongside Joe for 17 years, 12 of which he spent coaching the quarterbacks. He lettered as a senior in 1989 and was a member of the 1986 national championship team.

Jay went on to share a number of anecdotes from his father’s life.

Decades ago, while a student at Brooklyn Prep, Joe Paterno ran into his friend, William Blatty, who later wrote The Exorcist, on the street, Jay said. Blatty was upset after losing a singing competition, so Joe asked him if he believed he won. When Blatty said yes, Joe told him that was all he needed, Jay said. Jay said that even at a younger age, Joe knew excellence was defined internally.

Jay used the opportunity to thank the thousands of people who offered support to his family over the last few days. He said people from five different continents spoke to him and his family, a sign of how far-reaching Joe Paterno’s support extended.

“He never sought celebrity,” Jay said. “Here is a man whose fame was accidental.”

But Joe’s support will not end, even in his death, Jay said.

Jay asked former and current members of the Penn State football team in the audience to stand.

“Your lives are his legacy,” Jay told his father’s football teams.

The crowd greeted the comment with a round of applause.

Jay also told the crowd that he is proud of the millions of dollars his parents donated to the university and the millions more they were able to solicit from others.

“If we paint Joe and Sue Paterno on every building they helped raise money for, we will need a lot of paint,” Jay said.

Joe has forwarded the torch of his motto “make an impact” to others, Jay said.

The examples of philanthropy at Penn State are all around, he said. Penn State students raise millions of dollars each year to help others. Those students apply Joe Paterno’s motto, he said.

No matter how many games the late football coach won, that number mattered least to Joe, Jay said.

On his 85th birthday, when Joe was surrounded by many of his family members, Jay said his father told them how blessed he was for his life.

While his father was dying of complications from treatment for his lung cancer, Jay said he desired one more lesson from him.

“He had no more advice to give. All I wanted was to hear one more word, to hear his voice,” Jay said. “His presence alone gave me one last lesson.”

Jay also let the audience at the memorial in on some of the final words he spoke to his father.

“Dad, you won. You did all you could do. You’ve done enough,” Jay recalled saying. “We all love you. You won. You can go home now.’”

Jay told the audience that after every football game, Joe and his team knelt and prayed the Lord’s Prayer — a favorite of Joe’s, Jay said, because it emphasized words like “our” and “we” over “I” and “me.” He asked the audience to do that one last time, for Joe. Thousands of people in attendance at the BJC joined hands as Jay led the prayer.

After thanking the audience for their support one last time, the Paterno family filed out of the BJC amid another round of applause.

News of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case, he said, did nothing to change that.

“If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation, and not in Joe Paterno,” Knight said at Paterno’s memorial service Thursday, prompting a booming applause and a standing ovation.

Knight said he believed the university wronged Paterno, referring to the Board of Trustees’ decision to remove Paterno days after child sex abuse charges were filed against Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator with Penn State football.

According to a grand jury presentment connected to the Sandusky case, former assistant coach Mike McQueary told Paterno in 2002 that he saw Sandusky doing something “sexual in nature” with a boy in the shower. According to the presentment, Paterno told two administrators — former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Interim Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz — about the incident but did not directly notify police. Curley and
Schultz now face perjury and failure to report abuse charges in connection with the Sandusky case.

Speaking at “A Memorial for Joe,” Knight said Paterno never let him down.

Through all of the events that surrounded the Sandusky case, Knight said Paterno never once complained or lashed out. Everything Paterno did after he was fired still conveyed the message “We Are… Penn State,” Knight said.

After the memorial, former football player and fellow speaker Charlie Pittman said that Knight’s sentiments needed to be said.

“I’m glad he said it, and I touched upon it a little bit. But he went for the knockout punch,” Pittman said. “He’s Phil Knight. I’m just Charles Pittman.”

And Pittman said he agrees that Paterno was not afforded due process when the trustees removed him as head coach.

“The point is, the Board of Trustees acted inappropriately with the way they handled it and treated him,” Pittman said.

But Knight’s speech wasn’t confined to the events of the past several months. In one portion, he recalled a time when Paterno sung a duet to the song “Wild Thing” at an annual Nike event for years for coaches and their wives. The rendition, he noted, wasn’t particularly artistic.

“Twenty-one days from now in Hawaii, there will be an enormous void on talent night,” Knight said.

He said that 12 years ago, he began to think of Paterno as his new hero.

“I need someone to look up to. You’re my new hero,” he said he told the coach then. He said Paterno responded with a relaxed “Aw, shaw.”

When Paterno died, Knight said he asked himself “Who’s going to be my hero now?”

Gingrich discussed issues pertaining to national security, necessary tactics the U.S. government should take to sustain it and what he feels the U.S. owes veterans.

Gingrich said his ideas differ greatly from Obama’s on the topic of national security. He believes there are issues that need to be discussed in greater than 10-second bites or 30-second commercials.

He expressed a need for serious national conversation on issues like health care and job creation.

He also said he believed potential threat to the U.S. government and freedom is high, and that the most immediate threat is “Islamicism.”
“The fact is, there are people around the world, who, for religiously upheld reasons, are prepared to kill us,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich also expressed a need for the government to invest more in the military, including better transitional programs for young soldiers similar to the G.I. Bill, as well as to take better care of veterans through programs like Wounded Warrior.
“Capability system, not a disability system,” Gingrich said.

Of the campaigners there to support Gingrich, Vicky Sciolaro and her daughter, from Kansas, said they have traveled about 2,000 miles following the campaign. In fact, they are so popular that the media has nicknamed them the “Newt Tribe” in reference to their entire family’s support of Gingrich.

At the end of the debate when Gingrich asked the crowd for their help and support, Tommy Peacock bellowed out, “you got it!” to which everyone cheered.

“It encouraged the crowd and it energized him.” Peacock said about his boast. “I want to see him go on with momentum.”

Both former players and members of the current team have come to pay respects to their former coach, said Penn State Assistant Director of Athletics/Communications and Sports Information Director for Football Jeff Nelson on Tuesday morning. Lettermen and current players were given the opportunity to attend the viewing before doors open to the public at 1 p.m.

“The Paterno family had a private viewing earlier this morning, and the members of the squad came over with coach [Bill] O’Brien and some of the members of the coaching staff,” Nelson said. “The football staff came over and had an opportunity to talk to some of the members of the Paterno family inside.”

Nelson said he expected more than 250 football lettermen to attend Tuesday’s service.

Throughout today’s and tomorrow’s viewings, one former player and one current player will be assigned to guard Paterno’s closed casket, Nelson said.

Nelson said it was an emotional scene inside the viewing. Paterno’s wife, Sue, was holding up “about as well as to be expected,” he said.

“It brought back a lot of great memories, and he was a great man,” Nelson said. “He made a tremendous impact on many, many people. He left us too early. I think about the impact that he could have made once he retired from coaching and all the great things he could have done and would have done after he had retired.”

Nelson also commented on Thursday’s memorial service for Paterno to be held at 2 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center. He said there will undoubtedly be a lot of frustrated people who couldn’t get one of the 16,000 tickets sold.

“We feel bad about that, but when you have as many fans who loved Joe Paterno as there are, there’s just no way we could accommodate everyone,” Nelson said. “Unless we were able to use [Beaver] stadium, which really isn’t an option at this point.”

Nelson said Beaver Stadium has already been “winterized”, and would not be able to accommodate a large crowd.

Nelson added that the Paterno family reserved seats for close friends and members of their extended family. All lettermen and current members of the team are guaranteed a seat, as well.

Nelson said he hasn’t heard of any special guests, other than O’Brien, from around the country who will be attending Thursday’s memorial service.

The candidates wasted no time before trading blows with each other. Williams opened the debate asking Gingrich for his response to Romney’s comments from Monday morning calling him “erratic” and a “failed leader,” which led to an extended sparring between the two candidates.

Romney quickly pointed out Gingrich’s gains from Freddie Mac, a company that illegally profited from the collapse of the subprime housing bubble.

“I don’t think we can possibly retake the White House if the head chief is taking money from Freddie Mac,” Romney said. “The Speaker Gingrich took the money directly, at the same time Freddie Mac was costing the citizens of Florida millions of dollars.”

Gingrich was quick to rebound, defending his $300,000 Freddie Mac role as a consultant and calling Romney’s goal of a low 15 percent tax rate for all Americans the “Mitt Romney flat tax.”

“He got all this stuff jumbled up,” Gingrich said. “The only thing we did wrong was one lawyer wrote a letter in error.”

Romney said he had no apologies for his tax returns, which he is expected to release publicly today, but rather more barbs for Gingrich.

“I will not apologize for having been successful,” he said. “What I was able to build, I earned the old-fashioned way — by working hard. I’m not going to apologize for success or free enterprise. You (Gingrich) made millions while the people of Florida were hurting.”

Gingrich eventually paused after a flurry of Romney’s rhetoric, appearing slightly befuddled.

“Let me be clear,” he said. “You used this routine on McCain. You used this routine on Huckabee. You’ve been walking around this state saying things that are untrue.”

After Williams interrupted the two with a commercial break, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul jumped in with their own points.

“We’re looking for someone who will make (President Barack Obama) the issue in this race, not the Republican candidates,” Santorum said.

Yet Santorum was quick to attack both Romney and Gingrich.

“My only question with Gov. Romney and Speaker Gingrich is … if you believe in capitalism that much, why did you support the bailout of Wall Street?” he said. “You should have allowed those financial institutions to go through the bankruptcy process and you would have seen these companies fail and pay the price.”

Meanwhile, Paul said he was not considering running as a third-party candidate if he did not win the Republican nomination.

The candidates were grilled on their views on an issue close to the heart of Floridians: The burst of the housing bubble. Williams said in Tampa alone, 53 percent of houses are worth less than they were before the housing bubble collapse.

Santorum said he blamed Fannie May and Freddie Mac and pledged to “help people get out from the houses they’re being held under.”

Paul said the crisis was easily avoidable.

“The whole bubble was easily seen,” he said. “The consequences were anticipated. Our policies in Washington still have been to … keep prices up. A lot of people made a lot of money on that. The bad debt was dumped on the taxpayers.”

Romney and Gingrich were quick to pile onto the Dodd-Frank Act to regulate housing finances signed into law by Obama.

“The fact is Dodd-Frank has let the biggest banks get bigger,” Gingrich said. “Crippling small businesses. If they would repeal it tomorrow morning, you’d have a better housing market overnight. It’s an invitation to corruption.”

The discussion later switched to the policy of imposing sanctions on Cuba, where Paul stood apart from his Republican colleagues.

“I don’t like the isolationism of not talking to people,” he said. “The Cold War is over. We propped up (Fidel) Castro for 40-some years, and he could always use us as a scapegoat. We talk to the Soviets, we talk to the Chinese. I don’t know why you get this assumption that all the Cubans are coming here. It’s not 1962 anymore.”

Santorum felt Paul’s policy would be a threat to Cuba’s closest neighbor — Florida.

“Sanctions should stay in place until the Castros are gone,” he said. “You’re right, Ron. It’s not 1962. Now Cubans are working with the jihadists, the Iranians, and they’re 90 miles off our borders.”

While other candidates spoke of a necessary war with Iran, Paul again differed from his running mates.

“We don’t have any money, we have too many wars, the people want to come home and the people don’t want another hot war,” he said. “That would be the most foolish idea.”

All four candidates did agree, however, on making English the national language while still supporting the country’s diversty.

“The challenge of the United States is very simple,” Gingrich said. “How do you unify the country? What is the common bond? Campaigning, historically, you go to people on their terms in their culture. I’m perfectly happy to have a lot of support in the Hispanic community, but as a country I think it’s essential that we have a central language that we are all able to communicate in.”

When the candidates spoke of their solutions to deal with illegal immigration, Romney said he believed the answer was “self-deportation.”

“We’re not going to round people up,” he said. “People will be given a transition period — they could stay or leave but they would no longer have the documentation to legally work.”

Santorum said he believes self-deportation is in fact happening.

“People are going back now because they can’t find jobs,” he said. “But we should enforce the law. You come to this country and the first thing you do is respect our laws.”

The common antagonist of the night, however, remained Obama.

“This president has failed the people of Florida miserably,” Santorum said. “He plays 90 rounds of golf when we have millions of people out of jobs.”

J. Edwin Benton, a USF political science professor, said he thought Romney may have made somewhat of a rebound after losing in the South Carolina primary.

“I think I would give Romney a slight edge because he scored points with Freddie Mac, tying Gingrich to special interests,” he said. “I think he made some inroads in the right direction.”

Overall, Benton said the debate was more cordial than he expected.

“I really thought it was going to be a knockdown-dragout where the candidates takes the gloves off and have a catfight,” he said. “I think the candidates expected that, but the way the questions were canned or prepared by the media, steered them away from that kind of conflict.”

The state will vote on a candidate Jan. 31 during the Florida primary.

Mann is currently a professor at Pennsylvania State U., and the global climate change research he conducted while at U.Va. from 1999 to 2005 is currently the subject of two lawsuits by Virginia Attorney General and U. Virginia alumnus Ken Cuccinelli and the American Tradition Institute, a conservative think tank.

In his talk, Mann said human-caused warming of the planet has had a discernible impact on the climate, pointing to evidence from modern day models which show global climate change’s relationship with human emissions and carbon footprints.

He added that the average American emits about 20 metric tons of carbon per year, which is the equivalent to two large adult elephants, and said if the rate of man-made carbon emissions continues to accelerate there can easily be a four-to-five degrees Celsius increase in temperature from pre-industrial times. This would be a change significant enough to disrupt global equilibrium.

He also discussed perhaps his most well-known piece of research: the hockey stick graph. “It turns out that modern warming takes us outside of the range of what we think temperatures have been in the past thousand years,” Mann said. “And because of the shape of this curve, you can see there’s sort of this long term decline, which you might think of as a shaft, and then there is the recent warming. You may think of that as the blade.”

Although Mann’s research has attracted nationwide attention and controversy, he said a large amount of research reaches the same conclusion.

Mann also spoke about what he calls the “politicization of science,” or the rising skepticism and involvement of politicians in global climate change research. Because greenhouse gases are at the very core of modern global energy, he said, “there are fairly powerful vested interests who profit greatly from our current reliance on fossil fuels, and they don’t want to see that much change in the future.”

Issues involving climate change research came to the public’s attention just before the 2009 Copenhagen Summit on reducing carbon emission, Mann said, when emails of climate change scientists emerged and words were taken out of context by politicians and members of the press. In 2005, Mann was subpoenaed to appear before government officials and a lawsuit was later filed in an attempt to obtain emails and other documents of Mann’s, prompting significant nationwide media discussion.

“I should say [U. Virginia] took a very brave stance against this yet again obvious effort to intimidate scientists” who might be doing research that is “disadvantageous to certain [industry] leaders that may or may not be contributing to the campaigns of certain politicians,” he said.

Mann said to help stop global climate change, “we could have a good faith debate about what sort of policies [to pursue]. What we can’t participate in a debate about anymore is the reality of the problem.”

EnviroDay is an annual student research symposium for the environmental sciences and Mann was selected by the event organizing committee as the keynote speaker.

To introduce his health care platform, Gingrich drew an analogy with the history of flight.

“In the turn of the last century, there were two parallel efforts to invent flight in the United States,” he said. “One was by the Smithsonian, which had a $50,000 grant from the Congress. And the other was by two bicycle mechanics in Dayton, Ohio, who as a passion, privately had decided they wanted to learn how to fly.”

Gingrich said the Smithsonian was unsuccessful in its efforts, yet the Wright Brothers — two men without advanced degrees or government grants — invented what the Smithsonian had failed to.

“Great innovation is decentralized, semi-spontaneous, led by unique people doing unique things,” he said. “Large bureaucratic centralized systems are inherently control-originated and inherently unwilling to take unique risks.”

Gingrich said the bureaucracy surrounding American health care policy would crush innovation and at its best, achieve adequate generalized patient care. He also said broad government recommendations based on statistical data — like recent recommendations to bypass select prostate cancer screenings — undermine doctors’ capacity to provide personalized care.

“I think it is very dangerous to start taking something as personal as health and start abstracting it into random bureaucratic averages based on statistical analysis,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich said health care must be “reinvented and rethought from the ground up.” He specifically emphasized his support for continued brain science research in hopes of finding cures and developing treatments to minimize autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other mental health disorders.

“These are all stunningly expensive problems,” he said. “I am passionate that we take brain science as an opportunity seriously. There is no single investment that would do more to save lives and more to save money than an extraordinary commitment to brain science.”

Following his speech, Gingrich opened the discussion up to questions from the audience. Meg Curtis of Hillsborough, N.H., whose husband died of Alzheimer’s last year, asked Gingrich to elaborate about his views on brain research.

“Five years ago my young husband at age 59 was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s,” she said. “I promised him at that time I would keep him home until the end and that I would not have my voice silenced until we could find a cure.”

Curtis asked Gingrich if he would increase federal support for brain research.

Gingrich said he favored redesigning the current stance on research, taking it “off budget” and creating a public-private partnership to aggressively research cures and methods of postponing the effects of Alzheimer’s and mental health disorders.

“If you had a system designed to maximize the production of new American science and technology and to bring it to market as rapidly as possible, you would literally dominate the world health market with new products and solutions,” Gingrich said. “You have a long-term win-win strategy — people would get to be healthier long, they would be less expensive to the taxpayer and you are you are creating more jobs.”

Curtis said she had posed her question to former Gov. Jon Huntsman, R-Utah, and former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass. at forums earlier this week. Both candidates seemed surprised by her question, but Gingrich brought up the issue of brain science before she even asked, she said in an interview with The Dartmouth.

Previously an undecided voter with health care, and specifically support for brain science, as an important concern, Curtis said she was pleased with what Gingrich had to say.

“It was extremely favorable,” she said. “I’m really swinging toward the Gingrich way of thinking.”

Not all members of the audience were equally pleased with Gingrich’s presentation. Peter Merrill, director of information systems at DHMC, questioned Gingrich about his role in the current gridlock in government during the question and answer session, but in an interview with The Dartmouth said he was not swayed by Gingrich’s response.

“I thought it was an incredibly articulate and well-reasoned defense of his actions in response to my characterization of him as responsible for the current gridlock in government,” Merrill said. “It was in no way an answer to my question of how to get past the current gridlock. My personal belief is that he is one of the major people responsible.”

Although not entirely pleased with many of United States President Barack Obama’s decisions regarding protection of personal liberties and the War on Terror, Merrill said he will probably vote for Obama again in the general election.

“I suspect he may be the only choice,” he said. “It will depend on who Republican voters come up with.”

Huntsman spoke at DHMC as part of the Health Care Policy Grand Rounds on Jan. 3.

The talk focused on the colorful subculture of science-themed body art and how researchers in every field, from archaeology to biochemistry, use tattoos to capture what they love about their discipline.

“In a weird, unexpected way, tattoos are a good way of illustrating the deep passion that scientists have for their subject,” said Zimmer.

The talk used slides to showcase an eclectic mix of tattoos, ranging from the highly technical to the fantastical.

Zimmer began by showing off a seemingly simple tattoo of a DNA helix belonging to Harvard Medical School neurobiologist Sandeep “Robert” Datta before revealing that its nucleotide structure spelled out Datta’s wife’s initials.

“Some people think of tattoos as a thing that you get when you’re young, drunk, or both,” Zimmer said. “But these scientists have put a lot of knowledge and personal connections into theirs.”

Next on display was a woman covered from shoulder to shoulder in gigantic insects: moths, beetles, and ants, in tribute to her field of entomology.

Chemistry tattoos were also represented, most notably by a woman with the structure of serotonin—the “pleasure” molecule believed to cause happiness—on her lower thigh.

“It’s weird at first when your in-box starts getting filled with pictures of partially disrobed scientists,” said Zimmer, earning laughter from the audience of about 200.

The talk also delved into the history behind modern science tattoos. Zimmer explained how Sir Joseph Banks, an English botanist, learned of tattoos from the people of New Zealand and Tahiti during a voyage in the late 18th century. Zimmer drew parallels between Maori tribesmen with full-face tattoos and scientists who fill their entire back with complex algebraic equations, as well as discussing the powers that tattoos were thought to hold in the past.

“Sailors believed that if they had a tattoo of an anchor on their arm, it would save them from drowning,” said Zimmer.

Even Ötzi the Iceman, the famous 5,400-year-old mummy found preserved in the Austrian Alps, was found to have some crude tattoos on his body.

By way of more modern implications, Zimmer talked about how people use tattoos as a means of expressing their belief in science in the face of oppression. For example, Busra D. Ozpolat, a modern-day Turkish biologist, bears a tattoo of Charles Darwin’s famous finches, whose differentiated beaks helped inspire him to develop his theory of evolution. This holds “a lot of profound meaning,” said Zimmer, as Turkey’s creationist leanings have made it difficult for scientists to teach evolution there. According to the Washington Post, fewer than 25 percent of Turks believe in evolution, the lowest percentage in any developed nation.

Aimee Gillespie, a graduate student at MIT studying geochemistry, said she “never knew how many of my fellow scientists [had] tattoos,” adding that if she were to get a tattoo, it would be of the Keeling Curve—a measure of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere.

The debate opened with a series of short introductions from several Iowa leaders including Iowa Republican Governor Terry Branstad, Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn, and the president of Drake U., David Maxwell. Branstad and Strawn stressed the importance of Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus, while Maxwell gave his praise to the canidadates and the school.

After a brief technical transfer, the mics were handed over to ABC moderators George Stephanopoulos and Diane Sawyer who introduced the six presidential candidates as they approached the stage and the debate began. The debate immediately shifted its focus to jobs and the economy as Sawyer asked the candidates how the way would get America back on track.

“I understand where jobs are created, they’re not creating in government, they’re not created in Washington,” said former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. “We need to have trade policies that make sense for America.”

“I would like to cut $1 trillion in the first year,” said Texas Congressman Ron Paul. “That is the biggest culprit.”

Other candidates also stressed similar positions including tax cuts for both individuals and businesses, repealing Obamacare, and getting rid of regulations that many of the candidates felt were holding back businesses from growing and creating jobs.

The next question of the night focused on the debate going on in Washington over extending the tax cuts for the middle class, which are set to expire on December 31. The candidates expressed differing views on the issue, which represented the first real divide of the night among the candidates.

“This is just a band-aid. We need to figure out how we are going to make America competitive again,” Romney said. “The right course for America is to have a president who understands the economy.”

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum had a different take.

“We are going to have a serious debate about how to fix social security,” Santorum said. “You either care about social security and you fund it, or you don’t.”

Romney tried to take a swipe at former House Speaker Newt Gingrich early in the debate by mentioning how Gingrich was a life-long Washington insider, both during and after his time as a Georgia congressman. However, Gingrich immediately struck back by saying Romney would have been a career-long politician if he had not lost an election to Ted Kennedy in 1994.

Additionally, many other candidates, trying to neutralize Gingrich’s rise, also took their own swipes against him for being a Washington lobbyist and not truly a conservative — especially on the issue of healthcare — in an attempt to bring their own voice to the table.

“Both of these gentlemen (Gingrich and Romney) have been through the individual mandate,” said Texas Governor Rick Perry. “The fact of the matter is: You and Newt were for individual mandates.”

“We have one shot to get rid of Obamacare,” said Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. “Are these two men (Gingrich and Romney) honestly going to get rid of it as president? I didn’t sit on my hands while I was in congress. I knew our country was going to lose because of socialized medicine. As President of the United States, I will take on every special interests … I won’t rest until we repeal Obamacare.”

As the night went on, the issue later turned to immigration and national security. Many candidates had been stressing in their campaigns that the borders of the United States needed to be first and foremost secured, without question. More specifically, however, the candidates had varying opinions on how to deal with illegal immigrants.

“We should make deportation dramatically easier and we need to have an effective guest-worker program,” Gingrich said. “This is not amnesty.”

Romney had a slightly different view on the issue.

“Whenever we start talk about amnesty … we will then create another magnet that draws people into our country illegally,” Romney said. “Those 11 million people should register here in the country, return home, and get in line with everyone else who want to come here. No favoritism for those who came here illegally.”

The next issue was foreign policy. Gingrich had caused a stir the previous night when he called the Palestinian people an “invented people,” a statement that many candidates had to comment on.

“Somebody ought to tell the truth,” Gingrich said. “These people [Palestinians] are terrorists.”

“I think we are very wise to stand with Israel,” Romney said. “Israel does not want us to make it more difficult for them to sit down with the Palestinians. My view is we stand with the Israeli people … we are going to tell the truth but are not going to throw incendiary words into the mix.”

“You have to speak the truth but you have to do so with prudence,” Santorum said. “The policy of this country should be to stand shoulder to shoulder with our ally [Israel] … The West Bank is Israeli land and we need to stand with Israel on that.”

The night ended with a level of reconciliation among the candidates who were asked to describe someone who they have looked up to in the past and make their closing announcements.

“Congressman Paul got me intrigued with Federal Reserve,” Perry said. “The people of this country really want to get this country back on track … this election is about the future of this country.”

“This is a time of real leadership … I will help restore that light on the shining hill,” Romney said.

Gingrich gave his praise to Branstad while also praising the conservative efforts of Perry and Santorum. Paul spoke of bringing people together, and Bachmann gave her praises to former GOP candidate Herman Cain and his ability to be plain spoken.

“If you haven’t heard me speak before, my speech is a little different,” Paul said. “I think of change being philosophic, not just changing a person here … but changing in the sense there is something seriously wrong with our Constitution.”

Paul said in order to do that, we have to change things a bit because we have drifted far away from our Constitution.

He said there is a serious attack on personal liberty.

He said that passing bills out of panic mode and passing legislation such as the Patriot Act does not help your personal liberty.

“I’d like to get rid of the Patriot Act, to tell you the truth,” Paul said.

He said there was a time when we had a sense of foreign policy and in order to do that again, we need to “give us a strong national defense, to mind our own business and start bringing our troops home.”

He said with the position the United States is in right now, the question of how many enemies the country needs must be asked.

“I think a golden rule is … treat the people like you want to be treated,” Paul said.

He posed a question asking why the United States would want to do anything to another country that it would not want done to itself.

“Wouldn’t that make a different world, if we refrained from bombing people and using drones?” Paul asked. “What if China or some other country ever did that to us? I don’t think America would tolerate it.”

He said the Taliban is not made up of people similar as al-Qaida members, who want to come to America and kill its citizens; they want to get people off their land.

“It’s none of our business,” Paul said. “We should stay out of their affairs and make them make their own decisions.”

He said the war in Iraq began from foreign policy officials “beating the drums of war and getting people to get people to go along with this.”

He said if the United States is careless and lets its guard down, war is going to happen.

He then said war is never an economic stimulus.

“Don’t accept the argument that it’s an economic plus,” Paul said.

He said World War II did not help end the Great Depression, but instead it gave people something to do. He said the Great Depression did not end until after the war was over.

Paul said the middle class is angry right now because the rich got bailed out and the middle class lost their jobs and homes.

“Government has [gotten] big because of the Federal Reserve printing out money,” Paul said. ”No matter how well off the welfare system is, it doesn’t work.”

He said in order to protect individual liberty, there needs to be a restriction on federal government.

He said the United States has been under attack through the way of the income tax.

“Income tax is unconstitutional. I don’t even think we’d need income tax if we had the proper size government,” he said.

He said he would like to see a full audit of the Federal Reserve, to which members of the audience yelled, “Down with the Feds.”

Paul said the big problem is political when dealing with a recession.

“When we have a severe slum, the best thing politicians could do is keep their hands out of it,” Paul said.

“Tom was the anchor and image of NBC News for nearly a generation, and if you’re like me, you’ve probably often wondered what lies behind the instantly recognizable face and voice,” said Princeton U.  professor Hugh Price, who introduced Brokaw.

“He’s a brilliant student of the American psyche and spirit, the American dream and the American people, and thus a brilliant student of America itself,” Price added, reflecting on the time they shared on the board of the Mayo Clinic.

Brokaw described how his background shaped his views: He was born into a middle-class family in South Dakota, his father a construction supervisor and his mother a postal clerk. Having attended U. Iowa and later graduating from U. South Dakota, he described the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy as the moment when “I knew what it was that I wanted to do with my life.”

“[My hope is] that maybe we can have a conversation about America — where we’ve been, where we are and where we need to go,” Brokaw said about his goals for his latest book and his discussions across the country.

“I began to take the temperature of the country,” Brokaw said of his recent travels across the country. “I began to listen more carefully of the anxieties of people.”

“I encountered questions that I never had before through the course of my personal and professional life,” he said. “People were coming up to me and saying with great nervousness — Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike — ‘What happened to the America we thought we knew?’ ”

“The question that troubled me even more in many ways — what I always believed was the heart of the American dream — was that parents and grandparents were saying, ‘Mr. Brokaw, I wonder what you think. I’m just very worried that our children will not have the lives that we’ve had.’ ”

Brokaw described the unique struggles the nation has faced over the past few years and the huge burden he felt has been placed on a small portion of the population.

“The economy unraveled on us, we’re in the two longest wars in our nation’s history and these wars have been fought by less than one percent of our population, with most of them drawn from the working and lower-middle classes,” Brokaw said. “Nothing was asked of the rest of us during all of it … if we so chose we didn’t even have to think about those wars, we could go about our daily lives, while other families were living in constant fear that the phone would ring.”

Brokaw explained the toll that placing such a significant burden on such a small number has had on the cohesion of America.

“In a democratic society, it is unjust to have less than one percent take the bullets and pay the price. It’s more than unjust; in a way, it’s immoral,” Brokaw emphasized.

“We have to knit ourselves back together again,” he added.

Brokaw explained how the United States should shift its idea of a “better future” for our kids, arguing that we should move away from the traditional quantitative notions of simply having better jobs, a bigger house and more money to something that incorporates “fundamental values in that equation.”

Brokaw said that our hopes for the future should shift to “how we can have more economic justice in America; how we can prepare this country for what we know will be the great competition in the remaining years of the 21st century; how we will finally be able to begin to restore and repair public education system to such a degree that everyone will have an equal opportunity at being well-educated.”

“I think education will be the currency of the 21st century,” Brokaw said.

Brokaw discussed a plan “akin to the G.I. Bill” that he described in his latest book, “The Time of Our Lives: A Conversation About America; Who We Are, Where We’ve Been, and Where We Need to Go Now, to Recapture the American Dream.” His plan would establish six “Public Service Academies” across the country tied to land-grant colleges in cooperation with businesses.

These academies would offer three-year entry-level and post-graduate programs that train Americans in agriculture, medicine, engineering, conflict resolution and other practical fields. He said that the goal of the institutions would be specialized training, so graduates could fan out across the world or be assigned to domestic projects oriented toward service.

These new graduates would “have a new sense of commitment, not just to their country, but to mission and to each other, because they’ve had a shared experience that is unique,” Brokaw said.

Aaron, a baseball Hall of Famer, and his former business partner Frank Belatti, an adjunct professor at U. Notre Dame, presented “Athletes, Entrepreneurship and Franchising” at the Mendoza College of Business in the Jordan Auditorium Tuesday evening.

The two spoke about helping others through both direct charity and properly run business.

Aaron said he hoped to be remembered most for helping others achieve their dreams.

“Coming from an isolated city in Alabama, I wanted to play baseball badly and I chased that dream,” he said. “I decided after I retired I’d do everything I could to help some child or someone chase their dreams.”

Aaron and his wife, Billye Williams, established the Hank Aaron Chasing the Dream Foundation to support ambitious youth in 1994.

The foundation struggled in its early years, he said.

“The foundation was just fuddling around and we weren’t making much money. But my wife … said she would have a birthday party for me and would handle it,” Aaron said. “She went to Coca Cola and other companies … and the night of the dinner we made over a million dollars.

“The money and having the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, at my dinner was a blessing. We needed this money badly.”

Aaron said the foundation awarded 755 grants to deserving youths, one for each of his home runs. He said the challenge of running the foundation in addition to his restaurant and auto businesses offered valuable lessons.

“Going from baseball to business, the number one rule is you have to put your heart and soul in it. I woke up every morning at five to go to dealerships when I began my automobile businesses,” he said. “The disadvantage is the idea of thinking you’ve been successful in one, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to transition to the other.”

The help of friends and business partners, such as Belatti, led to Aaron’s success, he said.

“We all talk about how much we can achieve in a lifetime but I look around and say there were teammates on base when I look at those home runs,” Aaron said. “The restaurants weren’t only my doing. God put a blessing on me to have people like [Belatti].”

Belatti said he met Aaron in 1985 while working on a promotion with Major League Baseball. The pair built their business relationship based on trust rather than contracts.

“We shook hands and that is our only contract. That says a good deal about how honorable Hank Aaron is and about the power of a handshake,” Belatti said. “The power of a handshake is an incredible thing.”

Since then, the two worked to develop a business model with a contemporary and competitive backbone, Belatti said. Sustainable models created jobs with a sense of personal ownership and ended the cycle of disenfranchisement, he said.

“Create jobs that you believe are highly sustainable and have an aspect of ownership. Change the mindset,” he said. “Part of a change in the social strata and economic strata might not otherwise happen.”

Belatti said trust was important in running a business. He met with each franchise they worked with to establish a sense of trust.

“For every franchisee who came into the system, I had them come to my office so I can meet them face-to-face. I wanted to shake their hand and make them a promise,” he said. “I gave them my home phone number so if they ever need me, they can call me directly.”

Belatti said Aaron was a true entrepreneur. Aaron created opportunities for others rather than focusing on revenue, he said.

“An entrepreneur is willing to put his or her career on the line and take risks in the name of an idea and an ideal. Hank often talks about how many new managers, owners and jobs he’s created,” Belatti said. “We don’t talk as much about the money.”

Aaron said his experience in baseball and entrepreneurship taught him two things: creating opportunities for others was essential to addressing economic and social issues and there are no shortcuts to success.

“You may not ever hit a single home run but the thing you have to remember is you can always be a great doctor, lawyer, teacher or someone great. You’ve got to crawl, got to walk, got to take your time to get where you’re going,” Aaron said. “And believe me, you do have time.”

Joe Garden and Carol Kolb gave audience members an inside view of the fake news source to a background of laughter during the evening’s programming.

The lecture started by comparing The Onion to other news outlets, including CNN, The New York Times and The Badger Herald.

Compared to these sources, Garden said The Onion was on top with 100 “trillion” readers, putting CNN in second place with its five trillion. For journalistic integrity, The Onion scored a perfect six out of six, while The New York Times scored at a five and The Badger Herald at a zero, “because they have no journalistic integrity whatsoever,” Garden said.

“We’re all friends, and I feel bad showing you people these charts,” Kolb said amid laughter from the audience.

Garden and Kolb also featured some of The Onion’s popular articles and video clips. Headlines drawing some of the most attention from the audience included:

-“I’ll Be Able to Get This Big Pot of Chili Over to My Friends House if I Put on These Roller Skates”

-“Guy in Philosophy Class Needs to Shut the Fuck Up”

-“Governor Walker Should Be Flogged for his Inability to Control his Underlings”

-“Child Bankrupts Make-A-Wish Foundation With Wish for Unlimited Wishes”

Following their presentation, Garden and Kolb opened the floor up for questions, and the lecture took on a more serious nature.

Both Garden and Kolb said the thought process of each of the paper’s writers involves what goes on within each individual’s head and can vary with each writer.

“It’s whatever I happen to be obsessed about at any given time, usually dolphins or technology,” Garden said. Garden later added, “Sometimes life just gives you Herman Cain.”

When asked if The Onion had ever been sued, Kolb emphasized constitutional rights.

She also added that publicity from suing The Onion would not be worth much anymore as their news has an established reputation for not being credible.

“There’s a little thing called the First Amendment, and it has served us very well,” Kolb said.

Still, Garden and Kolb agreed that research remains an integral part to their writing process.

Kolb used an example of spelling Obama’s name wrong and how a writer would not want to do it, while Garden emphasized that this type of inaccuracy takes away from the humor of the paper.

The two ended their time by explaining how to use satire as a tool to examine subjects or issues in an effective way to bring important issues to the public in relation. This, they said, is how The Onion has impacted society.

UW freshman Andrew Schultz said he found the lecture to be both a fun and entertaining experience.

“The lecture was interesting in how you could tell from the way they talked that their workplace was the same as their writing: fun and laid back,” Schultz said.

This will open Romney’s Latter-day Saint faith to criticism. Romney is one of several Mormons who has sought the United States presidency.

“The Mormon Quest for the Presidency,” a topic that has prompted books, decades worth of news articles and scholarly research, found its way into a BYU forum hosted Wednesday by the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies.

The forum brought to light the numerous candidates from the past century and a half that have run for the U.S. presidency who were also members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The forum featured Newell C. Bringhurst, from the College of the Sequoias in California, and Craig L. Foster, a research specialist at the Family History Library.

The discussion followed along the same pattern Foster and Bringhurst outline in their book, “The Mormon Quest for the Presidency.” The book describes 10 Mormons who ran for the nation’s highest office since the first candidate, LDS Church President Joseph Smith Jr., all the way to the most recent, Mitt Romney.

The book doesn’t include former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, as it was written in 2008, before Huntsman became a presidential contender.

Bringhurst explained that Joseph Smith, as the first member of the LDS faith to run for the presidency, waged a campaign not dissimilar with many of the Republican primary candidates of this 21st-century election cycle. Emphasizing civil liberties (being an advocate of the abolition of slavery) and lowering the salaries of elected officials, Smith, in 1844, ran as an independent.

Bringhurst shed light on a little-known bit of American history derived from Joseph Smith’s martyrdom in Carthage Jail.

“Smith’s violent death earned him the dubious distinction of being the first presidential candidate to be assassinated in the United States,” he said.

Bringhurst, a Democrat,  focused his talking points on the liberal members of the LDS Church who unsuccessfully made a bid for the presidency. In 1976, Mo Udall, a former member of the Denver Nuggets, lost the Democratic nomination for president by about 1 percent of the primary vote. Jimmy Carter defeated Udall and later won the general election to become the country’s 39th president. Udall was considered more liberal than Carter in that primary cycle.

Foster, admitting his Republican inclinations, gave an overview of the more conservative LDS candidates, starting with Gov. George Romney, who ran in 1968 as a  Republican. Even though Romney was considered a conservative, Foster explains that Romney viewed himself as a “moderate” Republican. George Romney is the father of current presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. The senior Romney removed himself from the 1968 primary cycle before any votes were cast as he had suffered increased attacks for his opposition to the Vietnam War.

The most prevalent LDS figure to “almost” run for president of the United States in the 20th century was President Ezra Taft Benson. Pres. Benson had a following that organized a committee in 1976, but the difficulty of raising adequate finances kept him from officially running. Pres. Benson was considered the more conservative candidate of any of the rumored candidates at the time; he also was an avid opponent of communism both in political speeches and religious statements.

Foster mentioned the 2000 primary run of Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch. In a crowded Republican primary, Hatch discontinued his campaign and moved his support to then Gov. George W. Bush. Foster says Hatch and Bush had “similar” policies, making the campaign move to throw Hatch’s support to Bush of little surprise.

Bringhurst and Foster account for 10 members of the LDS Church who have run for president of the United States since the beginning of the religion in the 19th century.

The lecture stopped short of discussing the current LDS contenders running for president. Foster has published the book “A Different God: Mitt Romney, The Religious Right, and The Mormon Question,” which is available for those interested in the current LDS candidates and how their LDS faith could impact the 2012 election cycle.

About 150 members of U. Minnesota’s tech community filled the Cowles Auditorium at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs Wednesday to see Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google.

U. Minnesota was one of the first institutions to start using Google Apps in everyday instruction. The University’s 90,000 user base is second only to Arizona State University, said Robert Jones, senior vice president for system academic administration at the University.

Schmidt was the CEO of Google for over 10 years, until April 2011 when co-founder Larry Page took over the position. Schmidt is valued at more than $6.2 billion, making him the 136th richest man in the world, according to Forbes’ list of billionaires for 2011.

Wednesday morning, Schmidt spoke and answered questions about the future of Google and technology at large.

Steve Kelly, Director of Science, Technology, and Public Policy at U. Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs: Google’s been reliant on ad revenues from [it’s] search page. In this day and age, [it’s] probably safe to say you can’t always count on that. What is Google thinking about as a revenue model?

“We would argue that advertising, when it’s targeted, is a value to the user. The long term goal would be to show you exactly one ad, which is exactly the right one that you would always click on, and you would always buy the product. But the targeting is done based on what you’re looking at.”

Kelly: Do you see potential for revenue from extension or figuring out ways for non-search to generate revenue?

“We’re very interested in the general, sort of cloud computing area, and it’s particular impact on businesses … When you use Google Docs … it’s stored in our data centers, it’s backed up heavily, it’s safer with us –– if I can be blunt –– than it is with you, given your propensity to back up your hard drive … It seems obvious what cloud computing is, but it’s really something different. It’s really about collaboration in general, and out of that, there could be some very considerable revenue opportunities. ”

Kelly: Dr. Jones mentioned Google as an innovation organization. What are the internal and external challenges that you see Google facing to maintain a pace of innovation and a spirit of innovation in the company?

“It’s a standard problem in a larger organization. This University maintains innovation — frankly it’s because of the students and grad students. Young people go through the various programs within the University, and then the openness of the University brings ideas in like that. We’ve tried our variant of that, called 20 percent time, and the idea is that employees can spend 20 percent of their time on something that they’re interested in. It serves as a check and balance on the power trips that managers get in corporations. The employee can sit there and say, ‘Great. I’m going to work really hard on your problem 80 percent of my time.’”

Kelly: Given this pace of innovation and new products being generated, are there occasions when you don’t release because you see ethical or other social issues related to the product?

“All the time. I’ll give you an example. So, I’m sitting in a room where all decisions are made, and this 23-, 24-year-old walks in to demonstrate his new product. And he’s built a product that will run on your mobile phone that will track where your friends are, and will predict when you’re going to meet them and where you’re going to meet them using live, real-time tracking. If you think about it, it could be subpoenaed, it would break a bunch of privacy laws … We have a whole team that goes through these products and sees if we’re ready. Another example is that we did a very, very high-quality face-recognition system.

It worked like this –– you took a picture of the room, and it told you, who’s everybody in the room. Well, it turns out that if we get a straight-on shot of your face, we have a 50 percent shot of identifying you accurately within the first page of a set of results if you have roughly 13 pictures on the internet … We decided not to release that product, we decided to wait.”

Kelly: As the government moves more and more to web-based systems to make things more convenient, in the United States and in some other countries, it’s very hard for low-income people and people of color to get access to those forms.

“If you look at the math of mobile phone adoption, we have about 4 billion mobile phones in the world, there’s roughly 7 billion people in the world, and we’ll probably get to 6 billion mobile phones … I’m very, very proud of this. I mean, these are voices who we’ve not heard, in languages very few people understand, we don’t really know what they care about. Do they fundamentally care about Lady Gaga as much as we do? You know, we don’t know. Maybe they do, by the way. My point is — the arrival of another couple billion people into the human conversation is really something.”

Although GZA, born Gary Grice, has spent much of his adult life in front of sold-out venues, the rapper expressed nervousness as he began his monologue.

“This is the first time for me. I should be learning from you all,” GZA said. “I’m actually shaking right now, crazy,” he added with a laugh.

As he took the stage, a lecture hall full of fans greeted him with shouts of the trademark Wu-Tang phrase, “Peace.”

The artist, also known as The Genius, began by taking the audience through his childhood in “Shaolin”—Wu-Tang lingo for Staten Island—where his first encounters with wordplay came from a book of nursery rhymes. By his teenage years, GZA and future group-mates RZA and Ol’ Dirty Bastard were trekking across the boroughs of New York City in search of the best rap battles they could find.

“Everything we did revolved around hip hop,” he said. “I would ask around, ‘Who’s the best?’ and I would go look for them.”

“[It was] just like the flicks,” he added. “One dude would roll up, another dude rolls up, and there’s 40 people waiting outside the building.”

GZA went on to recount the humbling experience of going back to work after his first record deal in the late 1980s didn’t pan out. He had a job as a bicycle messenger just six months before his career took off with the release of Wu-Tang’s first single, “Protect Ya Neck,” in 1992.

He interspersed his discussion of his musical influences and creative process with a cappella verses and witty rhymes.

“To write a story is to create a world of your own,” he said. “I think every being in the universe is connected somehow … and when I write a song, it’s a lot like building a puzzle.”

During the event, GZA responded to an audience question about his opinion on mainstream hip-hop today.

“I hear songs like [50 Cent’s] ‘Window Shopper,’” he said, quoting lyrics from the 2005 song and suggesting that the lyrics did not meet his own standards.

“Do you think that equates with some of the lyrics that I was kicking?’” he said.

The event attracted fans from beyond the Harvard community.

“I definitely expected him to talk more about music and the group,” said Andrew Lacombe, a sophomore at Dean College who made the trip from Franklin, Mass. “But him talking about life was a lot better.”

GZA closed his lecture with some advice for those that had turned out.

“Live a life full of humility, gratitude, intellectual curiosity, and never stop learning.”

During the rally, Cain talked to more than 500 students and visitors about “America’s crises” in morality, economy national security and foreign policy, energy and military.

Cain shared a story about watching children say the pledge of allegiance twice during the U.S. Open. When the children said the pledge, both times they left out “under God,” sparking what Cain says is a “moral crisis.”

“They left out ‘under God!’ In the pledge of allegiance! I was outraged!” Cain exclaimed. “We have to keep God in this culture and we have to fight for it.”

Cain acknowledged a need to fix the moral crisis in America and “fight to keep God,” but did not address his alleged sex scandal during the rally nor did he take any questions from the audience or press about the accusations.

Four women have accused Cain of sexual harassment. Two of the women accusing Cain worked with him in the 1990s during his time at the National Restaurant Association. The two women claimed Cain made inappropriate comments and gestures during conversations. The women eventually left their positions with the NRA while receiving undisclosed monetary compensation.

Cain has denied these accusations to numerous media outlets.

More recently, an Atlanta woman, Ginger White, told media outlets that she had a 13-year on-and-off again affair with Cain. He also denies these accusations.

The recent accusations forced Cain to “reassess his campaign,” but Cain showed no signs of quitting during the rally while discussing his “problem-solving approach” to the following issues:

•Economy: his 9-9-9 plan, which entails a 9 percent business flat tax, a 9 percent individual flat tax and a 9 percent national sales tax. Cain says the plan is simple, transparent and efficient as it rids of America’s tax code.

•Foreign Policy: America needs to “clarify friendships” with countries, specifically mentioning U.S.’s solid friendship with Israel. America must also maintain its mission for peace through military, economic, and moral strengths.

•Energy: Cain said research has shown that there are plenty of coal and oil energy resources in the U.S. and his team is working toward energy independence.

Cain also discussed his proposal to strengthen the U.S. military and refusal to cut more military funding. Instead, Cain proposes reinstating the space program, predicting future military conflicts will occur off the ground.

“We are now dependent upon other countries to getting into outer space. That’s shortsighted,” Cain said. “Future conflicts won’t just be fought down here on the ground. Some of the best military defense and best military offense of the future is going to be space-based.”

Students for Herman Cain, an organization activated last week, hosted the rally. The organization started with six members and has grown to about 80 members.

Rami Aziz, president of Students for Herman Cain, said he was happy to bring Cain to Ohio State.

“This was a great opportunity for us and for his campaign,” Aziz said. “And it was great for us as a group to see him. To have him on campus is a great opportunity.”

Many students who attended the rally had mixed reactions to Cain and the issues presented.

Cara Pollock, a first-year in French, said she thought the event was not what she expected.

“He talked about wanting to expand our military into outer space. I was really surprised to say the least. I was not expecting to hear that,” Pollock said.

Rachel Cohen, a first-year in political science, did not agree with his position on the economy or morality issues.

“I thought he was a really good speaker. I thought the 9-9-9 plan was very well presented. It came off very convincingly,” Cohen said. “I thought his moral crisis stuff was pulled out of his ass.”

Cain is a businessman, former CEO and radio host from Atlanta. Cain is fighting for the Republican nomination against Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman Jr., Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

The presidential election will be held Nov. 6, 2012.

In front of a crowd of hundreds of students, faculty and Lincoln residents, Jackson touched on topics as diverse as history, economics, religion and current events. Jackson spoke deliberately and quietly at some times, crescendoing to rapid, strong speech at others. He never strayed, however, from his beliefs that the struggle for equality isn’t over, and Americans must learn to survive together.

“Americans learned a bad lesson well,” he said. They learned to live in a world of “paper-thin walls,” artificial gaps between groups of people divided by race or money. “We learned to survive apart.”

Even after the abolition of slavery, Jackson said, inequality has left its mark on American history. A military force segregated by race fought World War II. Jesse Owens, the black track athlete who won four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, famously embarrassed Adolf Hitler, who refused to shake his hand. But Franklin D. Roosevelt didn’t shake Owens’ hand, either, Jackson said.

There have still been victories along the way, Jackson told his audience. Public schools were desegregated by law in 1954.

Activists gradually expanded the right and ability to vote to blacks in the racist South, then those 18 or older.

“They fought the battle of their day, and they won that battle,” Jackson said.

“Young America came alive,” he said, he repeated the line throughout his presentation. “We democratized democracy.”

Today, however, has its own struggle, Jackson said. He asked anyone in the audience who knew someone in jail or foreclosure to stand; a scattered but significant group rose.

Jackson then asked who was dealing with student debt or credit card debt; the crowd laughed as most stood, only to be quieted when Jackson asked who knew someone who’d considered suicide. Many remained standing.

“There are a lot of Americans who are living lavishly on the deck of the ship,” Jackson said. Others find themselves down on the hull, “and water’s coming in,” Jackson said.

He was referring to the nation’s income inequality, which is at historic levels following the 2008 recession. The top 1 percent of earners, for example, earn one-fifth of the nation’s income each year. They also control about one-third of the wealth, compared to one-sixth for the bottom 80 percent of Americans, according to an analysis by the liberal Economic Policy Institute, which analyzed data from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

“Too few have too much,” Jackson said. He joked that the economy now is like a football game where some players have an easier first down because they’ve inherited yards, to laughs from the audience. “Something has gone terribly wrong,” he said.

He compared the economy to the human body. In the body, he said, if too much blood is concentrated in one spot, it’s called a clot or a stroke. “It only makes sense if it’s flowing,” he said.

Because of that economic situation, Jackson repeatedly voiced his support for the Occupy Wall Street protests to murmurs of agreement and claps from some in the crowd. The movement began in Manhattan more than two months ago when an eclectic group of protesters converged on the financial district and camped out in a public park in protest of income inequality and the power they say corporations wield over politics. Hundreds joined the original encampment, and similar camps popped up in towns across the country and around the world, including here in Lincoln.

“Occupy is really a new name for an old game,” Jackson said. “It’s a struggle for social justice. It’s a struggle for fairness.”

In the past few weeks, however, Occupy encampments in several major cities have worn out their welcome. Police have cleared camps in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and elsewhere. Video of an officer pepper-spraying seated protesters at the University of California, Davis last week rapidly spread through the Internet, leading some to call for the university chancellor’s resignation.

Still, Jackson didn’t doubt the movement’s durability.

“Occupy can’t be pepper-sprayed away,” he said. “It can’t be arrested. Occupy is a spirit.”

Occupy Wall Street has been criticized for what some say is a lack of a digestible, achievable goal, but Jackson said the movement simply needed to remain disciplined, nonviolent and focused. Even when Rosa Parks refused to leave her seat on a bus, he said, people asked, ‘Why’s she doing that?’

After his talk, Jackson walked over to the Occupy Lincoln camp, as he has done in several cities, to offer his support and advice.

“There’ll be attempts to marginalize and discourage (you),” he told several members of the camp, including UNL students, who gathered around him. “Your point of view matters, but it’s a long struggle.”

Occupy Lincoln was listening.

“He was giving advice to anyone who’s affected by any of these issues,” said Dana Garrison, a UNL junior in agriculture education and one of the camp’s organizers. In line with his words, she said developing a relevant, accessible message will be the camp’s next main step.

Others were simply happy to meet the civil rights figure.

“To get a hug and a handshake from the reverend has to be the most thrilling moment of my life,” said a smiling Mary Ann Shiech, who has also been with the Lincoln protest since its first day in mid-October. A short pause. “Besides having my children.”

“We [have been the] … ears and eyes of Iran to the U.S. for the last 31 years,” Scheurer said.

Although Switzerland is politically neutral, it has represented  U.S. interests in Tehran since 1980.

“Today, Iran has 14 neighbors, and no friends,” Scheurer said. “By looking at the neighbors, we see that they are difficult neighbors because they’re not democratic all the time. My assessment [of Iran] is that … after the Arab Spring, it is even more isolated.”

This isolation can pose a threat to scientific development. Iran has been responsible for significant advances in technology, some of which are used for good, but sometimes they can be used for the “not-so-good,” Scheurer said.

In addition, the nation’s young population — whose average age is below 30 — has been faced with recent economic instability.

“With a growing population, there are growing problems. Unemployment is really high … especially in the younger generations,” Scheurer said. “Unemployment is sky-rocketing … forcing a lot of people in younger generations to emigrate.”

The younger generations typically emigrate to the United States, Europe and Australia in search of jobs and more opportunities. The fact that most are willing to emigrate to the United States suggests that the Iranian people are pro-American, despite what their government leads the world to believe, Scheurer said.

“There is an interesting contrast between the government, which is very anti-American, and the people, who are very pro-American,” he said.

In an effort to mend relations between the Iranian and U.S. governments, the Swiss Protecting Power Mandate was enacted through an agreement between the United States and Switzerland. The mandate allows both the United States and Iranian governments to communicate with one another through Switzerland.

Essentially, all questions and answers from both Iran and the United States go through Switzerland, Scheurer said. “It’s not always easy because we also have to be Switzerland,” he said. “To be seen as neutral, we cannot always please both sides.”

The event was part of the Ambassadors’ Speaker’s Forum and was sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for International Programs and the Center for International Studies.

More than 1,500 people stood on the muddy hills and sidewalks surrounding Mirror Lake and observed about 100 students jump and splash in the chilly water before midnight. After midnight, more than 2,500 spectators watched the chaos and about 300 participants were in the water at a time in Mirror Lake.

Bethany Stephens, a first-year in marketing, jumped for the first time Tuesday.

“It was awesome,” Stephens said. “I jumped in five times.”

After midnight, air temperatures dropped from 57 degrees to 50 degrees. With winds between 19 mph and 30 mph, the conditions felt more like 43 degrees, according to weather.com.

Students screamed and cheered “O-H-I-O,” “Beat Michigan,” and many expletives expressing the feelings toward the state up north. Many students chimed in together and sang “We Don’t Give a Damn for the Whole State of Michigan” or started to do the “Buckeye Bounce,” a jumping cheer done in Ohio Stadium to the song “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes.

The Mirror Lake jump has been an annual tradition since 1990 and occurs the week of the OSU-Michigan football game. In years past, the jump was held on the Thursday before the Michigan game. Last year and this year, however, as the football game is the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, and students jumped on Tuesday instead of Thursday.

The jump into Mirror Lake is not sponsored and strongly discouraged by the university every year. Despite a warning email from Vice President for Student Life Javaune Adams-Gaston about the dangers of jumping into Mirror Lake, students still showed Buckeye pride by jumping into the cold water just southwest of the Oval.

On the east side of the Lake, h2o Christian Church on campus handed out free hot chocolate to those who jumped. Josh Bodner, a third year in electrical engineering, worked at the h2o Church table.

“We are handing out free hot chocolate,” Bodner said. “Just spreading the love.”

OSU Police were along the perimeter of Mirror Lake monitoring the crowd. Officer Chad Stanton said four people were arrested for disorderly conduct. University police also received one report of a broken ankle. Officer Stanton said he expected more arrests by the end of the night.

Ryan Horstman, a fourth-year in agribusiness, jumped into Mirror Lake all four years during his time at OSU. Horstman also said this year was better than last year.

“It never gets better. It is so awesome, I love doing it,” Horstman said. “Last year I ran back trying (not) to freeze my butt off. This year was awesome. I love Ohio State.”

Derric Dobbins, a third-year in business marketing, jumped his second time and noticed a difference between this year’s and last year’s jump.

“It was a little bit warmer, which made a lot more people come out,” Dobbins said. “Definitely more crowded and muddier cause it rained but it was a blast. It was fun and everyone came out and splashing each other, it was great.”

Nick Stallard, a fourth-year in political science, did not jump into Mirror Lake for health concerns, but watched for his second year in a row.

“I do appreciate and respect the tradition, but I’ve had mono, I’ve had staff infections, and I really just can’t risk getting sick anymore,” Stallard said. “After a year of adversity and a year of problems and the ‘Tattoo-gate’ situation, I think it is incredible to see the student body come out here and support the team and supporting the school.”

Lauren Cates, a second-year in pre-nursing, also did not jump this year trying to build up the courage to jump her senior year.

“I think it’s great that we have this much spirit and we keep it up year after year and everybody comes out,” Cates said. “Everyone has a good time, even if you just stand out and watch.”

University police ended the Mirror Lake jump at 1:15 a.m. Wednesday.

OSU travels to Ann Arbor to play Michigan at noon on Saturday.

Republican Presidential Candidate and Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich hosted a movie screening and forum at the Harvard Kennedy School on Friday, prompting a group of Occupy protesters to disrupt the beginning of the event with a rehearsed chant.

Shortly after Gingrich arrived, Occupy protesters began chanting, “Mic check. Mic check! We love you Newt. We love you Newt! Thank you for standing up for corporations. They have rights too.”

Gingrich started to respond to the protesters, but they interrupted him mid-sentence to continue their chant.

“Thank you for understanding that simple point. We are the 99 percent!” the group yelled.

Many audience members were frustrated by the protesters.

“Go back to your tents!” shouted an audience member, prompting laughter and applause from many spectators.

But Gingrich was unfazed by the interruption.

“I think we are 100 percent. We are all Americans,” responded Gingrich to further applause.

Institute of Politics Director C. M. “Trey” Grayson gave the introduction to Gingrich’s talk. Grayson emphasized that audience members would be able to express themselves, as long as they were respectful to the visiting speaker.

“Before I introduce the Speaker and Mrs. Gingrich, I want to lay down the ground rules for tonight’s event. Freedom of speech and civility are bedrock principles for the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum and Harvard University,” Grayson said.

Grayson also announced shortly after 5 p.m. that Gingrich had encountered heavy traffic and would be late to the forum.

The former Speaker and his wife, Callista L. Gingrich, arrived around 5:40 p.m. and began to discuss their film “A City Upon A Hill: The Spirit of American Exceptionalism” when the protesters interrupted.

Grayson explained that question and answer sessions at the Forum are always “unfettered,” leading to interesting exchanges between speakers and participants.

“The reason why this is successful is our audience respects our speaker’s right to free speech, as well as our audience’s right to listen to our speakers,” he said.

Following the initial outburst, the remainder of the event ran smoothly, with an hour-long movie screening followed by a question and answer session with Gingrich.

Audience members pressed Gingrich on his stances on the issues of illegal immigration, female inequality, the educational system, and even beer.

“I am an MPA student at the Harvard Kennedy School from [pause] Europe,” began one man, prompting laughter from the audience due to Gingrich’s negative portrayal of Europe throughout his film.

After the man clarified that he was from Bavaria, Gingrich quipped, “Do you like beer?,” referencing Bavaria, the second largest brewery in the Netherlands.

“Everybody likes beer,” the man joked.

“But they don’t like American beer that much.”

Despite the early disruptions, Grayson said the event was successful.

“I’m excited to see the crowd. We didn’t know what to expect,” Grayson said.

Grayson admitted that if he were a student, he might have skipped the lecture.

“It ended up being the Friday before Harvard-Yale weekend. If I were an undergrad, I’d be at Toad’s right now.”

Former president Bill Clinton attracted over 5,000 spectators to DePauw University’s Neal Fieldhouse Friday afternoon for his lecture entitled “Embracing Our Common Humanity.” Clinton wove DePauw ties into his speech on global issues, specifically reaching out to his close friend and DePauw alumnus Vernon Jordan.

Jordan introduced Clinton, joking about the course their friendship and emphasizing the affection the men share for one another.

“He is my man, and I am his man,” Jordan said. “Bill Clinton has taught me that friendship is the medicine of life.”

Clinton stepped on stage following the warm introduction to a crowd cheering on its feet. He approached Jordan and the two embraced each other with a hug.

Clinton began his dialogue mentioning other friends he has at DePauw including alumnus Tim Collins, who he calls a close friend, and professor Bruce Stinebrickner with whom Clinton attended Georgetown University. Clinton called Stinebrickner a “basketball hero” of the university.

Clinton also talked about his friendship with Jordan and about his accomplishments in life. He described Jordan as an individual who embodies the “American Dream” in his life.

“I love Vernon Jordan and know few Americans who have done more to make themselves and this country better,” Clinton said.

After describing Jordan’s extensive efforts in Civil Rights activism, Clinton discussed the interactions that occur throughout the world as borders and boundaries between nations and cultures begin to disappear.

“They (the borders) are becoming more like nets than walls,” Clinton said.

He emphasized the importance of encouraging change and embracing diversity to prosper. Clinton encouraged audience members to consider the problem-wrought world in which we live and to keep hope that change is possible. He told the thousands gathered to consider the world into which their grandchildren will be born. Again, Clinton used Jordan as an example.

“Vernon Jordan knew what he wanted America to look like, and he has done more than anyone I know to make it look that way,” Clinton said.

The former president identified three problems as what he considered to be the greatest in the world: inequality, instability and lack of sustainability.

Clinton offered an example to Haiti, a nation with which he often works to improve living conditions and build “systems” intended to better the lives of Haitians. He also mentioned student government president Charles Pierre, who was born in Haiti.

Clinton addressed the recent outbreak of Cholera in Haiti that has killed hundreds and continues to spread due to a contaminated water supply.

He said this outbreak stemmed in part from inequality. If the Haitians had an effective sanitation system, the problem could have been contained more quickly.

Instability emerged as Clinton’s next topic, leading into more controversial issues such as financial instability in Europe, immigration policy and global warming.

“If there is too much (instability) it risks becoming like a computer virus that can’t be controlled,” Clinton said.

Referencing the financial struggles in Europe, Clinton said that Americans should be concerned as the United States interacts directly with European nations and could be economically impacted by any decline.

He then addressed the border between the United States and Mexico plagued with narcotics trafficking. He also offered an apology to recent immigrants in the audience, who may be subject to the heated immigration debate in the United States.

“It’s crazy, most of what’s being said about immigration in America today,” Clinton said. “When people are scared, they say crazy things.”

In his final example of instability, Clinton said that in the United States, a candidate needs to deny the existence of global warning to gain a nomination. Clinton addressed global warming and the direct impact it is having on nations throughout the world.

In the final leg of his speech, Clinton explained that “systems” must be developed in other countries and improved in the United States to progress in a positive way.

“We have systems. They were built on a road to prosperity,” Clinton said. “At some point, you enjoy a sufficient level of success and you begin to think things are automatic.”

Clinton said this has become a problem for the United States, because individuals begin taking power for too long in order to provide for better lives for themselves rather than considering the future for others.

He encouraged the acceptance of change rather than solely embracing what is accepted to move forward.

“Most successful rich countries have learned to create consistent change,” Clinton said. “Washington’s problem is that they are too busy trying to create the future.”

The lecture lasted approximately an hour — 20 minutes longer than scheduled. Clinton arrived early and began around 20 minutes prior to the scheduled starting time of 3 p.m.

The Q-and-A session that followed addressed issues of US involvement in international affairs, Clinton’s advice for Obama on the financial crisis, Clinton’s role models and creating successful democratic governments abroad.

Clinton upheld that the United States must lead in peace, prosperity, freedom and security. He said that remaining the strongest nation in the world may be unreasonable as others emerge.

“I was trying to build a world that was good for Americans to live in even after we weren’t the superpower anymore,” Clinton said.

Senior Emma Lanham asked about Clinton’s fiscal advice for Obama. Clinton gave three pieces of advice: continue passing legislation, maximize executive authority and ability to work with the private sector on jobs, and work with various groups to improve the housing market.

Clinton addressed questions about difficult moments in his career and individuals who inspired him with common answers. He encouraged students never to quit and cited his mother as one of his greatest inspirations along with teachers and former presidents.

The discussion concluded with a question from an international student from Burma who asked for Clinton’s advice on creating and continuing a democracy.

“The thing you have to be careful is how you walk the tightrope toward democracy,” Clinton said. “Move toward democracy without giving a foolish excuse for generals to take it back.”

Clinton finished and after a moment of silence the crowd rose to its feet, again in applause. Clinton hugged Jordan, waved and stepped off the stage, moving on.

Director of such acclaimed films as 1989’s “Do the Right Thing” and 1992’s “Malcolm X,” Lee began his address by joking about his own expertise on race issues.

“I never considered myself an expert on anything except the New York Knickerbockers,” he said, eliciting laughter and cheering from the audience.

He referred to race as “the big elephant in the room,” adding that it takes major events such as the O.J. Simpson trial and the prospect of a black president for race to “blow up” and come to the forefront of the nation’s conversation. Americans must look at the nation’s history in order to gain perspective on its present racial issues, Lee said.

“Until we as a country deal with slavery, we’re never going to get to the root of racism,” he said. “Until we deal with how this land was stolen from the Native Americans, we’re not going to deal with what this country’s based upon.”

Discussions of race become problematic when individuals hope to avoid confrontation or face delicate issues when engaging in conversations, according to Lee.

“We talk about race, people think that you have to be polite. So therefore, people don’t talk honestly about how they feel,” Lee said. “I’d rather people be honest about how they feel about you — even if it’s not want you want to hear — than fake it.”

Lee, whose mother taught art and black literature, reiterated that education plays a role in creating an overall better world. Moreover, Lee disputed what he said is the notion among some African Americans that acquiring a high level of education is “selling out” or “trying to be white.”

“I come from a generation of African Americans where education was not frowned upon the way it is today,” Lee explained. “We’re talking about an age that is very susceptible to peer pressure. Who knows how many black, intelligent minds have succumbed to peer pressure [and] dumbed down just to fit in.”

Regarding the state of the nation as a whole under President Obama’s administration, Lee’s outlook was less than positive.

“I’m very pessimistic about where we are in this country,” he said. “People are broke, out of work, lost their homes. This whole American Dream, for the majority of the people in this country, is going up in smoke. I voted for President Obama and I’ll vote for him again, but Brother Man better come on now.”

He spoke at length about his own experiences growing up in Brooklyn and how — upon moving into the neighborhood Cobble Hill — he and his brothers were berated and called racial slurs by their new neighbors.

Lee also noted a defining moment in his childhood when he was told he could not join his friends’ Boy Scout troupe because he was Catholic.

Upon asking his father what religion had to do with it, the man responded, “it has nothing to do with it, they just don’t like n—-rs.”

Afterwards, Lee took questions from the audience.

Before doing so, however, he prefaced the session with a few stipulations.

“I know this is State of Race, but do not ask me how to end racism, prejudice, world hunger or hate crimes because I don’t have the answer for that,” Lee requested.

At one point in the 30 minute forum, a 10-year-old boy approached the microphone and asked the filmmaker about his views on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) issues, saying that many of his friends were of the LGBT community. Lee then began questioning the boy.

“What you know about that?” Lee asked. “How old are your friends?”

Upon being assured that the boy’s friends were adults, Lee pulled back.

“Oh thank, God,” he said. “I know this is Atlanta but — ”

In response to the crowd’s audible reaction to the statement, Lee proclaimed, “you know Atlanta is the Black Homosexual capital of the United States — don’t front.”

According to Rachel Kanter, Emory senior and College Council (CC) vice president of programming, the event was a success because it accomplished the goal of State of Race: to promote dialogue and raise questions.

“Spike Lee did just that, challenging both the inherent racism of American society and the failure of African Americans — including those in the student body at Emory — to resolve issues in their own community,” Kanter said.

For his part, College Council President and Emory junior Ashish Gandhi expressed mixed feelings about the event.

While he said he felt the event helped promote discussion around campus, he added that he did not feel as though Lee’s speech had insight on how to address racial concerns.

“I think that everyone there enjoyed his talk [and] I think he had a lot of very good thoughts, I just don’t think it pertains to the State of Race,” Gandhi said. “I think it was a great event, we obviously had a passionate crowd. I just think the only thing that could have been better about the event would have been the content of the speech.”

Emory junior Jake Krakovsky also explained he felt as though Lee did not go into enough detail in certain topics.

“There wasn’t really much structure to his speech,” Krakovsky said. “To be honest, I would have enjoyed a little more specificity. He spoke about a lot of important things but I feel like for a lot of it he kept it general.”

Other students such as Emory sophomore D.J. Walden said he found Lee’s approach to addressing different issues to be highly valuable.

“His stories and tangents were what the crowd needed to hear as far as race is concerned,” he said. “More than anything, he did the smart thing and talked about the State of Race from a personal standpoint — he didn’t try to come from a political standpoint or religious standpoint.”

About 850 students and faculty members gathered in the Tom W. Davis Special Events Gym at Ohio State U. Wednesday to participate in an aerobics class with one of the nation’s biggest names in fitness.

There were large light fixtures on either side of the bleachers in the back of the gym, each with four large spot lights pointed at the stage. There was a railing in front of the stage, and the backdrop was a large black curtain that extended from end to end.

Sporting a completely fringed shirt with teal, orange, pink and purple stripes, Simmons loosely resembled a more colorful version of the flappers of the 1920s. His shirt, though it was not exceptionally long, extended lower than his extremely short dolphin shorts.

He also wore flesh colored tights with white shoes and socks.

The workout portion of the event lasted about 45 minutes, and was followed by an invitation for everyone to sit on the floor and listen as Simmons shared his life story.

He spoke about the weight problems he had as a child. He talked about how difficult it was to go to school, being constantly teased about his weight.

Simmons became emotional, crying as he shared his experiences.

He spoke of his struggles with bulimia and anorexia, and when he lost 119 pounds in only 2 1/2 months, he was hospitalized and near death. This lead to his decision to change his life and become the fitness icon he is today. Soon after leaving the hospital, he opened up his own fitness studio, “Slimmons” in Beverly Hills.

Simmons urged everybody to refrain from judging others based on their appearance and to follow the “golden rule” of being kind to one another.

“A lot of people judge people by the pound,” Simmons said. “But there’s no scale in heaven.”

Though the workout portion of the event was called “Sweatin’ to the Oldies,” every song played was a current hit.

During “Without You” by David Guetta, Simmons called two guys up onstage. He then grabbed their shirts, pulled them off over their heads and threw them into the crowd before busting out more aerobic-dance moves for everybody to follow along.

Simmons continued to call participants up on stage throughout the workout. It became standard for any male that came up to take off his shirt. Simmons also kissed a woman on the cheek and danced with another while rotating his pelvis. He also rubbed his hand down one man’s bare chest and then rubbed the hand on his own face.

“He was pretty touchy,” said Brandon Hoffman, a first-year in marketing and public affairs. “I didn’t expect that. I think it’s funny.”

Immediately after running out from behind the curtain at the beginning of the event, Simmons invited about 30 people to come onstage to workout beside him.

He then instructed everybody there to hug the person to their left, the person to their right, and the person behind them before the workout began.

Before starting, Simmons told the crowd what the workout would consist of. It was to include stretching, a warm-up, a cardiovascular routine, upper-body toning and a cool down.

There were huge screens at either end of the stage. A camera followed Simmons as he danced around during the workout, and the video was projected on the screens so that it was easier to for the crowd to follow along.

By the end of the workout there was close to 100 people on the stage.

Victoria Holthaus, a third-year in nutrition, was one of people whom Simmons called onto the stage.

“It was the greatest,” Holthaus said. “My mom used to workout with him on workout videos. So the fact that I was able to workout with him in person was really cool.”

The speed of the workout slowed down during “Party Rock Anthem,” by LMFAO. Rather than dancing wildly, Simmons led everybody through a slower-paced strength workout routine that targeted the upper body.

“It Will Rain” by Bruno Mars played during the cool down. The movements during this song were slow-paced stretches and swaying.

Those in attendance looked as though they had travelled through a time warp to the ‘80s, with most students dressed in brightly colored tights, spandex shirts, headbands and wristbands.

Aaron Blubaugh, a first-year graduate student in occupational therapy, was pleased with the crowd’s attire.

“I think the coolest thing was how many students dressed retro,” Blubaugh said. “It was really nice that they all got into it.”

Simmons ended the event with a prayer.

“This is insane,” Krasinski, who plays Jim Halpert on “The Office” and has starred in several films, said upon entering the packed auditorium. “I’m having an existential meltdown.”

Students gathered outsideas early as 3 p.m. to get seating at the event, which started four hours later. But the line last night was nothing compared to the wait for tickets — some students arrived at earlier than 7 a.m. Tuesday for the 12 p.m. distribution.

“It was so worth it,” said Deesha Misra, a sophomore at the Rhode Island School of Design.

The crowd was brimming with anticipation before the event began. Two false entrances provoked applause and cheering before Krasinski made his entrance, cracking jokes as he appeared.

“I took way too many classes in here,” he said, looking around Salomon. “And a couple naps.”

After a few opening remarks, Krasinski opened the event to questions from the audience. Students lined up to ask about the actor’s decision to attend Brown, which dorms he stayed in, his favorite classes (“Management of Industrial and Nonprofit Organizations” and an introductory biology course) and his time on The Office.

“I think we all have a little bit of our characters,” he said, referring to the show’s cast. Krasinski said Steve Carell is “pretty shy” but is also one of the funniest people he knows. He said the two actors had an emotional time getting through their last filmed scene together.

“I think I just rehydrated last week from that,” he said.

Krasinski said he did not plan to go into acting as an undergraduate. He entered Brown as an English concentrator after spending the first semester of freshman year in Costa Rica teaching English. The best thing about Brown was “everyone doing whatever the hell they wanted — in a good way,” he said.

Krasinski recalled the first play he acted in at Brown, in which he played a “6-foot-3 transvestite.”

“I wore high heels. So that was another phenomenal moment.”

Some students asked more personal questions, like how Krasinski met his wife, actress Emily Blunt, who was sitting in the front row.

Krasinski said the pair met at a restaurant, through a mutual friend. “There’s more to it, yes, but you’re not going to get it,” he added.

Krasinski also made multiple references to the crowd tweeting his responses. “Get your Twitter out,” he remarked at the beginning of the question-and-answer session.

When someone asked about his experience at Sex Power God, Krasinski said he had not heard of the event. Later, he referred to Josiah’s by its full name. The crowd corrected him, yelling “Jo’s.”

“Yeah, I call it Josiah’s. I’m 90,” Krasinski said.

Several students asked about how Krasinski became a successful actor. He responded that though he was working in New York as a waiter when he decided to pursue acting, he had a lot of fun just living in the city and being with friends.

“Every time I went into a room to audition, it wasn’t my only thing, and people can feel that,” he said.

“I think that’s pretty much the world’s job — to dissuade you from acting,” Krasinski said. “Don’t listen to anybody.”

“You have to be courageous enough to give it a shot — and keep giving it a shot.”

When the event ended, the majority of the crowd rushed the stage to get autographs and pictures with the actor, who complied with several requests but quickly left the stage.

“By every statistical, historical model, Barack Obama loses,” King said. “You cannot find a historical, statistical model that says he wins. But that doesn’t mean he’s not going to win.”

King, now covering his seventh consecutive U.S. presidential campaign, illustrated an electoral landscape full of nuances and unpredictability. He warned students not to trust the traditional methods people use to predict elections.

King also spoke candidly about the shortcomings of certain media networks, including his own, and urged students to get their news from outside of the main Washington, D.C. media outlets to broaden their horizons.

Reflecting on the Republican primaries

King outlined the framework of the Republican campaign as a tug a war for control of the heart and soul of the Republican Party.

“The easiest way to sum it up right now is Romney versus the rest,” King said. “On paper, Romney will be the Republican nominee.”

King said Romney is taking advantage of the “crowded field” to split the votes to his right.

“The last thing he wants is a one-on-one,” King said.

The only other candidate who is equal to Romney in electability on paper is Texas Governor Rick Perry, but he has to step up his campaign to remain competitive and be a leading contender, according to King.

“You don’t win Texas if you’re a dope,” King said.

King’s remarks proved to be true. Perry has been widely criticized and quickly discredited in the media for his bumbling gaffe in the Nov. 9 Republican debate when he couldn’t name the third federal agency he would cut.

King also addressed the peculiar aspects of primary elections, taking note that “lily-white” states like Iowa and New Hampshire play an influential role in weeding out candidates because they are the first two states to hold primaries.

And with the added eccentricity of independents now allowed to vote in the New Hampshire primaries, King hypothesized, “If the vote is really close, mischief could decide the race in New Hampshire.”

2012 election repeat of 1992 election?

King said Obama in the 2012 election reminds him of George H.W. Bush in the 1992 election, without going so far as to say the outcome will be the same.

Despite coming off of foreign policy victories, Bush faced a faltering economy and disenchanted voters, and Bush ultimately lost the race.

“George H.W. Bush was one of the most respected presidents in my lifetime,” King said. “And the American people said, ‘Thanks for trying. See you later.’ That could well happen to [Obama].”

King also laid out the central attack Republicans would launch at Obama: the promise of hope and change that never came.

The Republicans will emphasize high unemployment and home foreclosure rates and what seems to be the apex of gridlock in Washington when Obama promised post-partisanship as main arguments, according to King.

Obama faces other challenges as well. King said part of Obama’s appeal during his first presidential bid was that he was “new.” Now that Obama’s novelty has worn off, King predicts an uphill climb.

“He’s a used car now,” King said. “So it’s a tougher sell for him this time.”

Although he listed all the factors that would hurt Obama’s chances, King called Obama a “pretty damn good politician” and left the outcome of the presidential race wide open.

“Remember the arithmetic,” King said. “We’re all equal — one vote. So whoever organizes the best wins.”

Almeida started by talking about the world financial crisis that reached its peak in 2008. He compared the impact of the crisis to the aftermath of earthquakes.

“Like earthquakes, crises have aftershocks … they assume different aspects and touch upon different areas of our economic system,” Almeida said. “What we have in Europe today is an aftershock of the financial crisis of 2008.”

Almeida said the effects are particularly acute in Europe, and in the EU because the countries are part of an integrated economic area.

Leaders dealing with the crisis have to take special considerations because there are 27 countries in the EU.

“We have 27 countries, 27 democracies, 27 governments, 27 oppositions, 27 parliaments, “Almeida said. “It makes a lot of noise.”

Part of that “noise” is a result of the union’s system not being equipped to make the decisions necessary to deal with the urgency of the situation, or to provide relief for those countries most in need.

The EU came to the rescue of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, countries with unsustainable levels of debt and budgetary deficits, to minimize the impact of the economic collapse.

In addition to this, Almeida said, leaders are working with the central banking system to provide more funding so they can react to existing and future crisis situations.

They are also using the situation to introduce fundamental reforms like pension, retirement age, education and financing welfare. Almeida said they have to institute changes that promote growth and innovation.

“Citizens will not support it [reforms] if they do not see the light at the end of the tunnel; if they don’t see the rationale for the sacrifice, meaning more more growth and more jobs,” Almeida said.

Despite these challenges, Almedia said the euro will survive.

“It makes sense to have a single currency. Otherwise the currency becomes an obstacle,” he said. “Imagine if we had gone into this financial crisis with 17 currencies instead of one. Imagine our small countries having to weather the storm throughout this crisis with smaller currencies.”

Another consideration is the euro’s positive history. It has kept inflation at two percent and created more than 16 million jobs in the euro area.

The euro also reinforces the union’s ability to adapt to and influence what happens in other international economic areas.

The euro is a unifying power among the countries; one they cannot afford to lose.

Almeida said the collapse of the euro would be worse than the current crisis. The cost would be far greater and more unpredictable.

“The euro is part of the mechanism and tools that we have to keep these countries, these people and this economy together,” Almeida said.

Shawna Hatten, senior psychology major at Marshall, said she remembers one player in a particularly different way.

“I had heard throughout my life about how good a person my cousin was,” Hatten said. “I wanted a lasting memory that will be with me no matter where I go.”

Hatten said remembering the entire team is important to her.

“I wanted something to commemorate not only his memory but keep other players’ memory alive as well,” Hatten said. “This way, people can ask what my tattoo is, and I can tell them the story.”

Hatten’s cousin was sophomore Michael Blake, who played on the offensive line and perished in the 1970 crash.

The words, “From the ashes we rose” are tattooed on Hatten’s foot and caught the eye of one of her professors, Louis Peake.

Peake, history professor, said he is all too familiar with the crash.

He was one of five athletic trainers for the 1970 Thundering Herd football team who alternated game coverage. Two trainers attended each away game, but when it came time for Marshall to play East Carolina, Peake would not make the flight with the team.

“I can remember my brother calling and asking if I had heard the news. A few minutes later, Jim Hickman (team doctor who also stayed in Huntington) called to say there were no survivors,” Peake said.

“I can still remember the cars parked along I-64 as we made our way to the scene of the crash,” Peake said. “All I could do was think, ‘Maybe someone survived.’”

The Herd had just suffered a disappointing 17-14 loss to ECU when the team left Greenville, N.C. Southern Airlines Flight 932 was set to arrive in Huntington after leaving Kinston at 6:38 p.m., with the team, fans and coaching staff on board.

At 7:23 p.m., the crew contacted Tri-State Airport tower and were granted clearance for a localizer approach on runway 11. The flight would instead strike trees on a hillside, crash then burn about one mile from the runway. There were no survivors.

The next month was filled with several funerals and memorials. On the day after the crash, there was a service in the Veterans Memorial Field House. There, empty chairs represented the lives lost in the tragedy that is known as the worst single air tragedy in NCAA sports history.

“Seeing those empty chairs was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” Peake said.

“It was the saddest time of my life.”

Marshall did not play the final game of the 1970 season against Ohio University.

Though Hatten was not born at the time of the crash, she still is affected by the devastation her family experienced.

“Since I was little, any time my family mentioned the crash and what happened, I came to realize how much it affected me,” Hatten said.

A 1970 Plane Crash Memorial stands at Spring Hill Cemetery in honor of the lives who perished.

“I go there (Spring Hill Cemetery) probably every six months,” Hatten said.

“I love to take pictures of the memorial and take time to remember. It is so quiet and peaceful,” Hatten said.

Now in Marshall’s Marching Thunder, Hatten dons the Kelly green with pride.

“Coming here to Marshall made me gain a new perspective on everything,” Hatten said.

Every November 14, Marshall organizes a ceremony to honor those who passed at the Memorial Fountain located in the center of campus.

“It’s just one way we can honor their memories,” Peake said. “Bringing people together from various places and tying them to something that affected them all is a powerful thing.”

Hatten remembers her first fountain ceremony.

“I went to my first ceremony in 2007, and I was so amazed at everyone coming together for support,” Hatten said. “I remember standing on the balcony of the student center as someone sang ‘Amazing Grace’ as they turned off the fountain.”

The ceremony is required for Peake’s students. No matter what they may be studying, he cancels class for the day and tells them to attend.

He commemorates players and coaches who passed by sharing his memories. Peake shares photos, jerseys and other memorabilia from the season.

“Whether you’re from the area or from somewhere else, you’re here for a reason. You’re tied to Marshall, and in turn, tied to its legacy. This is part of your heritage,” Peake said.

That heritage lives on in the community.

“There is a void that will never be filled in Huntington. It is up to us to remember and honor them as much as we can,” Hatten said. “We’re all in this together.”

The 41st annual plane crash ceremony, presented by the Student Government Association, will be this morning at 11 a.m. at the Memorial Student Center Plaza.

To a crowd of thousands, University Park Undergraduate Association President TJ Bard, who spoke at the vigil, said the gathering demonstrated what Penn State was about.

“We cannot let the actions of a few define us,” Bard said at the event, held to honor the children and families who were at the heart of the sexual abuse charges filed against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. “All of you here tonight are what Penn State represents.”

As a last-minute guest, former Penn State All-American linebacker LaVar Arrington also came to offer his condolences and speak about the importance of remaining unified as a university community, even in discouraging times.

“We are Penn State and that will never change,” Arrington said. “We have been the standard for so long. We have been the close family for so long.”

Arrington continued by challenging those in attendance to be active and take up Penn State’s “call of duty” of not leaving and forgetting what happened at the vigil.

Vigil organizer Jessica Sever shared an anonymous letter written by a person who had suffered from sexual abuse in the past.

“Although that world is full of suffering, it is completely full of overcoming it,” Sever said, reading the letter.

After sharing these real-life testimonies from those who have experienced sexual abuse, the crowd stood still and listened songs from None Of The Above and Blue in the FACE, both Penn State a capella groups.

Athena Abate, who’s set to graduate in a month, said recent events have been a “shake-up” to her.

Instead of losing faith in her university, Abate said these times are a test but she will always love Penn State.

“Penn State is a community and a family and we always come through during the tough times,” Abate said.

Katie Tice stood by her friend, Abate. Tice said she was also amazed at what has occurred her senior year but believes the vigil showed what was still pure and good about the university.

“Penn State has been hurt,” Tice said. “This community has been devastated and it’s absolutely critical that we come together and show the nation that we’re able to overcome this and that we’re doing nothing more than supporting the victims.”

After Bard — the last speaker of the night — finished his remarks as the bells sounded at 10 p.m., all in attendance raised their candles for a moment of silence.

When the bell’s 10 rings came to an end, the Penn State Blue Band led the crowd in singing the alma mater.

Blue Band member and organizer of the vigil Kyle Harris could not believe the number of attendees until he saw the thousands of candles rise together against an otherwise dark Old Main lawn.

“It’s really a true testament to the Penn State student body, the Penn State community and to just this university as a whole,” Harris said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett told ABC-TV on Saturday that he was “very proud” of those involved in what he said was a student-run effort in the vigil.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

And though Jesse Scheidlower’s job as the dictionary’s editor at large for North America is to spend his days updating, revising and adding new entries, there’s no guarantee that there will ever be an OED 3. He addressed the issues involved with revising the OED at Elon U. Nov. 10, tracing the history of lexicography to support his case.

Scheidlower, who is also the president elect of the American Dialect Society, gave a talk called “Updating the Oxford English Dictionary.” During the lecture, one of the things he characterized as most challenging about revising the OED is that it is all-encompassing of language, so many words are included that wouldn’t be in other dictionaries.

“We put these (words) in because they’re part of our language,” Scheidlower said. “We don’t keep them out because we don’t like them.”

These words include slang and derogatory terms like swears, which might offend people. He said whether a word is in use, not its meaning, determines if it finds a place in the OED.

He also noticed a number of years ago that no scholarly research had really been done to track a particular four-letter word that had been a major part of language for centuries. His research prompted him to write “The F-Word,” a highly academic look at the background of the word.

“There aren’t that many words out there that you can write an entire book about,” Scheidlower said. “It’s not something that is typically studied by academics.”

Since the subject has largely been left untouched, Scheidlower said the book is scholarly at its root and not intended for humorous purposes.

When he started out, he traced the history of lexicography — or the history of dictionaries — as well as the past of the OED. He said the first dictionary was put together in the fifteenth century, and hardly resembled the format that’s used today. There was no pronunciation guide, usage guides and no sentence examples.

The words featured were different, too. He said many of them were very esoteric, and it didn’t include everyday words. But in 1755, after a few versions of this kind of dictionary had been published, Scheidlower said one of the most important dictionaries was made. Samuel Johnson’s “A Dictionary of the English Language” was really the first to categorize words to the extent they are today, giving actual examples of their usage and various explanations for words.

“No one had done this before,” Scheidlower said. “Everything he came up with, he came up with his own analysis of it … he would go through a wide variety of texts and note words that he thought were interesting. You can’t overstate how hard this is.”

This was the work that essentially set the stage for the OED — which he said took 44 years to create. A project that started in the late 1800s and wasn’t published until 1928, Scheidlower said this it moved pretty quickly for a comprehensive historical dictionary.

Because even now, as the OED’s third revision is in progress, he said it has taken the editors more than a decade to get through less than a quarter of the dictionary — between adding new words and revising old entries, the OED 3 is a long process.

“We are progressing as best we can,” Scheidlower said. “Far and away, the main goal is to finish editing. Things are speeding up, but it’s still clear that it’s a decades-long project just to revise it.”

And once it’s done, he said it might not even go to print. For now, it’s being updated on its website, where all the words are searchable and characterized. But once the total revision is done, it may not even become a hard copy — one reason being the editors anticipate it would double in size to become a 40-volume set.

He said when people ask him about the project, he doesn’t have a certain answer to give them.

“We will have to wait and see how it goes,” he said. “We don’t know if the next edition of the OED — OED 3 — will ever be printed.”

In wake of the Board of Trustees’ decision to dismiss Penn State President Graham Spanier and head football coach Joe Paterno, thousands of students gathered at Old Main at around 10:30 p.m., shouting chants of “F— the Trustees” and “We want Joe.”

To some students, like Andrew Hanselman, Paterno was Penn State.

“Being accepted to Penn State felt like a family, and Joe Paterno was the father. Now that he’s gone my heart is in two,” Hanselman said.

Jimmy Gallagher, raised on the shoulders of students at the top of the Old Main staircase, shouted from a megaphone.

“We stand united as students. We don’t care what anyone else has to say. We want Joe and we want him back,” Gallagher said.

The rally at Old Main lasted for about 20 minutes, then moved to Beaver Canyon at about 11 p.m.

Fireworks were set off near Pugh Street and Beaver Avenue while police officers tried to direct traffic through the mob of people.

One person was raised on the shoulders of other students, starting a “F— the Trustees” chant.

Many expressed their concerns about the Board of Trustees’ decision.

Matt Villani said the Board of Trustees’ decision tarnished Paterno’s legacy at Penn State.

“There’s a large student and alumni outcry against what happened,” Villani said. “They should have let him finish his last home game.”

Despite Paterno not being able to finish the season, Villani said the morale will be higher at the game versus Nebraska Saturday.

During the riot, two light posts were ripped down — one on Beaver and one on College Avenue.

The crowd also tipped over a WTAJ news van on College Avenue, and continued to walk on top of it. The damage included dented car roofs and shattered back windows.

“We support JoePa, but it doesn’t need to result in tipping vans,” Mike Cannata said. “We can show our support in other ways.”

Smells of gasoline saturated East College Avenue after the van was tipped. Gasoline leaked and fire trucks were called to the scene.

“This is the first time I can say I don’t love this school,” said Travis Salters, president of the Penn State chapter of the NAACP.

The crowd lit a small fire on the Old Main lawn which was put out immediately by people standing nearby.

Rocks thrown from crowds on the sides of the road hit one man with a camera and broke car windows.

Penn State text alert called for an official dispersal order for Old Main and downtown State College. Everyone was required to vacate both areas immediately, according to the text.

The crowd on College Avenue dispersed around 1 a.m. Dozens of police officers remained in the street, controlling the few who remained on the sidewalks.

Collegian staff writers Tim Gilbert and Liz Dennerlein, Aria Moyer, Danae Blasso, Lynn Ondrusek, Mindy Szkaradnik, Jessica Weber, Christina Gallagher, Kristin Stoller, Brittany Horn and Stephen Shiflett contributed to this report.

Hundreds of Penn State U. students stood on Old Main’s steps, arms around each others’ shoulders, singing the Alma Mater, making sure to shout “May no act of ours bring shame,” hoping to gain the attention of the administration Tuesday night.

Chants, like “Joe can’t go,” and “I believe in PSU,” were shouted from the crowd and students took time to have a moment of silence for those directly affected by former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky’s alleged actions.

Danielle Perkins said she stood among hundreds of her classmates on Old Main steps to reinforce football coach Joe Paterno’s legacy.

“I think we all agree we can’t let this tarnish our university as a whole,” Perkins said. “Three dishonorable men can’t represent 40,000 students.”

The administration is not handling the situation very well and students are disappointed that they are failing to inform the public, Maura Carney said.

“To cancel [Paterno's] press conference today, they just dug themselves in a deeper hole,” Carney (sophomore-political science) said at the protest.

Carney said the amount of students that protested at Old Main shows there is a lack of communication among the administration and students.

“No one has reached out to the student body,” Carney said.

Penn State’s chapter of NAACP President Travis Salters quieted the crowd down at one point, stressing that students should focus on the families and individuals directly affected by Sandusky’s alleged actions.

“We should hold our leaders accountable,” Salters said.

Salters added that even though he does think Paterno is an excellent coach, all the leaders involved should resign.

Many students, however, disagreed with Salters’ statement and continued to show their support for Paterno.

Dan Franke said he supports Paterno and he wants to let the Board of Trustees know that he is not happy with the alleged cover up.

“Hopefully, [the Board of Trustees] will realize we’re all supporting our coach and he really did nothing wrong. He went to his supervisor,” Franke (senior-hotel, restaurant and institutional management) said.

Shannon Elton said she also attended the Old Main protest to support all that Paterno has done for Penn State over the years.

“I want to show my support for [Paterno] mostly and not ignore what he’s done for the school since he’s been here,” Elton said. “He’s given so much to the school and for us and for the alumni that we can’t forget about.”

Maddy Pryor, who also helped organize the ‘Protect Joe Paterno’s Statue’ event, said the student body needs to stand together rather than be divided after the Sandusky incident.

“All of this isn’t something we’re used to,” Pryor said. “None of us have really been through this, especially at Penn State which has such high regards.”

In the last decade, no one has shaped our culture’s understanding of privacy more than Mark Zuckerberg. He has created a phenomenally successful online service that makes it normal for us to post every detail of our personal information for our friends, families, and the world to see.

Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, is speaking at a recruiting event at Carnegie Mellon U. on Tuesday. He will speak to a capacity crowd in Wiegand Gym, and his talk will be simulcast in McConomy Auditorium. Pre-registered students, faculty, and staff will be attending.

If Facebook has its way, though, you won’t be seeing photos of Zuckerberg’s Carnegie Mellon visit on your friends’ walls. Both photographic and audio recording devices are strictly prohibited at Tuesday’s event, and media outlets’ attempts to cover the event have been rebuffed.

This ban is not only misguided, it is also futile. Nearly every person in the audience will be carrying at least one — if not several — devices equipped with multi-megapixel cameras, digital recording, video capabilities, and constant access to social networks.

But even if the ban is impossible, it is decidedly misaligned with Facebook’s goals. Facebook’s stated mission is to “give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”

Zuckerberg’s talk is closed, and Carnegie Mellon and the media are being denied the power to share it. Coming from a CEO and company whose guiding principle is openness, this denial can only be seen as highly hypocritical.

Sure, Facebook might promote openness because its leaders actually want information to flow freely across the internet. On the other hand, they might just be looking to bring in more advertising dollars through the page views that they know sharing on their network brings in.

If Zuckerberg and his company wanted to show their dedication to the ideals of universal sharing and a more open and connected world, and prove their goal is not just increased advertising dollars. Tuesday’s event should be an opportunity, not a media challenge. This week’s recruiting trip will be limited to three universities (Harvard, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon); no doubt students around the world would be interested in hearing what Zuckerberg has to say.

Allowing Carnegie Mellon to stream Zuckerberg’s talk would support the open and connected world that Facebook claims to support. The news media was sharing information long before Zuckerberg came up with the idea for thefacebook.com, and denying it access denies people the access to information that Facebook claims to support.

While this may be Zuckerberg’s first campus tour, other members of Facebook’s leadership team have conducted similar closed meetings with other universities. Such precedents should be discouraged because they allow Facebook executives the ability to say whatever they please, without being held accountable to the media or other independent sources.

If Facebook and Zuckerberg are serious about their mission, they should apply its principles to everything they do. They should prove they aren’t just an advertising company in disguise.

Facebook events should be held in the spirit of Facebook the network. The restrictions placed on Tuesday’s event are against the spirit of openness that Zuckerberg and Facebook claim to prize.

Vice President Joe Biden told a crowd of over 300 people at U. Pittsburgh on Friday that the government must ease the burden of debt on college students.

“America is expected to reach more than $1 trillion in student loan debt by the end of this year,” Biden said to the audience, which consisted almost entirely of students from Pitt and surrounding universities. “That’s more than all the credit card debt in America. Average debt for a student graduating in America from a university is $20,000. At some schools, people are graduating with … $80,000 of debt. It’s a huge burden. And the question for us is, ‘What, if anything, are we going to do about it?’ ”

Biden stressed that good and widespread college education is a necessity if the United States is to remain a world leader. He explained, “My wife has a great expression. She says, ‘Any country that out-educates us will out-compete us.’ ”

But, Biden added, it’s becoming harder and harder for parents to provide their children with a quality education.

He illustrated the hardships of modern American families with stories of his own father’s economic troubles, and he talked about how he personally paid for his children’s expensive college educations.

“[My children] graduated with debt that ranged from $120,000 to a low of $68,000. You know what I was able to do that your parents can’t do? I had a home that we lived in for 25 years that significantly accumulated in value. And when they graduated, I sold that home. I understand what your parents aren’t in a position to do.”

In past decades, according to Biden, middle-class parents could pay for their children’s college educations using their houses or retirement plans. But in the current economic downturn, those are not options for many parents.

Biden said that in his extensive travels around the United States since becoming vice president, he’s been most disappointed in the lack of hope he sees when he talks to parents around the country.

“My father — when he told us he was going to have to leave us in Scranton with my grandfather, because there were no jobs in Scranton — he said it was going to be okay,” Biden recalled. “He believed that. Parents today, they’re just not at all sure it’s going to be okay. The middle class is being decimated.”

Will Zhang, a Carnegie Mellon senior computer science major who attended the event, said that the vice president made good use of the stories he told. “He’s a really great character. He has a really engaging personality,” Zhang said. “He used a lot of great anecdotes that really appeal to young people.”

But, Zhang said, the speech was also politically charged: “It was clear that he wanted to get more young people to support him and Obama.”

Biden spent a long section of his speech discussing the upcoming presidential election and detailing the ways in which he disagrees with the view Republicans have taken on how to fix the economy.

“They think that the way to get back the economy is to take away all the new regulations placed on Wall Street. The last time we deregulated Wall Street, we put the middle class in chains. I don’t call that liberation,” Biden said, referring to a speech in which Speaker of the House John Boehner (R–Ohio) said he wanted to “liberate the economy.”

By contrast, Biden said, in the two years before Republicans took control of the House in 2010, he and Obama increased the Pell grants available to the poorest students and eliminated private middlemen from student loans.

Biden also touted the president’s recent executive order that caps student loan payments at 10 percent of a person’s annual income.

According to The New York Times, students graduating in 2012 or later with certain kinds of federal loans will be able to consolidate those loans and then pay 10 percent of their income for 20 years, at which point the loans will be forgiven. Only students with low discretionary incomes would be eligible for the plan.

Biden said that the 2012 election will provide a clear choice for the American people about the direction in which they want to take the country.

“This is going to be a choice. And if the choice is made that we win, we will know that will be a mandate,” Biden said. “I think we’re going to be able to make significantly more progress the next four years than this, because people will make a choice. And we’ll live by the choice.”

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg swung by MIT yesterday to talk about Facebook’s corporate culture, what it’s like working in Silicon Valley, and — not surprisingly — why MIT students would make good Facebook engineers.

A third party candidate might have a much better shot at winning the 2012 presidential election than most citizens believe, experts in campaign media and communications said at the Harvard U. Institute of Politics on Monday.

The speakers identified Americans’ growing discontent with Washington partisanship and gridlock in Congress as factors that make a third party ticket more viable.

“People always say about a third party when we bring this up, ‘Oh, this isn’t going to happen,” said Mark McKinnon, former chief media advisor to President George W. Bush’s campaigns and a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. “Just because it hasn’t happened in American politics doesn’t mean it won’t now.”

Karen E. Tumulty, a political correspondent for the Washington Post, said that principles matter to today’s voters more than party membership.

“It feels like the center of gravity of politics has changed,” Tumulty said.

She noted that the Consumer Confidence Index, which measures citizens’ outlook on the economy, is currently at a low which it last reached in 1980 and 1992—both years in which an incumbent president was thrown out of office.

Each of those years also saw campaigns by significant third party candidates: John B. Anderson in 1980 and H. Ross Perot in 1992.

But McKinnon said that a 2012 third party option might fare even better than Perot, who garnered 19 percent of the popular vote in 1992, because confidence in government today is lower than it was 20 years ago.

A recent poll by New York Times/CBS found that 89 percent of Americans say they do not trust the government.

Kahlil Byrd, CEO of an organization called Americans Elect which hopes to put a third party candidate selected by online pollees on all state ballots in 2012, pointed out the increasing influence of technology on elections.

Byrd, a 2003 Kennedy School graduate, identified ballot access as the most significant barrier for prospective third party candidates. By helping nontraditional candidates overcome this barrier, he said he hopes Americans Elect will lead many more citizens to seriously consider a presidential run.

David M. Hafferty, who leads a Harvard branch of Americans Elect, said he hopes to extend the organization’s prominence on campus by sending emails and speaking to students.

“This panel got me thinking there may be some better way to elect our politicians so we aren’t as frustrated in the future,” said Jackson F. Cashion, an IOP Forum staffer who is also an inactive Crimson editor.

McKinnon forecasted that more candidates who have not yet declared their intent to run will still join the 2012 presidential field.

“I think a lot of interesting people are going to show up.” said McKinnon.

Zuckerberg emerged from the Loeb House, where he was meeting with University President Drew G. Faust, at 4:30 p.m., and answered three questions from the press before going directly to an exclusive discussion at Farkas Hall (formerly New College Theatre) with 200 students.

Clad in jeans and a navy hoodie, Zuckerberg bumped fists with an excited student to cheers and the constant click of cameras before making his way to microphones set up outside Lamont. Surrounded by the press on one side and a crowd of students armed with cameras and iPhones on the other, Zuckerberg kept a smile on his face throughout the press conference.

“Oh, we’re just getting started,” Zuckerberg said enthusiastically when asked what Facebook still had to accomplish.

“The original goals for the company are to make it so that the whole world can be more open and connected. And you know the last five years have really just been about helping people get signed up and stay connected with their friends,” he added. “But I think the next five or ten years are going to be about all of these different products and industries that can be rethought.”

Citing recent developments in social games, music, and television on Facebook, Zuckerberg explained that Facebook would provide a platform through which “different industries can be rethought in different ways so that your friends are there with you.”

In response to a question about why Facebook had not followed in the footsteps of Microsoft and Google and started a Boston branch, Zuckerberg struck a hopeful tone but confirmed that there are no immediate plans to do so.

Facebook has opened one development office in Seattle, Wash., according to Zuckerberg, in large part because it is in the same time zone as the company’s Palo Alto, Calif. office.

“We want to really get the culture there right before we start opening up other offices, but at some point hopefully down the line we will do that,” he said.

Students submitted resumés in advance to the Office of Career Services to take part in a discussion on Facebook moderated by Computer Science Senior Lecturer David J. Malan ’99 after the press conference, and about 200 students were accepted on a first-come-first served basis.

Applications closed as soon as the theater reached capacity, but students who did not receive tickets were placed on a short waiting list. All students from the standby list who showed up prior to the event were accommodated, according to Kevin Galvin, Director of News and Media Relations at the University.

Zuckerberg’s visit to Harvard is part of a three-university recruiting trip along the East Coast that includes MIT and Carnegie Mellon University.

“There’s a lot of really smart people here,” Zuckerberg answered when asked why he chose to recruit at Harvard and MIT. “And a lot of them are making decisions about where they’re going to work when they graduate in the next couple of weeks.”

The 42nd president addressed a crowd of around 6,000 Tufts students, faculty, staff and guests.

Clinton, highlighting his experience combating the spread of HIV/AIDS through the Clinton Health Access Initiative, encouraged members of the audience to ask themselves how they can each work to solve pressing global problems like climate change and economic inequality.

Clinton, also the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, called the question of global interdependence the fundamental question of the 21st century.

“If we do live in an interconnected world where all the world’s borders look more like nets than walls, are going to keep trying to fill in the nets to make them look like walls, or are we going to strive to build a world we can share?” he asked the audience.

He added that the responsibility of answering this question will fall to the students of today.

“The students here and your generation will have to make a decision, live with it, vote by it and work for it, about what kind of world you want, whether you really want the world of shared prosperity, shared opportunities, shared responsibilities and shared sense of community,” he said.

“If you do want that kind of world you have to ask a simple question: how do I get it?” he added.

Clinton praised Tufts and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy’s commitment to global thinking, and thanked the community for contributing to making the world more peaceful, sustainable and equal in the 21st century.

He also warned the audience against the temptation of pessimism during times of national crisis.

“The most important thing we can do in this economic crisis is to shed our negative thinking and our pessimism about the future and get up every day and look forward to finding something we can do that will make a positive difference at home and around the world,” he said.

“If you focus on the ‘how’ question, you can always find something that is worth doing,” he added.

“You shouldn’t be pessimistic about the future, but you shouldn’t be in denial either,” he said.

Clinton, whose upcoming book, “Back to Work,” focuses on America’s current economic crisis, also spent a significant portion of his speech addressing current domestic issues. He called suggestions to reduce the deficit by cutting foreign aid “a terrible mistake,” and argued for allowing increased immigration to the country.

He also stressed the need for healthy debate between ideologies, criticizing Washington partisans’ refusal to cooperate over issues of national importance.

His argument that the country should spend less time waging expensive wars and more time making friends across the globe was met with a round of applause from the audience.

Clinton called Tea Party−like anti−government sentiment “nonsense.”

“The biggest problem in the United States … is the anti−government ideology that has driven the right wing of our county for 30 years,” he said.

“There is not a single successful country on earth … that does not have both a strong economy and a good government working together,” he added.

Clinton concluded his address with an optimistic call to good sense.

“We are condemned to share the future. The world is interdependent. But we are not condemned to a bleak future,” he said.

The lecture was followed by a brief question and answer session with University President Anthony Monaco, in which Clinton fielded pre−selected questions from the Tufts community.

When asked about how the government can eliminate growing domestic economic disparities, Clinton called for increased taxes to the wealthy as a matter of “citizen responsibility.” He also stressed the need to create more jobs through improved education of the workforce.

China’s growth will lead to an unprecedented expansion of health care and a greater demand for access, said Bill Frist, former Republican Senate majority leader, in an address Thursday to a crowded audience at Duke U. Frist and other health experts presented at the conference on international health care finance and reform, which focused on global health issues.

“There is going to be explosive growth in the health care sector in China, and there are going be great opportunities for the United States to participate in that growth,” Frist said in an interview after his address.

In his introductory remarks, President Richard Brodhead related the subject of the conference to Duke’s mission.

“The problems of the world are not confined to national boundaries,” Brodhead said. “We want our students to see problems in a comparative dimension.”

Keynote speaker Alice Rivlin, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, discussed the relation between health care and payment reform in the U.S. and China, focusing on the opportunities that emerge from the attempt to put the federal budget back on a sustainable track.

“We’re currently spending 17 percent of our [gross domestic product] on health care, and that percent is rising,” Rivlin said. “If we don’t improve health care delivery and slow the increase of cost, where does this [spending] end?”

Rivlin also noted the current issues affecting Medicare—the federal system of health insurance for people ages 65 and older and people with disabilities—because people are living longer, and baby boomers are starting to reach retirement age. Resolving the present state of health care is becoming even more pressing given the looming national debt problem, Rivlin added.

Frist delivered a second speech comparing and contrasting the structure of health care in the U.S. and China. He reflected on both governmental and cultural differences between the two countries.

“China today provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity for entities to participate and shape explosive growth in health service delivery to hundreds of millions of people,” Frist said.

Although the specifics may vary, the underlying issues of health care in the U.S. and China are similar, Frist said. There is, for example, a problem of medical care access in both countries, where two-thirds of the population live in rural areas far from hospitals, he said. Although the Chinese government has taken measures to increase funding for medical centers in rural areas, more involvement is needed. Even now, the Chinese government covers approximately 45 percent of health care expenditures, while 55 percent comes straight from patients’ pockets.

“One issue to consider is the disparity between rural and urban areas in terms of health care resources,” Frist said. “There is a lack of advanced medical equipment and technology in many health care centers that needs to be resolved.”

“Using an internal combustion engine is like carrying around a 500-pound power plant,” he said. “It is incredibly inefficient.”

Kennedy said that many of the technologies we use today are wasteful, and there is a lot misinformation going around.

“There are these scientists that go on Fox News and tell everybody that global warming isn’t real,” he said. “It is like the Flat Earth Society.”

He said that the biggest falsehood is that the industry and the economy will suffer if we protect the environment.

“Good environmental policy is identical to good economic policy,” he said.

Investment in the green industry will spur job growth.

“That is where the jobs are,” Kennedy said. “That is where the economy is going to grow.”

An example he used was Brazil, whose economy has improved drastically since it decarbonized transportation. Kennedy said it is still continuing to grow economically, and it is now the fifth strongest economy in the world.

Kennedy also stressed the importance of protecting nature and the environment. He said the public benefits from the maintenance of nature both in the present and in the future. If a coal plant does not dump pollutants into a river, not only is the river clean today but humans will not be affected by health problems due to harmful mercury levels exposed to fish.

A central theme to Kennedy’s talk was his belief that special interests and corporations have continuously used their money to buy influence with public officials.

“I like corporations, but I don’t like them controlling our government,” he said.

Kennedy’s talk, delivered with strong emotions, received different opinions.

“I agree with him that if anything pushes alternative energies forward, it will be market forces,” said Phil Mekeel, UI senior.

Jessica Gao, UI sophomore, said she didn’t agree with all of his ideas but respected his dedication.

“He was very liberal in his views, but he did present some unique ideas for alternative energy,” Gao said. “He has stuck to what he believes for two and a half decades, and that is very admirable.”

The Harvard dropout and mastermind behind Facebook returns to his for his first official visit to the school since 2004, when he left to start the social networking site.

Zuckerberg will be accompanied by Mike Schroepfer, Facebook vice president of engineering.

The corporate heads will speak with students in Farkas Hall immediately after a press conference in Harvard Yard in the afternoon. He is also scheduled to meet with University President Drew G. Faust.

Zuckerberg will also visit MIT and Carnegie Mellon U. on his East Coast recruiting trip.

“He is eager to connect with computer science and engineering students from some of the best schools in the world, and may well be tomorrow’s Facebook innovators,” wrote Andrew Noyes, Facebook’s manager for public policy communications, in an email.

According to its website, Facebook has three internships available in engineering and security, along with 12 open positions for recent graduates from bachelor, master, and doctorate programs.

To apply to attend an exclusive discussion with the executives at 5 p.m., students must upload a resumé to the Crimson Careers portal on the Office of Career Services website by Friday.

The website received eight responses within three seconds of opening the application, said Robin Mount, director of the Office of Career, Research, and International Opportunities.

Preference will be given to students with applied math, computer science, or engineering backgrounds.

“The plan is for it to be personal and technical alike,” said Computer Science Senior Lecturer David J. Malan, who will moderate the discussion. “In particular, it is meant to appeal to future potential staff.”

Mount said that having students interact with Facebook executives in person replicates the work atmosphere students would enter if hired.

“Facebook is very relaxed and informal,” she said. “They want people who can be in an environment where [Zuckerberg] can see students’ faces and let students ask questions.”

Julia C. Winn, a computer science concentrator who is applying to a few technology companies this fall, said Zuckerberg’s visit significantly increases the appeal of Facebook recruiting.

“He’s a celebrity now,” she said. “That [event is] going to be maxed out—everybody’s going to be there.”

Winn said that her peers who are applying to the technology sector usually target Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. She would like to ask Zuckerberg why these companies are so popular—and why they in turn recruit so heavily at Harvard.

“Rumor on the street is that if you’re a software person you do have more flexibility … designing your own edge on something,” she said of Facebook.

Students are not the only ones eagerly anticipating Zuckerberg’s visit. His former professors are also excited for the return of a star pupil.

“I think students will become energized and inspired by the fact that computer science is really a skill—a field of study—that enables people to do amazing things,” said computer science senior lecturer Henry H. Leitner.

“A guy like Bill Gates, or a guy like Mark Zuckerberg, were a bit of anomaly,” Leitner said. Today, Leitner says, in the shadow of Gates and Zuckerberg, creating a startup is a more viable option for undergraduates.

Facebook has been recruiting at Harvard since 2008, according to Mount.

A self-described libertarian, McCluskey focused on the reasons why the cost of higher education has grown. The biggest cause, he said, is that increases in student aid only serve to convince universities to raise tuition as well.

“Students wouldn’t be priced out of college if aid wasn’t already priced in,” he said.

In addition, he said that taxpayers unfairly picked up the cost of funding increases.

“College is meant to increase your earnings,” he said. “Why should other people pay for your opportunity to make more money?”

The talk came on the heels of President Obama’s plan to ease the burden of student debt, as well as Occupy Penn State’s ongoing protest in the HUB-Robeson Center against the cost of higher education.

Josh Crawford, Chairman of the College Republicans, said he was glad that McCluskey’s subject connected to current events so well.

“There’s a lot of relevance to what’s going on lately,” Crawford said.

McCluskey spoke in front of about 50 people, and took questions after he finished.

PSU senior Zach Winston said he agreed with the ideas McCluskey presented, but was glad to see him admit when he didn’t have the data to back up his assertions.

“I appreciate that he said when he wasn’t certain,” Winston said. “It was good how balanced it was.”

On Monday afternoon, Laffer –– inventor of the economic model called the Laffer Curve and supply-side economics –– spoke to a crowd at Penn State U. as part of Truth Week 2011, a series of lectures on the economy.

Laffer greeted the crowd cheerfully, urging people to come toward the stage and to keep the mood light and informal. About half of the HUB Auditorium was full when Laffer began his speech, focusing on economic concepts.

His discussion touched on a range of topics, and Laffer even dipped into his past to discuss his relationship with former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, where he first explained the Laffer Curve.

The Laffer Curve refers to the theoretical relationship between government tax rates and individual taxable incomes. It states that taxable income will change if the rate of taxation changes.

Laffer used several hypothetical situations to illustrate economic concepts at work.

“If a guy receives a $600 check, he will buy more goods and services than he otherwise would have bought if he didn’t receive the check,” Laffer said, referencing a stimulus package.

The laws of economics, Laffer said, applies to a two-person world just the same as in a 300 million-person world. The 300 million-person world is just more complicated, he said.

In order to better understand how the economy works, Laffer asked students to imagine the economy is based on apple production: If the price of apples rises, the apple grower will be wealthier, he said. This means apple consumers will be less wealthy and have to spend more on apples, and this is how price and income offset each other in today’s economy, he said.

Laughter erupted during his discussion as he explained economics under different presidential terms.

“Barack Obama is an amazing person and was always at the top of his class. You got to be really good,” Laffer said. “The only problem is he’s always wrong.”

After speaking for about an hour, he stopped to take questions from the audience.

Josh Crawford, chairman of the Penn State College Republicans, said Laffer’s visit was a success.

“I thought the event went well,” Crawford said. “[Laffer’s] strengths were research ability and history.”

One student at the event, Malik Elarbi, said was mostly concerned about the rising costs of tuition and whether his friends had the same opportunities as him.

“In general, the cost of education, college universities the price has just skyrocketed,” Elarbi said.

Sponsored by the Clinton Foundation, the groups of panelists discussed the Clinton’s achievements, including his elimination of the national deficit and the longest period of economic expansion in U.S. history that yielded the first federal surplus in over 30 years.

The discussion was designed to draw comparisons between the economic and political challenges during the Clinton era and the climate today.

“When I came here in December of 1991, the country has at that time manifestations of many of the underlying economic realities that are gripping us today,” Clinton said.

The event consisted of two panel discussions, followed by an address from the former President. The panels mainly consisted of former aides and cabinet members, whom Clinton credited with the success of his administration.

“Basically I could have had a lobotomy and succeeded as president because of them,” Clinton jested.

Former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin offered background on the economic climate in which Clinton took office.

“He made the difficult decisions and worked unceasingly to implement the decisions he had made,” Rubin said.

Clinton was introduced by former Congressman Scott Murphy (D-N.Y.), who outlined the president’s work toward globalizing America. To cap the symposium, Clinton described his vision for the future based on the economic realities of today.

“For a country that depends on the idea of opportunity, the idea of social mobility … when we have unemployment at nine percent … It’s about more than just economics,” he said.

He attributed his administration’s fiscal success to eliminating overspending by the federal government.

“People ask me all the time, what great new idea … did you bring to Washington? And I say, ‘arithmetic,’” he said.

Clinton clarified that he believes President Barack Obama’s economic situation is worse than the one he faced in 1993.

“Our economic strategy began but did not end with getting ahold of the debt and turning around the deficit,” he said. “[However,] the particular solution we pursued is not applicable to this moment, because the problem is different.”

The former president urged the Congress to come together and work to reduce inequality and accept the role of government and the value of that role in the economy.

“We’re so concerned that we have too much government that sometimes we slip a gasket and then have to deal with the aftermath.”

The first panel discussion preceding Clinton’s speech centered on the major legislative battles fought in 1993 by the administration over a deficit reduction plan.

“The country was hurting. Washington was broken and people wanted to know, in specific terms, what are you going to do about it,” Bruce Reed, former director of the Domestic Policy Council said.

Former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Blinder described his forecasts for the economic expansion under Clinton’s policies.

“We were not forecasting a surplus in 1998. It never crossed my mind in 1993,” Blinder said. He attributed some of this unexpected success to the technology boom of the 90s.

Other panel members including former Chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers Laura Tyson, former Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies and former Cabinet Secretary Thurgood Marshall Jr. also recalled Clinton’s commitment to bipartisanship and the challenges of passing acceptable fiscal reform.

The second panel, chaired by former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, focused on the funding priorities of the administration and how they remain relevant today.

“He wanted to balance the budget. But he always told us, we have to balance it the right way, with our priorities,” Bowles said.

Former Secretary of Commerce Mickey Kantor explained the ultimate goal of the Clinton platform.

“We were going to engage the world,” Kantor said. “We are now the greatest trading nation on earth. We weren’t when he started.”

Other panelists including former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros,  former Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater, former Associate Director for Domestic Policy Neera Tanden and Former Director of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling described their roles in tailoring policies to fit both priorities and budget constraints.

They focused specifically on Medicaid, children’s health insurance and education.

“He thought it was his job to make America a better place. He wanted to do something positive. And it was leadership,” Bowles said.

In closing, Clinton laid out one goal that he said should trump all others when making decisions.

“All that matters is whether people are better off when you quit than when you started … the rest of this will all seem like a passing experience,” Clinton said.

Browner, who was also the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Clinton, talked about the environmental apathy before 1970.

“City after city, state after state had essentially failed to protect the environment,” she said.

In 1970, however, the first Earth Day was established, prompting nearly 21 million people across the nation to protest pollution and promote environmentalism, she said. Later that year, President Nixon established the EPA, which works to establish and regulate environmental policy.

Although the EPA has enacted many new environmental policy measures throughout its history, Browner said environmental protection is a continuous process.

“The task of environmental protection can not be completed in a year, a decade, or even a lifetime,” she said. This task has become even more important today with the recognition of global climate change, she added, noting that global carbon dioxide emissions have nearly quadrupled since 1950.

Browner said the emergence of global climate change has more permanent effects, even if people don’t notice all of them. Weather reflects these abnormal changes in the global climate.

“This year in April we had 600 tornados in United States in one month,” she said. Rises in sea level are also indicators of global climate change, and these rises are “not reversible,” she said.

Failing to mitigate climate change now would lead to an “irreversibly changed planet,” Browner said.

Despite mounting evidence of environmental shifts, she said a central problem in changing these shifts is the unwillingness to act.

“We must be prepared, as we have been in the past, to set standards based on the weight of the evidence,” Browner said. She added that 98 percent of scientists agree on the reality of climate change despite the doubts of the minority.

Browner is convinced that American ingenuity can help us “rise to the challenge” posed by global climate change.

She said the relentless nature of the 24-hour news cycle may have confused the public about the importance and implications of climate change, however. Extensive media coverage of the economy has made it hard to sustain a conversation about climate change.

“We seemed to have returned to an old argument in Washington — that we have to choose between the environment and the economy,” she said. Browning said innovative environmental solutions and a strong economy are mutually beneficial, so no choice is necessary.

Despite the challenges, Americans “must rededicate ourselves” to work together to find a solution and rise to the challenge, she said.

The event was sponsored by the Student Legal Forum, a Law School organization dedicated to keeping aspiring lawyers informed. The Environmental Law Forum and the Virginia Environmental Law Journal co-sponsored the event.

Law student Emily Auerbach said she “liked the way that [Browner] was looking towards the future” and that she appreciated her moderate approach to controversial issues. “She had us meet at a middle point where we could all agree that improving the environment is important,” Auerbach said.

Charming the crowd with jokes and pranks, National Basketball Association icon Shaquille O’Neal spoke in front of about 3,200 people at U. Florida on Tuesday evening.

O’Neal has played for teams like the Orlando Magic and the Miami Heat, and his TV appearances and endorsements have made him a household name.

“When it comes to thinking about ‘making it,’” O’Neal said, “I haven’t made it yet. And that’s what keeps me going.”

Accent Speakers Bureau paid O’Neal $70,000 to speak.

Taking the stage shortly after 8 p.m., O’Neal sat in one of two low-slung mocha lounge chairs on stage while moderator Laura McKeeman asked him about life on the road, his relationship with Kobe Bryant and his upcoming career move to TNT commentator.

But the “Shaq Attack” is also hard at work off the court.

From his past work as an undercover cop investigating Internet crimes involving children to his recent efforts to finish his Ph.D. at Barry University, O’Neal is, as Accent Chairman Corey Portnoy put it in his introduction, a “Shaq of all trades.”

“Shaq was truly an entertainer,” Portnoy said. “But, more importantly, [he] is a good teacher and a phenomenal leader to hear from about all of his accomplishments both in the professional world and the athletic world.”

Jemima Douyon, a 21-year-old French senior, attended the event with a friend.

“He was a little inappropriate at times, but it was fun,” Douyon said. “I learned a lot about him, especially his doctoral degree, which surprised me.”

Finishing his appearance by spanking Portnoy and hosting an impromptu dance contest on stage, O’Neal stayed the center of attention with his towering height and nonstop stream of jokes, jibes and mock-orders for security officers to “Tase that person.”

“When it comes to being a professional athlete, I just want to give people a good time,” O’Neal said. “I love to laugh, so in anything I do, I want to see them have a good time.”

After the speech ended, Khaldi opened the floor to a Q-and-A session. The first person to ask a question was history professor Julio Pino.

Standing at the back of the auditorium, Pino asked Khaldi how he and his government could justify providing aid to countries like Turkey with blood money that came from the deaths of Palestinian children and babies.

This is not Pino’s first brush with controversy. In 2002 he wrote an opinion column for the Daily Kent Stater praising a suicide bomber. In 2007 he made national headlines when the The Drudge Report featured a story accusing him of contributing to a blog called Global War, which refers to itself as a “jihadist news service.”

The crowd fell into an awkward silence as the two continued to exchange words from across the auditorium.

“It is not respectful to me here,” Khaldi said.

Pino responded by saying “your government killed people” and claimed Khaldi was not being respectful to him.

“I do respect you, but you are wrong,” Khaldi said. “It’s a lie.”

The exchange ended as Pino stormed out of the auditorium shouting “Death to Israel!”

One person in the crowd retaliated by shouting “Shame on you!”

Khaldi came to Kent State to talk about his journey from a Muslim Bedouin minority living in a tent to a respected diplomat in the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Khaldi discussed the current state of the Middle East and the many misconceptions he said American citizens have concerning Israel and its people. He made special mention of Israel’s attempts to provide aid to Turkey, which was recently devastated by an earthquake.

“We see a country in need and we stand up to help,” Khaldi said.

After the altercation with Pino, Khaldi moved on to more questions, but he still referred back to his thoughts on the heckler.

“Let’s respect each other; it starts from there,” Khaldi said. “By the way, this is not respect.”

Khaldi said he thinks people misunderstand what’s happening with Israel, and it may explain some of Pino’s comments.

“Is this what that professor is telling you?” Khaldi said. “It is my responsibility to tell you the truth and build relationships.”

After the speech ended, the remaining students in the auditorium could be heard admonishing the professor’s behavior.

One student in attendance said, “I get it’s freedom of speech and all that, but that guy just makes us [the university] look bad.”

But this Monday night, Marshall was going head-to-head with a very different demographic—Harvard students, whom he spoke to about his personal experience with borderline personality disorder.

Marshall, a two-time Pro Bowler, was diagnosed with BPD at Boston’s McLean Hospital in July, three months after he was allegedly stabbed in the stomach by his wife, Michi Nogami-Marshall.

The athlete underwent three months of treatment and therapy at McLean, where he said he learned to cope with the mental illness, which is marked by instability in relationships, self-image, mood, and emotion.

After hearing a student express admiration for Marshall’s willingness to speak openly about his mental illness, Paul J. Barreira, director of Behavioral Health and Academic Counseling at Harvard, invited the NFL star to speak to undergraduates about his disorder. He said Marshall accepted immediately.

The receiver’s speech, titled “Mental Illness Isn’t a Game Stopper,” addressed his experiences with BPD, which he said prevented him from appreciating his life.

“I lived in a bubble,” Marshall said. “I became unattached, unemotional … The things that made me relevant or successful were the things that began to ruin me. It got to the point where it consumed me, it took over me, it controlled me.”

Marshall, in his first public speech on his disorder, explained that treatment at McLean, which included dialectical behavior therapy, taught him how to turn off his emotional “switch” by not bottling things up and that a “lack of expression equals depression.”

As an example, Marshall explained that when unhappy with the Dolphins’ playbook before the Jets game last week, he was able to talk through his displeasure with Nogami-Marshall rather than letting his anger get the best of him.

“It was truly a blessing to be around people that understood me, that spoke my language, that could help me,” said Marshall, who added that he still Skypes with his doctors during the season. “The treatment gave me the opportunity to live again, to enjoy life, enjoy my successes.”

In his introduction, Barreira cited a recent study that found that 44 percent of Harvard students who felt they needed psychological counseling didn’t ask for it because they didn’t think it worked.

Marshall said that was the type of statistic he was trying to fight against, explaining that he could relate to the stress and pressure undergraduates felt during their daily lives.

“Please use my experience and take the good out of it,” said Marshall, who was presented with a personalized Harvard football jersey by Crimson captain Alex A. Gedeon ’12 after the event. “If you might need help, get help, and if its your friends and family, inspire them as well … You’re not blessed unless you’re a blessing to others.”

Attendees also viewed a clip from a documentary currently in production that depicts Marshall’s struggle with BPD, which he said he hopes will help others to cope with mental illness. The receiver said he got the idea to turn his experiences into a film from his wife, who, while being put into a police car after her arrest in April, told him, “Someone will learn from this.”

Marshall added that his speech at Harvard would be the final scene in the documentary.

The receiver said his long-term goal would be to use his celebrity to become a face of mental health and to try to break the stigmas that accompany it. With his voice starting to crack, he said that without treatment, he would probably be out of the NFL and divorced.

“God is good,” Marshall said. “He answered my prayer just in time.”

Ahmed Maher and Waleed Rashed are co-founders of the April 6 Youth Movement, an organization that formed as a Facebook group in spring 2008 to help workers go on strike in the industrial city of al-Mahalla al-Kubra. The group gained a large following and proved to be instrumental in organizing the spring 2011 Egyptian revolution.

Both speaking events drew near-capacity crowds and were highly interactive as Maher and Rashed fielded questions from the audience throughout the event.

“We love these kinds of meetings better than the formal, diplomatic meetings,” Rashed said. “Whatever comes in your mind, please ask. No limits.”

Maher and Rashed did not hesitate to share their candid thoughts, which included their dissatisfaction with the rule of Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, a body of senior officers in the military who took power once Mubarak resigned.

“To be honest with you, I think we made a big mistake when we left Tahrir Square in the 11th of February,” Rashed said, referring to the date Mubarak officially resigned from office.

Abdalla Hussein, a native Egyptian and senior at AU, attended the Oct. 20 event and expressed similar views about the country post-Mubarak.

“I’m not content with the pace [of change],” he said. “But then again, I always knew that we would go through bad days. During the revolution, we sacrificed stability for change, but change will take at least 10 years. It was the sacrifice we made, and we’re just paying the price now.”

Rashed attributed the current slow pace of change in Egypt to a culture that may be hard-pressed to evolve after having become accustomed to life under Mubarak.

“If you are planning to make a revolution in your country, the most important thing is, you’re supposed to study the mentality of your people,” Rashed said. “Mubarak is not a person, he is a culture.”

Maher and Rashed admitted that they didn’t have the answers to the multitude of challenges that remain in Egypt, including issues of security, water and food access and unemployment. But they believe activists need to continue to pressure the SCAF and work to change the mentality of the Egyptian people.

When a student at the Oct. 21 event asked if the revolution was finished, Maher responded by saying it will be finished when Egyptians are allowed to elect a new president through a fair election. But he quickly added, “That will take a very long time.”

A student at the Oct. 20 event asked about Maher and Rashed’s opinions of President Barack Obama and about how Obama seemed to be on the side of the revolutionaries. Maher was skeptical.

“They’re [the United States] now meeting with the SCAF and the SCAF have the same behavior as the Mubarak regime,” Maher said. “So I think that anger in the Middle East and Egypt will increase again against the United States. So I advise them to change their behavior.”

Maher and Rashed also talked about using social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, as one of many tools for the revolution. When they wanted to reach segments of the population that were not media-savvy, they got creative and used taxi drivers as another tool to market the demonstrations.

Egyptian taxi drivers are known for talking constantly to their passengers, and the movement took advantage of this by spreading the word of demonstrations to the drivers, Rashed said.

When the two speakers were asked how they adjusted once the Mubarak regime shut down Internet services to thwart their cause, Maher said the shutdown actually benefited them.

“All the families joined the demonstration to know what happened,” Maher said. “So they helped us to spread the demonstrations.”

“I really want to thank Mubarak,” Rashed added, evoking laughs from the audience.

The conversation turned somber when both spoke of the sacrifices they and their families had to make for their activism, which included being jailed and beaten.

But ultimately, the speakers acknowledged that the revolution was brought about by the tireless efforts of the Egyptian people themselves.

“We didn’t start the revolution,” said Rashed. “We were only a tool [in the revolution]. The revolution happened by Egyptians, because of Egyptians.”

Moderated by radio-television-film professor John Pierson, the Saturday screening took place at U. Texas and included a discussion with Depp, who produced and starred in the film, and director Bruce Robinson. Depp has been working on the film, based on a book of the same name by the novelist and journalist Hunter S. Thompson, for more than 10 years. He said he hopes students will understand the struggle Thompson went through to find his own voice against big corporations.

“The voice he found was one of rage,” Depp said. “[Here] was a guy that cared so much that he had to rail against the authority that pushed the world into its corner.”

Thompson’s legacy includes the creation of a new style of writing called gonzo journalism in the 1960s, a subjective style of reporting often told in first-person narrative. He wrote “The Rum Diary” in 1959 based on his own experiences with American capitalism in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and published it in 1998.

Depp said the core of the film was what enraged Thompson after the U.S. embargoed Cuban goods and began commercializing Puerto Rico. When asked about what Thompson would think about the current Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Austin protests, Depp said Thompson would probably be supportive and doing “Snoopy dances.”

In relation to the film, which exposes the influence of American corporations in Puerto Rico and on the news media, Depp said Thompson would say journalism is in a bad place today.

“[Journalism] is on par with the [corporations] on Wall Street,” Depp said. “It’s about selling the truth but really selling something people want to buy.”

Depp first came to Austin in 1993 for his lead role in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.” He came into town for the Austin Film Festival and won the festival’s first award for extraordinary contribution to film in acting.

“I don’t really recognize the place anymore,” Depp said. “When you go around Sixth Street you go, ‘Okay, this looks familiar.’ I had great experiences here, and I love this joint.”

Robinson, who came out of retirement to make the film, said he believed journalism had become a business of people shouting fear and horror in his ears. Robinson said when he was a child in the United Kingdom there were two competing newspapers in Russia. When he asked his schoolteacher who was telling the truth, his teacher said neither told the truth.

Robinson said that all the media covers nowadays is fear and that the first time he read Thompson’s book, he felt enraged at the relationship corporations have with the media.

“The only time you ever feel comfortable [in media] is in the [advertising universe], where you see people cuddling with their kids in the living room,” Robinson said. “It worries me — the ads are the one great thing, and everything else is terrible.”

More than 400 students and faculty attended the screening. The film was also shown at universities in Kansas, Washington, Arizona, Indiana and Illinois, where students were allowed to text in questions for Depp and Robinson.

Bob Berney, UT alumnus and president of the film’s distributor FilmDistrict, said Depp pushed to show the film at UT because he felt students would be able to identify with Thompson and his work. He also said it was very important for Depp to make the film after Thompson’s suicide in 2005. Berney graduated from UT with a radio-television-film degree in 1977.

Berney said the screening was FilmDistrict’s first satellite tour, and the company will continue to partner with UT in the future.

Radio-television-film junior Alexandra Prather was the first in line to see Depp at the screening. Prather showed up at the SAC at 8 a.m. for the 6:30 p.m. program because she was afraid she wouldn’t get a seat. Prather said that the first time she saw Depp was in “Edward Scissorhands” and that she loved seeing him portray a character that was a little darker but was normal at the core.

“He’s been one of my idols since I was little, and I never thought a person like Johnny Depp would come to Austin,” Prather said. “I’ve never met a celebrity before, but I’d like to be respectful because he’s a human being just like everybody else.”

Mankiw, who is best known for his work on New Keynesian economics, opened with memories from his freshman year philosophy class, likening the challenges nettling macroeconomists to the fate of Greek mythology’s king Sisyphus.

The character was cursed to an eternal cycle of pushing a massive boulder to the top of a hill, only to have it roll back down. Mankiw elaborated his analogy by reviewing the dialogue and shifting dominances between Keynesian and monetarist economic explanations and showing how these had nonetheless left economists unprepared for the current crisis.

“The 1990s were a period of really great economic tranquility. We had some recessions, but they were fairly mild,” Mankiw said. He explained that this tranquility had led to economists’ thinking that they were “smarter than before, that [they’d] figured stuff out.”

“Then all of a sudden, we have the current recession,” he said. “Macroeconomic analysis went back to the fundamentals.” He noted that America’s current situation was a “very strong case for humility” for economists.

Mankiw then segued into a discussion about the inadequacies of using monetary policy alone to sketch a plan for the economy. “If you take a pretty tailored rule and plug in where we are today … where should we set the interest rates … we’d roughly get negative four percent,” he explained to a chuckling audience.

“Let’s talk about why we can’t have negative four percent,” he added. “Well, nobody’s going to lend money at negative four percent,” he said and discussed the problems this interest-rate issue posed for the Federal Reserve, investment and the economy as a whole.

Mankiw also expressed his concerns that the United States was set to experience a situation similar to Japan’s. “A long slump, very low inflation, perhaps even deflation that exacerbates the slump.” He asked, “What can fiscal policy do to prevent us from being Japan … and Greece?”

He then discussed fiscal policy, “where there’s a lot of action going on in recent years,” he said, discussing both the necessity and dangers of controversial policies like Obama’s stimulus packages.

Referring to the discussions behind the government’s policies, “The report said that if we don’t do anything, employment is going to go up to 9 percent,” he said. “After the stimulus, unemployment went up to 10 percent.”

He likened this to the example of a patient who becomes sicker after treatment and explained that the dilemma lay in not knowing whether or not a larger “dose” would improve the situation.

At the end of the lecture, Mankiw fielded the audience’s questions about bond markets, corporate taxes and stimuli in the context of America’s economic challenges.

Students said they enjoyed having the opportunity to hear the famous economist.

“I really just wanted to see him,” Seung Heon Han said.

Lawrence Chang said he found Mankiw “really interesting and comprehensive” as well as “relevant” because of his role in Romney’s candidacy. “He was really good at explaining things, too,” added Han.

However, Chang said he felt that “it would have been nice to have more background” but that the lecture had increased his interest in taking economics classes at the University.

Some, like Dan Galloway attended the event because they find Coulter entertaining. Sam Greco, a moderate conservative, came to hear her comments on economic policy. Anwesha Banerjee, who identifies as a Democrat, said she came because of the controversy surrounding Coulter’s reputation as an outspoken commentator.

“There’s been so much talk about the controversial things she says on campus, so I wanted to hear what she was going to say,” Banjeree said.

Regardless of the mixed views of the students in the audience, Coulter kept the entire auditorium laughing. Exchanging sharp criticism of the Obama administration and what she called the “mainstream media” and the “liberal mob” with one-liners, Coulter discussed her political and social views.

“The Democrat solution to problems created by the government is more government. That’s like trying to sober up by having another drink — except that’s fun,” she said.

While Coulter kept the audience amused — not all of Coulter’s comments were met with unanimous laughter. When Coulter joked that Democrats favor Ronald Reagan because he appears gay, many audience members gasped in shock.

Galloway, who identifies Elas Roman Catholic and bisexual, called the comment homophobic while addressing Coulter during the Q-and-A session following the speech. Coulter defiantly denied any accusations of homophobia made by Galloway or other students, who called her out on her comment that traditional marriage between a man and women is best for raising children. In response, Coulter repeatedly asserted that she has gay friends with children.

Coulter also added that she believed the Constitution does not defend against discrimination based on sexual preference.

“Gays are exactly the opposite of blacks in terms of discrimination,” Coulter said. “We want blacks protected but we don’t want them in our neighborhoods, but we want gays in our neighborhoods, but we don’t want them protected.”

Another student who identified himself as an Arab Muslim and a proud American asked Coulter if she considered him a patriot, given his religious beliefs. Coulter answered that she did, but added, “I’m not saying all Arabs are terrorists, but of course you have to keep your eyes open after 9/11,” she said.

After the event concluded, Galloway stated he was not personally insulted by Coulter’s controversial words.

“I knew this is how her speech was going to be,” he said.

Greco, who said that he agreed with her position on economics, left with mixed feelings.

“She’s too extreme,” he said. “I’m afraid people will view her as the face of my party.”

Morgan Spurlock, director of the Oscar-nominated documentary, “Super Size Me,” spoke Thursday at Duke U. Spurlock spoke with humor and snippets of seriousness about the production of his film, “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” released in April, which explores product placement, marketing and advertising. The movie is funded entirely by product placement and features brands prominently.

Spurlock discussed the frustration of calling up more than 600 brands before convincing the film’s first sponsor—Ban Deodorant—to contribute to the movie. When he approached Abercrombie and Fitch about product placement, for example, the woman at the clothing company asked him if he wanted to know why he was not Abercrombie material.

“‘You’re not very attractive—and by not very attractive, you’re not handsome at all. And that thing on your face… a moustache? We’re selling clothing, not pornography,’” Spurlock recalled her telling him, to which he replied, “I’ve seen your advertisements. I disagree.”

Duke sophomore Forrest Etter, vice president of operations of the DUU Speakers and Stage committee, said the event was overall very successful based on the laughter and unexpectedly high turnout.

One audience member, senior Kevin Nguyen, said he deliberately brought McDonald’s food to the event in reference to “Super Size Me,” Spurlock’s 2004 documentary on the influence of the fast food industry and the health effects of McDonald’s food in particular.

“I had seen ‘Super Size Me’ previously and really enjoyed the film,” Nguyen said. “I know how much everyone at Duke eats at McDonald’s, so I thought that was an interesting point.”

Spurlock noted Nguyen for his choice of food.

“I love you. Thanks for coming out,” Spurlock said. “I love you, but your liver doesn’t.”

When asked about pirated versions of his work, Spurlock replied unconventionally.

“If you’re taking the time to download my movie from Pirate Bay, watch it and talk to your friends about it, then I say ‘God bless you,’” he said

Spurlock shifted to discussion of more serious themes toward the end of his talk, noting that he wanted “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” to question where the line needs to be drawn with regard to the prevalence of advertising in everyday life. He also left aspiring filmmakers and entrepreneurs with a few nuggets of wisdom, noting a story about a small job helping at a volleyball game that eventually led him to become an announcer at the Olympics.

“Be open to all opportunities,” Spurlock said. “It might not be the opportunity that you think will be best for you, but you should really capitalize on those opportunities.”

After recalling how he once went into more than $200,000 of credit card debt to make a film, Spurlock ended the night with a call to action.

“As you go out into your careers, you’re going to have to make a decision about how far you want to go to achieve your dreams,” he said. “I chose to go however far I needed to to make that happen. I hope all you choose to go as far as possible, too.”

Frank said support for Israel is crucial in creating a two-state peace between Israel and Palestine. But that support should not be unconditional, he said. It comes with the “right to critique policy” — something he said should be in place between all allied nations.

Israel is a country the United States should align itself with, Frank said, referring to its record on human rights. When Frank argued in Congress for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” he cited Israel’s policy of allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the military as an example.

Despite being “always under attack,” he added, Israel is “one of the most democratic centers in the world.”

“Six months ago, if you were an Arab in the Middle East and you were critical of the government, you were safest doing that in Israel,” he said, acknowledging that the situation may have changed in wake of the so-called “Arab Spring.”

Frank characterized the conflict between Israel and Hamas as an “existential dispute,” one that must be resolved before peace can materialize. Specifically, he said, Hamas must recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state — something he said it has not yet been willing to do.

“You cannot negotiate with people who want you dead,” he said.

But Frank also criticized some of Israel’s policies, specifically Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which he said “do more harm than good.” He also said the current governing coalition in Israel leans “too far to the right” for his comfort.

While questioning Israel’s  governing coalition, Frank praised Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his support of human rights and civil liberties.

“Three government leaders in my lifetime have spoken positively about gay rights in the House of Representatives,” he said. “Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Though Frank said people should look critically at specific positions Israel has taken, he said those critiques are a “far cry” from questioning its right to exist. He compared the situation to his opposition to the Iraq War, which does not indicate that he questions the United States’ right to exist.

Frank’s half-hour talk was followed by an hour-long question-and-answer session. Frank addressed questions about Jerusalem’s role in the dispute, saying Hamas, and not Jerusalem, is the principal obstacle to peace.

Frank also addressed the question of Gaza, saying Israel should withdraw from the land, but that he understands the country’s right to “self-defense” when “people next door are trying to destroy you.”

The Columbia/Barnard Hillel, in cooperation with LionPAC, a “pro-Israel, pro-peace” advocacy group, arranged for Dershowitz to speak in response to linguist Noam Chomsky’s speech at Barnard on Monday.

Dershowitz addressed issues ranging from a two-state solution to academic freedom to the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the one-hour session, which included a speech, questions from the audience, and a series of questions from David Fine, CC ’13 and the editor-in-chief of The Current, a student journal that focuses on current events and Jewish affairs.

Dershowitz emphasized the need for a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the urgency to restart negotiations. He said that it’s futile to negotiate with people like Chomsky.

“It’s critically important that you appeal to the center, that your arguments go to those who are undecided,” Dershowitz said. “You will never convince Noam Chomsky. It’s like you put the dollar into the soda machine, and the dollar doesn’t come out, and the soda doesn’t come out.”

He stressed that audience members should be both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli while still acknowledging both sides’ faults.

Dershowitz repeatedly challenged Chomsky’s viewpoints and accused him of putting forward “absolute fabrications” and “total lies.” He encouraged his audience to attend Chomsky’s speech the next day and challenge him.

“[He is] living on Planet Chomsky,” Dershowitz said. “On Planet Chomsky, the truth is not held in high regard.”

Columbia/Barnard Hillel board co-president Michael Lustig said Hillel and LionPAC’s “collective antenna” went up when they learned that Chomsky would be speaking at Barnard.

“We’re essentially creating a virtual debate in a forum where an actual one isn’t really feasible,” Lustig said. “It highlights that the students can be exposed to what I call the correct/factual side of the story, but at least they get to hear both sides of the story.”

LionPAC president Eric Schorr, said that LionPAC and the Columbia/Barnard Hillel created posters for Dershowitz’s speech that mimicked the posters for Chomsky’s to highlight the relationship between the two speakers.

“LionPAC designed the flyer with the motivation of having people feel the two sides of the coin, going to one and then going to the other,” Schorr said. “… Although the event was not ultimately about Noam Chomsky, the great push is that it encourages people to be outgoing, to challenge ideas, and to fight in the court of public opinion.”

Allison Schlissel, said she believes Chomsky’s arguments are convincing but ultimately comes down on Dershowitz’s side.

“More than anything, it promotes a two-state solution, and it promotes compromise,” Schlissel said. “It’s willing to incorporate every single opinion, and it encourages more discussion.”

Schorr said he was pleased with how the event went and hopes the speech encourages more dialogue on Israeli-Palestinian relations.

“Overall, I think people really enjoyed the event,” Schorr said. “It’s also my hope that people walk away with this mentality of, ‘I may not have agreed with everything he said, but the most important thing is that he made me think.’”

Chomsky’s speech “America and Israel-Palestine: War and Peace” was a harsh critique of American foreign policy in Israel. Professor of Linguistics Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chomsky is one of the foremost American intellectuals to speak against American foreign policy concerning Israel and Palestine.

In a speech that read like a laundry list of Israeli-Palestinian history, he returned to the people/unpeople theme many times to explain Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and America’s acquiescence.

“Remember, these are all ‘unpeople,’” he said. “So naturally, no one cares.”

In addition to his psychological analysis, Chomsky focused on what he considers to be the greatest obstacle to moving forward in the peace process: the United States. The United States is one of Israel’s last allies, offering political and financial support to the country despite decades of criticism from the international community.

“Israel offers a lot to the United States,” Chomsky said, referring to American investments in Israel—especially in military capital and military technology—and its role as a strategic American ally in the Middle East. He also referred to “cultural” similarities, saying that both the United States and Israel share a history of removing indigenous peoples from their lands. “We did it, so it’s got to be right. Jews are doing it, so it’s got to be right,” he said.

In the end, Chomsky said there are two simple options: that things continue the way they are or Israel and the United States allow for a two-state solution.

“If you’re opposed to a two-state settlement at this point, you’re telling the Palestinians to get lost,” he said. “Of all the problems in the world, this has to be the easiest to solve,” he said.

Following his speech, questions ranged from aggressive attacks on his political positions to practical inquiries about the details of his proposal for peace.

One student challenged Chomsky’s claim that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak walked away from a peace settlement during the 2000 Camp David Accords, saying it was Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat who refused Barak’s offer to give Palestinians all of Gaza and most of the West Bank. But Chomsky said that the terms of the agreement were unworkable from the beginning. “Clinton recognized that no Palestinian, no Arab, would ever accept the terms that they proposed,” he said. “There’s no need to discuss it.”

He also questioned the veracity of many students’ facts. “There is an official story, which is true, but like most official stories, it falls apart quickly if you look at the facts,” he added.

Despite enthusiastic applause through much of his talk, Chomsky’s wording attracted a crowd of mixed opinions.

“When he says ‘unpeople,’ what he means the audience to understand is racism,” said Ryan Arant. “But what I think he’s describing are traditional power dynamics between the powerful and the powerless.”

“There are real things to talk about,” Arant added. “But calling Israel and the West racist is not one of them.”

But others considered the event a valuable learning experience.

“It was a good way to get a view of it from a well-informed source,” said Yaas Bigdeli. “I was impressed,” she said, adding that she was drawn to Chomsky by his fame and a desire to learn about the Israel-Palestine conflict.

But as Bigdeli noted, the notably dry Chomsky did end on a positive note.

“I think it’s kind of optimistic,” he said. “Because it means that the future is in our hands.”

During a two-day bus tour of North Carolina and Virginia, President Barack Obama urged locals to pressure their congressmen to vote for the American Jobs Act. In his last stop in North Carolina, Obama visited Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C., Tuesday to rally bipartisan support for the plan.

“One poll found that 63 percent of Americans support the ideas in this jobs bill, but 100 percent of Republicans in the Senate voted against it,” Obama said. “So the majority of the American people think it makes sense for us to put teachers back in the classroom and construction workers back to work and tax breaks for small businesses and tax breaks for folks who are hiring veterans. But we got a 100 percent ‘no’ from Republicans in the Senate—that doesn’t make any sense.”

The $447 billion American Jobs Act was blocked by Senate Republicans Oct. 11. After the failed attempt to pass the legislation in its entirety, Obama has deconstructed the bill into its component parts in order to allow Congress to decide where it stands on each element of the bill.

“It may be that just the bill was too big the first time—there was just too much stuff, and they weren’t clear about what the Jobs Act would do. It was confusing to them,” Obama said. “So what we’re going to do is we’re going to break it up into separate pieces, and we’re going to let them vote on each piece, one at a time.”

The first vote on the new separate legislation—a $35 billion package to local and state governments—is scheduled for later this week, Obama said. The aid package will be funded by a new half-percent tax on income greater than $1 million.

Pitting the Republicans’ opposing Real American Jobs Act against his proposed plan, Obama said the Republicans’ plan is unable to effectively stimulate the economy and get Americans back to work. The White House’s act emphasizes job creation, Obama said, noting that in contrast, the Republicans’ plan focuses on limiting financial regulations on corporations and repealing the current health care law.

“You can’t pretend that creating dirtier air and water for our kids and fewer people on health care and less accountability on Wall Street is a jobs plan,” Obama said.

‘In this together’

Bob Kollar, a member of the Guilford County Democratic Party, said the United States is facing one of its most critical conditions since the Great Depression. Worried about the future of the country given strong partisan divides, Kollar said there is no hope for economic stimulation unless bipartisan agreements are achieved.

“We are at one of the more dangerous times because of this gridlock and the attitude that people are taking toward cooperation,” he said. “People used to sit around the table and talk and come to some sort of conclusion, but now we are too polarized.”

The president pointed out that the ideas in his current jobs bill are ideas that have previously gained bipartisan support.

“I don’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat, because we’re all Americans, and we are in this together,” Obama said. “We don’t need a Republican jobs act or a Democratic jobs act—we need a jobs act. We need to put people back to work right now.”

Obama transitioned his remarks to discuss education. The president said his proposed plan would bring about 13,000 education jobs to North Carolina. Contrasting South Korea’s greater resources invested in public education with American cutbacks, Obama added that the United States needs to make the necessary commitments to education in order to ensure that American students can compete on a global level.

“Our teachers build the good parts of our economy,” he said. “It gives our children the skills they need to compete. It gives our children a future that is bright.”

Jennifer Arberg, a middle school math teacher and Guilford County teacher of the year, said she was pleased to hear that the president understands the problems in education, adding that she is hopeful that Obama’s plan will benefit schools in North Carolina.

“I’m hoping that we stop losing teachers from the classrooms—it happens to all of us. Our class sizes are getting bigger, and ultimately the ones suffering are the kids,” Arberg said. “It’s just amazing in our little town especially. I live here in Jamestown. Who would think [Obama] would [speak] here?”

Poised for battle

Despite Arberg’s surprise, recent political trends suggest that North Carolina could swing either way in the upcoming presidential election, making it a key campaign battleground in 2012, said Pope McCorkle, visiting lecturer in public policy. Obama, who won North Carolina by fewer than 14,000 votes in 2008, has visited the Tar Heel State three times since June.

North Carolina is a crucial state for the president in his quest for re-election, McCorkle said. Obama’s decision to tour North Carolina to promote the American Jobs Act works in tandem with efforts to win the state in 2012, McCorkle added.

“It doesn’t matter if Obama tours North Carolina, Ohio or Michigan to put pressure on Congress, particularly Republicans in Congress,” he said. “His message can be anywhere as long as it is out of Washington talking to the American people…. It seems like this is a very good event for him, being in a swing state like North Carolina, and he has a very specific item that makes sense for people.”

An October poll conducted by Elon University marked Obama’s approval rating in North Carolina at 42 percent—a sign that the state could go red or blue come election day.

Kollar said Obama appreciates North Carolina’s loyalty and understands he has to carry states like North Carolina in order to win in 2012.

Regardless of the upcoming election, Obama said he will continue to fight for his jobs plan until it gains the 60 votes it needs to break the current Republican filibuster on the Senate floor.

“There are too many Americans who are hurting right now for us to just sit by and do nothing,” Obama said. “Now is the time to act. Now is the time to say, ‘Yes, we can.’ We can create jobs. We can restore the middle class. We can reduce our deficits. We can build an economy that works for everybody. We are not a people who just sit around doing nothing when things aren’t right.”

Former Vice President Al Gore focused on the Great Lakes over global climate issues and the continual fight to eliminate pollution during the Oct. 13 keynote address at the International Joint Commission’s Great Lakes Water Quality Biennial Meeting hosted by Wayne State U.

Touching on topics ranging from the economy to the “global climate crisis,” the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner spoke for about an hour to a near-capacity crowd at the Community Arts Auditorium.

“We have tremendous challenges in the global economy,” Gore said. “I think our approach to the economy is connected to our approach to the environment.”

His appearance was part of Great Lakes Week, a four-day event for six environmental advocate groups to convene and discuss the future of the region.

The International Joint Commission was established in 1909 by the U.S. and Canada as a means to help prevent and resolve problems with the use and quality of boundary waters and to advise both countries on questions about water resources, according to its website.

The commission is also responsible for enforcing adherence to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1978—a pact between the two nations—which in part entails documenting “Areas of Concern” and reacting accordingly.

The Teach Great Lakes! website defines Areas of Concern as “geographic areas that fail to meet the general or specific objectives of the agreement where such failure has caused or is likely to cause impairment of beneficial use of the area’s ability to support aquatic life.”

Currently, 42 Great Lakes fall in the group.

“There are social impacts and opportunities to updating sewer systems for drinking water … in and around the Great Lakes,” Gore said. “You can focus on the expenditure for this, but you can also focus on the jobs at a time when we need to put people back to work. There really is a lot of work to be done.”

He said the best way to handle global warming is to approach it as a global challenge.

“It’s extremely difficult, just as World War II and the Cold War was,” he said. “Just as winning a local battle can turn the tide in a regional conflict, and just as a regional conflict can turn the outcome of a global conflict…the winning of these struggles to protect the environment locally and the regional battles can affect the global challenges.”

Gore compared big business’ effort to delegitimize the threat of climate change to the misleading campaigns of tobacco companies in the 20th century.

“Just as tobacco companies set out with their money to create artificial doubts about smoking and lung cancer, a whole lot of the largest carbon polluters have done exactly the same thing,” Gore said. “They’ve put a lot of money into phony scientific reports to give artificial doubts. Internal documents come out from companies where the scientists tell them the science of global climate crises is true.”

Furthermore, he said, 97-98 percent of climate scientists agree that the global climate crisis needs to be addressed.

Gore, who wrote the book “Earth in Balance” in 1992, left politics after losing the presidential election in 2000. Since then, he’s focused on showing the detrimental effects humans have on climate change. He won an Academy Award in 2006 for his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which as the synopsis says, was a campaign to “educate citizens about global warming via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate, he has given more than a thousand times.”

Gore did not grant human beings a pass for their contributions to the climate shift.

“We put 90 million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere every 24 hours,” Gore said. “We’re still acting as if it’s perfectly OK to use this thin-shelled atmosphere as an open sewer. It’s not OK. We need to listen to the scientists. We need to use the tried and true method of using the best evidence, debating and discussing it, but not pretending that facts are not facts.”

With economic turmoil creeping back into the spotlight, Gore didn’t shy away from addressing the initial causes of the recession that began in 2008, either.

“The sub-prime mortgage characterized a way of thinking that was a flawed assumption,” he said, following with an anecdote about widely used text messaging acronyms.

“When investigators looked at emails they found an acronym I had never heard of – IBGYBG – ‘I’ll be gone, you’ll be gone.’ They knew it was toxic, they knew it was a risk of creating a financial catastrophe. They told themselves, ‘Hey, I’ll be gone you’ll be gone. This catastrophe, if it happens, we’ll make our pile of money and we’ll be out.’ That’s just, not to put a fine point on it, immoral.”

Gore concluded by saying that the efforts of effectively treating global climate can produce overwhelmingly positive results.

“We have solutions; we can become far more efficient,” he said. “We can save far more money and create far more jobs while doing it.”

Gorbachev gave his thoughts on Iran, Afghanistan and Barack Obama. When asked about Russia’s current political state, Gorbachev said he thinks current Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin should not run for a third term as president. Putin served as president of Russia from 2000 to 2008 and has remained as prime minister.

Gorbachev said Putin inherited a very difficult situation from former president Boris Yeltsin and implemented an extreme authoritarian style of government as his way of addressing the needs of the nation. It was perhaps understandable that Putin used certain authoritarian styles in his leadership because of political and economic unrest, Gorbachev said, but using authoritarian methods in general is wrong.

“Whenever you have leaders that rule 20 years or more, the only thing important to those leaders is holding on to power,” Gorbachev said.

Although Gorbachev said he does not make it a habit to give advice to other countries, he said the U.S. should learn from the mistakes of countries like Russia when dealing with issues in Iran and Afghanistan.

“I hope you will consider this because we are making these suggestions in good faith,” Gorbechev said. “Russia never intended to fight America, and our policy resulted in a division in the world.”

Gorbachev said one of the main reasons for the current U.S. domestic unrest and situation in the Middle East and Europe date back to the end of the Cold War when the U.S. declared victory. Gorbachev said America acted arrogantly and tried to build a new empire instead of working together with other countries and needs to think in terms of cooperation for the future.

Referencing the late Pope John Paul II, Gorbachev said the world needs a world order that is more stable, more just and more human.

“We need to start to think of how to live in a new world [where we address] security, poverty and challenges to the environment,” Gorbachev said.

Gorbachev is considered an influential leader in history for his role in ending the Cold War in 1989 and introducing widespread democratic reform in Russia. Gorbachev said the introduction of his Perestroika and Glasnost policies, which democratized the Communist political system, eased economic restrictions and granted people freedom of speech and press, was his administration’s response to his people’s cry for change.

He received the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the Cold War in 1990 and currently heads the Gorbachev Foundation, an organization dedicated to aid the spread of democracy and economic liberty. He is also the head of Green Cross, a group that addresses poverty, security and environmental degradation.

When asked about President Barack Obama, Gorbachev said he supports the current president and that current U.S. conflicts do not fall onto Obama’s shoulders alone because he inherited problems from other presidents. Gorbachev said it is not only a strong leader, but a strong country, that is important when the country calls for change.

LBJ Library spokeswoman Anne Wheeler said the LBJ Library worked to find a date for Gorbachev to speak at the library for nearly a year. She said more than 1,000 people attended Gorbachev’s lecture.

LBJ Library director Mark Updegrove moderated the discussion with Gorbachev. Updegrove said he hoped students at the event would learn about the importance of Gorbachev’s role in history and his legacy as a man of peace.

“What we know is all of Gorbachev’s predecessors resisted the openness and reforms that were the hallmark during his tenure in office,” Updegrove said. “While it’s difficult to speculate on what would have happened [had Gorbachev not been in control], chances are the Cold War may have ended in bloodshed.”

Yekaterina Cotey, a UT comparative literature graduate student who grew up in Russia, said she remembers Gorbachev’s economic reforms and how they affected her family. Cotey said she and her family have mixed feelings about Gorbachev, but understand he played a large role in their lives.

“It’s not possible to imagine life without him,” Cotey said. “If it wasn’t for him and disintegration of the Soviet Union, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

There were calls for action, pleas for students to strive to be their best and, of course, a thorough trashing of LeBron James. Alright, maybe Colin Powell didn’t serve that up to the crowd when he was here, but he might have been better served having done so.

Johnson took to the stage to a standing ovation before quickly declaring that he was not an “on-the-stage speaker,” going off the stage to speak on the arena floor and wander the aisles while he talked.

Throughout the speech, which lasted over an hour and was done without notes, Johnson solicited participation from the lucky group who sat closest to the stage.

The unscheduled change in the format caused a bit of confusion for the production, who could not find the proper lighting in the arena to illuminate Johnson as he walked around, thus rendering the giant video boards mostly useless.

The speech itself ranged from Johnson talking about his countless successes in the business world to stories from his basketball career about coach Pat Riley and career-long rival Larry Bird.

One of the highlights of the speech came when Johnson declared that James would never win a championship.

“There are always going to be guys who win championships in the NBA, except LeBron,” Johnson said. “Everybody always says ‘who’s better, Kobe or LeBron?’ Are you kidding me? Kobe has five championships, LeBron zero. I love the young man though. I know he’s going to be better in the fourth quarter this year.”

Johnson also revealed a tidbit of business advice in relation to the 125 urban Starbucks locations he used to own around the country.

“Minorities don’t like scones. We don’t know what scones are,” said Johnson, who replaced the pastry with pound cake in all his locations.

Johnson ended the formal part of his speech with an informal Q&A with members of the audience, soliciting questions from around the arena to the delight of the crowd.

Johnson’s candor and loose demeanor made his speech the most vibrant of all of the speakers who have previously spoke, giving the crowd reason to stand up and applaud once it finished.

Before Johnson spoke, the ASP had a chance to sit down with him for an interview:

ASP: You’ve had a lot of accomplishments in your life, as you know. What would you say is your greatest accomplishment?

Magic Johnson: I would say what I’ve done in urban America, the businesses that I’ve built and giving back to the community. I’d rather be known for that than actually for basketball. I’ve made a bigger impact on people’s lives. The 150 students we have on scholarships and the thousands we’ve sent to college. The people we employ, over 40,000 – it’s not a better feeling than to touch somebody’s life, then to impact their life. Not a better feeling in the world.

ASP: What haven’t you done yet that you still want to do?

MJ: I want to continue to grow my business, continue educating people about HIV and AIDS. It’s never going to stop so you have to continue to get out there and raise awareness about HIV and AIDS, raise money to take care of people who are living with the disease. Continue to build my portfolio, when you talk about my business because every door I open allows another person to come behind me. And certainly continue to grow overseas because that is where the opportunity is.

ASP: Since the 90s and certainly since the 80s, HIV awareness nationally has grown tremendously. Are we where we need to be with that or do people still not quite get it?

MJ: I think the awareness level has been great. Are we where we need to be? We’re never going to be where we need to be. It’s hard to do that. But have we made great strides since I announced 20 years ago? Yes we have. Both awareness and medicine wise. There was one drug when I announced, now we got over 30. Can we do more? Of course. Through the administration in different states and local cities, as well as overseas too. We can always do more when it comes to HIV and AIDS. We’ll continue to fight the fight, man. And it’s never ending because somebody got diagnosed (with AIDS) today, as we’re speaking right now.

ASP: Talking about the current situation in the NBA, you’ve been on both sides as a player and an owner. What do you think is going to happen with that whole situation, do you think there could be a season?

MJ: Well, I wish I could talk about it but since I’m an executive with the Lakers, I can’t speak about it unfortunately. But you almost got me.

ASP: Are we ever going to see “The Magic Hour” come back?

MJ: That’s a great question, but no. No more TV for me. I’m just going to do the games.

ASP: You’ve endorsed political figures in your time, are we ever going to see Magic Johnson run for public office?

MJ: They’ve been pushing me to run in Los Angeles for years. To run for mayor, to run for governor of the state. But no that’s not what I do. What I do is really support those who I feel have a good agenda for the city of Los Angeles or the state of California or for the nation. I support a lot of senators and governors and mayors across the country because I have businesses in 24 states and 105 cities. When you have businesses all over the country, people want you to come in and support them because I employ a lot of people in their cities or in their state. But I’m good where I am. I enjoy politics in terms of just supporting the candidate and then holding him to what he promised the people. I think that I’m better in that situation then actually being the mayor. I’m a person who likes to do a lot of things. If I’m tied down I’m like a wild animal.

“This is kind of hilarious doing this in a church. [I’ll just] take communion here,” said MacFarlane, who was accepting the fifth-annual Harvard Humanist of the Year Award.

His speech, which delivered religious punch line after punch line, addressed what he described as the corrupting influence of religion in today’s society. His address supported Humanism as an alternative to traditional religion.

Humanism is another choice from “the [faiths] that make such a difference in people’s lives,” according to Greg M.  Epstein, Harvard’s Humanist Chaplain.

“2011 is a strange time to be a humanist,” MacFarlane said. “The knowledge that we have today, you will not be able to find these things in the Bible. At the same time, our society clings to these bizarre [Biblical] superstitions.”

Underlying MacFarlane’s argument was the notion that religion is no longer necessary to keep society intact. Instead, he said, people should turn to reason and science to uphold moral values.

“There are religious folks who acknowledge science, [but] the rest live by what believers call ‘blind faith,’” said MacFarlane. “What these believers are demanding is more like Helen Keller faith. If you don’t understand your world, you just moan and throw shit at it.”

In the event’s question and answer period, MacFarlane acknowledged that Humanists can do good working alongside the faithful, citing environmental conservation as a goal that both groups could work towards. Still, he argued that reason should ultimately prevail over religion.

“I don’t see anything wrong with that,” he said of collaborating with the religious. “We aligned with the Russians during World War II and then we went after them. Let’s do that.”

In one of the more awkwardly received moments of the evening, MacFarlane acknowledged the interpreter translating his speech into sign language.

“Are you doing sign language?” he asked, to no response. “So no jokes about anal sex. Certainly no jokes about performing fellatio.”

The interpreter did not respond.

“Sodomy!” he said, turning to the interpreter at random point later in the evening.

MacFarlane also made jest of the church’s decor, describing the bird adorning the speaker’s podium as a “Hitler eagle.”

MacFarlane said he recognized that his jokes were intended to offend, but described himself as an “equal opportunity offender.”

The award was sponsored by the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy.

The humanist community at Harvard and around the world is rapidly expanding, according to Esptein. The Humanist Chaplaincy now hosts typically religious ceremonies, including weddings and funerals.

The Harvard Secular Society, an undergraduate organization that aligns itself with Humanism, consistently draws a group of about 30 people, according to its president Jimmy P. Bohnslav.

“We are an organization that takes common sense’s ideas … to figure out how to relate to one another,” said Epstein.

“Folks, get that stick right out of your ass,” he advised the sold-out audience at the start of his show. The political commentator famed for walking the line between sarcastic and sardonic spared few from his razor-sharp tongue.

From members of Congress “who just vote on bullshit that gets their dick hard” to average Americans he dubbed “ill-educated fuck-ups,” no subject or personality was off-limits during Maher’s 90-minute set.

“This primary season has shown the Republican party has no bottom,” Maher jabbed.

The host of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” bashed Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., as the candidate “for people who find [former Alaska Gov.] Sarah Palin too intellectual,” and said if Mitt Romney “was any slimier, you could kill him with a box of salt.”

Maher said, if a poll found Romney could garner more votes as a black woman, the former Massachusetts governor would change his name to Latisha. Acknowledging his liberal leanings, Maher still took digs at the Democrats, but saved his choicest jabs for the GOP.

“I hope I look like I’ve been bipartisan tonight,” Maher said.

Following through on his reputation as a sharp critic of religion, Maher also took swipes at the controversial decision to construct a mosque at Ground Zero.

“I don’t think a mosque should be built anywhere. Or a church, or a temple,” he said.

Leslie Jaffe, a mother at the event, said Maher was “a fiesta of ideas and thinking.”

“I think he is an outstanding choice for a liberal arts institution,” Jaffe said.

Earlier this week, four campus groups, led by the Young America’s Foundation, sent University President Steven Knapp a letter blasting GW for signing Maher on for Colonials Weekend.

The letter urged Knapp to apologize for hosting the controversial comedian, alleging that Maher’s off-color remarks on religion discredit the University’s commitment to diversity and inclusion on campus.

Some members of the audience left the Smith Center before Maher finished his set, but it is unclear if they were protesting the show.

Dean of Students Peter Konwerski, who had not personally seen the YAF letter, said the University was not concerned about bringing Maher to campus, but could “appreciate the question from some of the student groups.”

“We know that many comedians address issues during their performances which may be deemed ‘edgy’ or controversial to some, particularly around a broad range of social or political subjects,” Konwerski said. “But we have a mature audience and, as a University, we are open to the free exchange of ideas and lively debate.”

“What I’ve been trying to do is bring everybody together, Democrats and Republicans, to find those people of good will who care very deeply about putting our country first,” he said.

Brown focused his talk, sponsored by the Georgetown College Republicans, on the importance of compromise and bipartisanship. He spoke about the financial crises and other vital challenges.

“There is no Democrat bill that will pass right now and there is no Republican bill that will pass right now,” he said. “There needs to be a bipartisan, bicameral bill for the President to sign because we are in a financial emergency right now.”

Students in attendance said they were impressed with Brown’s non-partisan rhetoric and insistence that progress depends on people of all political backgrounds finding common ground.

“It is good to see that there are good Republicans willing to work with the Democrats to better the country,” Matt Carlucci said.

Jaclyn Proctor said she agreed.

“With government so divided, it shows that we can have bipartisan, effective politicians,” she said.

Governing in a moderate manner is particularly crucial for a Republican in Massachusetts. Until Brown’s election in 2010, the state hadn’t elected a Republican to the senate since 1972.

“I will continue to find opportunities to work with the administration,” Brown said. “I will also find opportunities to buck the party because I don’t work for Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell. I work for you and your families.”

For Brown, it all boiled down to working together.

“I want to work in a bipartisan manner right now to solve these very real problems,” Brown said. “If we don’t do that, I am very nervous about what the future will bring.”

During the talk, Zucker allowed students to ask candid questions about his public feud with Conan O’Brien, his break from NBC and his upcoming talk show featuring Katie Couric.

The event also included a discussion of Zucker’s influential career at NBC, where he became the youngest executive producer of the “Today” show at age 26. By the end of his time at NBC, Zucker had oversight of the entire NBC Universal empire, including: NBC network, Bravo, SyFy, Universal Pictures, Universal Parks and Resorts, as well as many other networks and online platforms.

Karen Curry, executive director for the Rudman Institute and longtime friend of Zucker, invited the television tycoon to speak with Drexel students after running into him by chance earlier this past May.

“I’ve had a long relationship with Karen Curry,” Zucker said. “We worked together for a long time at NBC News, and when I ran into her six months ago for the first time in a long time, she told me what she was doing and asked me if I would consider coming down.”

The conversation began with Curry asking Zucker about his experience in the television industry before opening up to the audience for questions.

“I thought it was a good-sized crowd. I thought Jeff was very candid and very open about his career and also funny, which was great,” Curry said. “And I thought the questions were terrific. I was quite impressed with the questions from the audience, and that’s always a great thing.”

Zucker prefaced the question portion of the talk with an invitation to “ask me anything you want. I’ll even answer them. It can be personal, professional — I’ll answer anything you want.”

Students inquired about his past business decisions such as the “supersizing” of the Thursday night lineup on NBC, where shows were increased in length to 40 minutes. In addition, the decision to sell the rights to the show “Friday Night Lights” to DirecTV.

Mairin McKinlay, a senior television major, went to hear Zucker speak after learning about the talk through an email sent to her Drexel account.

“He was executive producer of the ‘Today’ show by 26, which I think is what all of us pretend that we strive for but don’t actually expect it,” McKinlay said. “He definitely seems like new school but also kind of understands about how the old school worked, and I think that’s how he got a lot accomplished.”

Curry wasted no time in asking Zucker about some of the more controversial decisions made during his 26-year career at NBC, such as the decision to move “The Jay Leno Show” from the 10 p.m. weeknight time slot to 11:35 p.m., bumping “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien” to 12:05 a.m. The move resulted in decreased viewership for both shows and was considered a failure. Zucker, who was criticized for the decision, playfully replied “next” to her question, garnering a laugh from the audience, before answering seriously.

“I don’t regret that we tried it,” Zucker said. “I regret that it didn’t work.”

The decision ultimately resulted in O’Brien quitting his show in protest and leaving the network for a new project at TBS.

“It was a very painful episode for all. In my 26 years at NBC, the most unfortunate thing that happened was the way that the 10:00 and 11:35 shows failed and the fallout from them. It was a public soap opera, and I tried to do the right thing by Conan … he made us at NBC into punching bags, and so I tried to do the right thing, but we all got hurt.”

Zucker, who had known O’Brien since they attended Harvard together during their undergraduate years, expressed disappointment over the ordeal but said he didn’t let the criticism bother him.

“We work in a very public business, so criticism is a byproduct of that. You can’t avoid it, and you have to know that it comes with the territory,” Zucker said. “And criticism, often from folks who really have no real knowledge of what they’re writing or talking about, is really not something that I let bother me.”

Earlier this year, Philadelphia-based Comcast bought out NBC. Zucker left NBC in February when the merger was complete, acknowledging that the departure was not by choice.

“The company was sold, and the new management wanted its own management in place,” Zucker said. “That’s what happens when most companies are bought, so it didn’t really surprise me, and it wouldn’t have made sense for me to work under a new philosophy after spending 25 years under a different one. It was kind of a natural ending, in that respect.”

After his departure from NBC, Zucker partnered up with Couric to work together on a new talk show planned to start September 2012 on ABC.

“The timing, it really was just serendipitous. At the time I became available, Katie Couric was also becoming available, so we talked and decided to try and recreate hopefully some of that magic that we had on the ‘Today’ show,” Zucker said. “There’s this opening in the marketplace if you think about the departure of Oprah, not that anyone’s really going to be able to replace Oprah, but I still think there’s this void and this opportunity, and hopefully that’s something we’re going to take advantage of.”

Despite moving on to new projects, Zucker said he still remembers his time at NBC fondly.

Upon taking the stage, McCain immediately addressed ideological disparities in the audience.

“I know there are some of you here that love me, and some of you who hate my guts,” she said.

In a brief introduction, Rainbow Center student staff member Autumn Alston noted herself to be “a proud democrat,” but stressed the importance of transcending partisan disputes in pursuit of justice. McCain echoed this sentiment in her rhetoric, encouraging the audience to “challenge the status quo” and stand by their beliefs.

The choice of date for McCain’s talk – Tuesday, Oct. 11 – was not without its own significance. Fleurette King, director of the Rainbow Center, hoped the discussion, which coincided with National Coming Out Day, would help foster heterosexual advocacy.

“Our heterosexual allies have a coming out process as well,” the director said.

McCain, who identified herself early in the program as heterosexual, spoke candidly about her own support for a battery of LGBTQ issues on stage, citing the story of Jamey Rodemeyer, a teen suicide victim whose story gained national news attention recently. She also used the controversy surrounding Chaz Bono’s appearance on “Dancing With the Stars” as proof that LGBTQ equality has yet to be achieved. At one point, McCain even indicted pro-Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell politicians as being “dangerously out of touch.”

“I support equality,” she said. “You can’t call this country free if people are being discriminated against.

“I’m scared by people who don’t evolve,” said McCain later on, frustrated by the static nature of conservative politics. The blogger, whose views contradict much of the religious rights’ stance on homosexuality, suffered extreme backlash from news pundits throughout her father’s campaign.

Addressing issues of media civility, McCain offered up both sobering and mirthful insights.

“The media has done tremendous damage to our generation,” she said, dismissing mass media-espoused politics for fear of being “bad for the United States.”

Referring to radio host Laura Ingraham’s off-color comments on her weight, McCain jokingly asked the audience how one can be “too fat to be an elephant?” before sharing her public response.

“I told [Dr. Laura] to kiss my size 12 [expletive],” said McCain to laughter from the audience.

During a public Q&A session afterwards, McCain encouraged students to support local politicians who fought for LGBTQ rights and, of course, to volunteer at the Rainbow Center.

“Getting involved on campus is extremely important,” she said.

The lecture, titled “The Court, the Constitution and the Justice from Illinois” was moderated by Princeton Provost Christopher Eisgruber. Eisgruber, who clerked for Stevens from 1989-90, opened the discussion with a query about the title of the Justice’s new book, “Five Chiefs.” Stevens explained that he wrote the work in response to the frequent questions he had received over the years about prominent leaders of the Supreme Court. Stevens said that he decided to record his recollections of the five chief justices he had worked with in the past, because the public is not well-informed regarding the role of the chief justice.

Few people, he said, recognize that the chief justice’s position also makes him the chancellor of the Smithsonian Institute. There are many other unique appointment responsibilities worth describing, Stevens joked, but the chief justice’s role on the court is essentially the same as that of the other justices.

“There are many people in the public who assume there is a dramatic difference between the office of the chief justice and the associate justices,” Stevens said, but “although he’s the presiding officer, he’s really one among nine equals.”

When asked about his disagreement with the past decisions of Associate Justice William Rehnquist, Stevens  said he took issue primarily with Rehnquist’s reinforcement of the sovereign immunity clause of the Constitution, which is the idea that government should be insulated from legal proceedings.

“I have felt very deeply that the court’s sovereign immunity jurisprudence is incorrect and should be examined,” Stevens said. At the time of the nation’s founding, the states were free to incorporate or reject common law into their own constitutions, he explained. While drafting the Constitution, however, the founding fathers heatedly debated whether the doctrine of sovereign immunity fit into their new democracy. The idea, which Stevens said derived from common law, eventually became expressed in the nation’s law through a routine “misreading” of the 11th Amendment after the Constitution was written. Stevens said he is vehemently opposed to the idea of sovereign immunity, because “this particular doctrine is a doctrine that promotes injustice rather than justice,” he said.

Asked by a student how he would change the Constitution if he had the power to do so, Stevens replied, “Well, I think I’d just delete the 11th amendment.”

Eisgruber also questioned Stevens about some of the controversial decisions made by the Supreme Court in recent years. In 2010, the bitterly divided court ruled that the federal government may not ban direct corporate or union contributions to candidate campaigns or political parties. The case, known as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, invoked much controversy over its claim that unlimited campaign contributions were protected under the First Amendment’s right of free speech.

“The basic problem,” Justice Stevens said of the ruling, “is the notion that money is the same as speech in terms of constitutional protection.” He noted that many citizens saw the ruling as unfair and said that, by the same logic, the expenditures that funded the Watergate break-ins could be seen as under the protection of the First Amendment.

When Eisgruber laughed and said that it was unlikely the current Supreme Court would consider the Watergate affair an exercise of free speech, Stevens replied, “Are you sure?”

The Supreme Court’s 2000 decision to stop the recount of contested Florida votes during the presidential race between former President George W. Bush and Al Gore was also an area of contention. Though the country may perhaps never know who the true winner of that election was, Stevens said, “The identity of the loser is perfectly clear: It is the nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.”

He further said that he believed “that particular decision was quite wrong.” Stevens also discussed his position on affirmative action, as he had ruled against cases involving the principle in his earlier years as a justice but became a proponent of it later in his career.

The sea change in his view of affirmative action, Stevens said, came with the realization that “you should look at the future and the benefits that are available through diversity.” However, he noted, there is a vast difference between justifying affirmative action in the theoretical arena and trying to make it a “remedy for past sins.”

When asked about the ideological makeup of and division between justices on the current Supreme Court, Stevens noted that “there do seem to be more cases in which the same [ideological] line-ups occur,” but that the justices all maintain cordial relations and, in fact, like each other.

“It’s a very nice place to work,” he said of the court.

The lecture concluded with Eisgruber asking whether Stevens was optimistic about the future of the Supreme Court and the Constitution. Stevens answered with a single, resounding “Yes.”

Stevens served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court after being nominated by President Gerald Ford in 1975. Over his 34 terms in the court, Stevens wrote more than 1,400 opinions — roughly half of them were dissents — and retired in 2010, two years away from holding the all-time record for the longest Supreme Court appointment.

Before attending law school, Stevens served as an navy cryptographer and decoded Japanese messages during World War II. A lover of flight, Stevens was reputedly once given a white dove as a gift from Charles Lindbergh, as well as a gentle scolding by Amelia Earhart.

The event was jointly sponsored by the Princeton University Committee on Public Lectures and the Program in Law and Public Affairs.

He began with a brief speech exhorting students to consider a career in government. “I hope every single one of you here is seriously thinking about a career in public service and a career in politics,” he said, before launching into the story of his path to higher office. He reflected on the sacrifices made by his parents. “Who was I?” he asked. The “son of immigrants. Both of my parents came to this country. Both of them did extraordinarily well,” he continued. According to Dukakis, his father immigrated to America in 1912 without “a nickel in his pockets,” and Dukakis’ uncles worked in the textile mills in Lawrence and Lowell, Mass. Twelve years later, Dukakis’ father graduated from Harvard Medical School, and his mother was the first Greek-American woman to go to college in American history, according to Dukakis.

He credited his initial success in Brookline, Mass. town politics to his willingness to go door-to-door, personally meeting and talking with voters and developing personal relations with them. He joked that many of his constituents voted for him because they thought he was Jewish. Dukakis blamed many of the Democratic losses in the 2010 congressional election on the candidates’ failure to instill a similar grassroots campaign.

Dukakis blamed himself for his loss to George H. W. Bush in 1988. With his voice rising, he said, “I owe you all an apology, for God’s sake. If I had beaten Bush I, you would have never heard of Bush II, and we wouldn’t be in this mess. So it’s all my fault.” He expressed the same regret in an interview with Katie Couric at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

During a lengthy question-and-answer session, Dukakis expressed his displeasure with a slew of recent domestic developments. He called the Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court on corporate free speech an “outrageous decision” and Mitt Romney “a fraud” with a poor economic record in Massachusetts. Dukakis decried the failure of Congress to raise the minimum wage and the decline of union membership in the private sector to 7 percent, and he called for for the elimination of the tax reduction on dividends and capital gains.

On foreign policy, Dukakis advocated a doctrine, which, while far from isolationist, called for significantly curbing American interventionism. He stated that the notion that America had to be the “world’s policeman” was antiquated after the Cold War and that defense spending should be sharply curtailed.

The most recent war in Iraq “may be the dumbest thing we ever did with one exception—that was overthrowing the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953,” he stated. Dukakis also expressed his vehement opposition to the death penalty on moral as well as practical grounds and his discomfort with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Kitty Dukakis, Governor Dukakis’s wife, accompanied him to the event. She praised Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren’s credentials and personality. Kitty Dukakis would have been the first Jewish first lady if Governor Dukakis had been elected President. Dukakis credited his successful marriage to their rule of having a 6 p.m. family dinner and no politics on Sunday.

She dismissed the immigration criticism from extreme right and left-wingers as mere political rhetoric and urged the public to focus on the facts and evidence.

“It’s time for a reality check when it comes to talking about immigration enforcement,” she said.

U.S.-Mexico Border Enforcement
Napolitano called for an honest assessment of border enforcement efforts and rejected talk of the border being unmanageable, citing a substantial drop in illegal border crossings and an increase in seized contraband. A record number of deportations — 195,000 in 2010 — also occurred under her watch, she said.

In a post-speech interview with ATV and The Eagle, Napolitano explained that many Americans may be unaware of the improvements to border security because they have not been there personally and only heard secondhand accounts.

“It’s easy to kind of get this mythological impression in your mind about what it must be [like],” she said. “I think what happens is anecdotes get substituted for looking at what’s really going on at the border and those make for better stories.”

She acknowledged that crimes still exist along the border, but noted that the situation has markedly improved.

“The border is safer than it has been in decades,” she said.

Priority Deportations and Removals
Napolitano also emphasized the need to establish clear priorities for the types of individuals the United States deports, acknowledging the limited resources the country has to root out the estimated 10 million undocumented immigrants living here.

“A lot of them came legally, and then overstayed their visas,” she said in her post-speech interview. “I think it’s fair to say that a great percentage of those illegally in the country have come here to work and also to pursue the American Dream … that doesn’t excuse illegal immigration, nor should it, but I think that is a common reason.”

She also criticized the previous administration for treating all illegal immigrant cases the same way. Instead, Napolitano said the Department of Homeland Security’s top priority will be identifying and removing those illegal immigrants who threaten national security.

Secure Communities Program
Napolitano also defended the Secure Communities program, calling it the best tool to target those illegal immigrants who pose a threat to the public.

Secure Communities, which began in March 2008, according to the Immigration Policy Center’s website, allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement to have automatic access to fingerprint data of individuals who have been jailed from local and state law enforcement offices. This data would then be checked against ICE’s immigration databases to track those illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Napolitano admitted, however, that a lack of clarity from DHS led to misunderstandings regarding who would be compelled to participate in the program.

“That has created a lot of confusion around the country,” she said.

ICE is now trying to make it clear that all states and local law enforcement offices will be required to participate by 2013.

Napolitano also said Secure Communities has not increased the number of deportations but rather has changed the proportion to include significantly more convicted criminals and repeat immigration law violators.

Despite challenges, she said DHS and the Obama Administration have been productive and efficient in enforcing the nation’s immigration laws with its given resources.

After making the case for her agency’s efforts, she put the final burden of responsibility on Congress to enact cohesive legislation.

“It is this Administration’s position that Congress needs to take up immigration reform once and for all,” she said. “But Congress hasn’t acted.”

Essebi spoke about his hopes for the future of Tunisia and the Arab world in light of the wave of pro-democratic revolts that have rocked the region since December. Essebsi took office on Feb. 27 after former Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi resigned under pressure from the revolts in his home country.

According to Essebsi, assuming his role in the midst of civil strife has given him first-hand knowledge of the revolutionaries’ goals for the country and its neighbors. He stressed that the revolution combined Tunisia’s rich history with an awareness of contemporary standards of living. Under his policies, Essebi believes that the country is now committed to establishing equality and liberty, regardless of language, religion, gender or ethnicity.

“President Mebazaa has taken up this project and cared for it and set up a democracy. … The projects are not completed, but we have the institutions for that awareness of a democratic system,” he said.

For Essebsi, a solid institutional foundation is crucial for such a functioning democracy. Political objectives originating from this foundation include fair elections, formation and regulation of new political parties and reform of the judiciary. Essebi also hopes to encourage economic and educational growth.

Essebsi also emphasized that his government has no desire to intervene in the policies of other nations. However, he hopes that the revolutionary spirit of the Arab Spring will arise in surrounding countries, as it already has in Libya and others across the Middle East.

“The breadth of freedom has no borders,” Essebsi said. “Revolutions do not respect the sovereignty of nations.”

He added that remaining open to freedom and change will decrease the potential for violent insurgencies in the future.

While students appreciated Essebsi’s sentiments, some felt that his ambitions and explanations of the Tunisian revolution were not entirely pragmatic.

“I thought it was really good. It was just very idealistic,” Yomna Sarhan said.

Others felt that Essebsi’s arguments did not fully address the context and possible effects of the Arab Spring.

“A lot of his speech and a lot of what the government is doing in Tunisia is to throw out nice terms to say that something is happening,” Patrick Deem said.

They joined thousands of people at City Hall after a walkout in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests, which have been taking place since Sept. 17. Students met outside the campus gates before heading downtown to join community groups and a number of large unions, as well as students from SUNY and CUNY.

But even though solidarity with Occupy Wall Street was the main uniting factor for the protestors, students and faculty had dozens of reasons for attending.

One student, Trenton Barnes, was arrested last week at one of the protests. The son of factory workers, Barnes said his parents support his participation in Occupy Wall Street.

“My dad was sick and had to take too much time off work,” Barnes said, explaining how his dad lost his job.

Sam Shuman said his personal situation was much different, but he still wanted to participate.

“I am a privileged, white man who fancily doesn’t have to deal with a lot of the problems that I’m fighting for on a day-to-day basis,” Shuman said. “Whenever there is abuse going on, it needs to be addressed.”

Initially marked as a youth movement, Occupy Wall Street has now attracted people of all ages, including Columbia faculty and alumni. Some professors encouraged their students to walk out, while others participated in the walkout themselves.

Mae Ngai, Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and professor of history, and Michael Thaddeus, associate professor of mathematics, met at the gates and rode the subway downtown with students.

“This march doesn’t have a well-defined agenda,” Thaddeus said. “It’s a way to allow the ordinary citizen to display outrage.”

Ngai added that if she had class during that time, she would have canceled it.

“We’re mad too,” she said.

HOW IT CAME TOGETHER
CUNY and SUNY students organized a walkout this summer in order to challenge soaring tuition rates and cuts to faculty benefits.

Yoni Golijov, one of the organizers of the walkout, attended some of the planning meetings over the summer, but didn’t think to bring the movement to Columbia. But after the emergence of Occupy Wall Street, a protest against corporate greed, unemployment, and corrupt financial institutions, students saw cause to join the two protests.

“Student debt affects private schools as well,” Golijov said. “We’re fighting for the same thing.”

Columbia students agreed, and some wanted to join Occupy Wall Street itself. Eventually the walkout was advertised through Facebook and by student groups, including CU Activists and the students organizing Ethnic Studies Week events.

For Salomeya Sobko protesting against student debt hit home.

“I just found out that I have to take out $10,000 more in loans this week,” Sobko said, adding that both her financial aid award and her parents’ income have decreased this year.

The protesters also chanted in opposition to the arrests of 700 people at Brooklyn Bridge last Saturday.

“In part it is a response to the arrests,” said Yesenia Barragan who was present at Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday. “In part it shows that students are mobilizing and that we’re done being screwed by Wall Street. Many of us are in debt.”

‘WAKE UP, WALK OUT’
Students and faculty met at the gates on 116th Street around 3:30 p.m., ready with whistles, chants, and signs reading, “Wake Up, Walk Out” and “Corporate. Greed. … Redundant!”

Some students wore face paint, like Barnes, who also carried a sign that read, “Down with Capitalism.”

“I’m trying to create a situation where people are thinking of living differently,” Barnes said, explaining the face paint. “I’ve dreamed about this.”

The excitement only grew as students boarded the downtown train, signs and all.

Alexandra Afifi said she was pleasantly surprised by the number of Columbia students and faculty who participated.

“I heard someone say, ‘Columbia’s back’ on the train,” she said.

After exiting at Chambers Street and joining in with unions and protesters, the group from Columbia split up. A few stuck together, their chants adding to the thousands of people shaking tambourines and carrying signs at City Hall—including many union members, who showed up in full force for the first time on Wednesday.

WHAT COMES NEXT
Occupy Wall Street has now spread to other cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston. Solidarity events have also been held, or will be held, worldwide in Spain, Syria, and France, among other countries. October 15 has been designated a day of global solidarity.

Though critics have pointed to of a lack of focus in the protesters’ aims and a lack of focus on how the financial issues affect minorities and immigrants, Goslijov said he has high hopes for the protests. He explained that a declaration of grievances has been outlined during general assemblies held by Occupy Wall Street, and said that working groups are coming together to work on widening the inclusion of people of color in the cause.

“We’re just outraged. We want to unite around the fact that we have a First Amendment right,” Golijov said. “We’re going to change the world.”

Not all of the people at yesterday’s march were as optimistic, even though they’re supportive of the movement.

Jason Resnikoff said this is probably something he’ll tell his children about one day.

“But it also depends on how it ends,” he said.

“We ended up selling out of tickets,” said Priska Ndege, a Student Activities Board member and a chair on their Multicultural Affairs committee. “I’m very happy the UK and Lexington community came out to support. I was happy with the message. It’s something people needed to hear and he’s passionate about what he speaks about.”

Right in line with a tweet from Legend a few hours before he showed up on Singletary’s stage — “Just arrived in Lexington, KY! Speaking/performing at UK tonight” — he performed seven songs including “Get Lifted,” “Used to Love You” and “Ordinary People.”
Audience members erupted in applause and sang lyrics along with Legend on the piano.

SAB, the hosting student organization, didn’t give word prior to Tuesday that Legend would be performing and had advertised the event as a speaking engagement as a part of their Engaging Issues series.

“We didn’t want to make it seem like a concert,” Ndege said. “He was coming to talk about social justice and educational equality. Performing was something he decided to do on his own.”

It is true that Legend’s true reason for coming all the way to Lexington was to talk about making a change.

“Equal opportunity to education remains a gift for some, when it should be a right for all,” Legend said at the beginning of his speech.
He talked about growing up in Springfield, Ohio, as the son of a factory worker and a homemaker and called education equality “the civil rights issue of our generation.”

As a part of Teach for America week at UK, the TFA board member spoke about the national program that employs college graduates to teach in some of the country’s poorest schools, informing the audience that 46 UK alumni are currently teaching in TFA classrooms across the country, and encouraged students to apply upon graduation.

At one point, the “conversation” became political as Legend discussed issues like taxes and the upcoming 2012 presidential election. He spoke passionately about his opposition to “blindly lowering taxes for the wealthy,” reminding the audience that he was a “wealthy person” himself.
“The gap between the rich and the poor is becoming wider and wider,” Legend said. “Lowering taxes is a very popular promise to make, but governing is about making hard decisions.”

“A Conversation with John Legend” allowed students and members of the community to ask Legend questions after he spoke, right before he stepped over to the piano. Audience members asked Legend about everything from his activism to his advice for aspiring musicians.

“Luck is where opportunity meets preparation,” Legend said to the audience during a story about how he met fellow recording artist Kanye West and became famous. “You have to be prepared to take advantage when luck comes your way.”

Legend implored students to use their education, find something they were passionate about and provide service, even if they didn’t share his passion of educational equality.

“One of the greatest things about education is it gives you control over your destiny; that knowledge is power,” Legend said. “I urge you to embrace that autonomy. Always question the things you assume … always challenge the conventional wisdom.”

Despite discussing heavy issues such as the national debt and health care, Moore set a casual tone for the packed afternoon lecture with his own attire, sporting a green baseball hat, plain T-shirt, jeans and sneakers.

The famous activist centered his talk, which was sponsored by the Lecture Fund, on the importance of student activism and how he first got involved in the issues on which he focuses his films.

Moore threaded Christian references throughout his talk while commenting on his spiritual upbringing. As a Catholic himself, he cited the influence anti-war activists Philip Berrigan and Fr. Daniel Berrigan, S.J., had on his interest in the priesthood. Moore attended seminary for a year, but he eventually left to pursue a different path.

“Jesuits have always had a social conscience. … I think this country is fortunate to have a number of Jesuit colleges,” Moore told The Hoya after the event. “Georgetown is one of the great institutions in this country. There are people have gone here who have gone on to do tremendous good and there are people who’ve gone here who’ve gone on to do tremendous evil — like most great institutions.”

Moore attended University of Michigan-Flint, majoring in political science and theater. However, he also chose to leave college after a year of enrollment.

“I enjoyed school,” Moore said in his speech. “But I was bored of it all.”

Not shying away from controversial topics, such as a strong re-evaluation of the capitalist system, Moore encouraged dialogue during his visit, urging conservative students to ask questions during the question and answer session.

“We all agree on more things than we disagree on, and we never really talk about that,” Moore said in an interview with The Hoya.

He recounted an episode featured in his autobiography, “Here Comes Trouble,” in which he highlighted the type of authority figures who galvanized him to run for school board and begin his life as political activist.  For Moore, after seeing a student stopped from walking during his high school graduation ceremony, something snapped.

“That changed me for the rest of my life,” Moore said. “I couldn’t live with myself like that, that I just let that happen, that I didn’t say anything. It was a small thing, but it really affected me and I haven’t shut up since.”

Reinforcing the importance of voicing one’s opinions, Moore identified an earlier experience when he won a competition for giving a speech about racial discrimination.

“I don’t think you have to do a lot, just a little bit,” Moore said, addressing how students can get involved in social justice. “Don’t turn your head the other way.”

Students in attendance were impressed by Moore’s openness to student opinions and personal approach to controversies, which was more relaxed than in his films.

“I think that he came across as much less of an extremist than he is often made out to be,” Melissa Miller (COL ’12) said. “He seemed passionate and liberal, but not the foaming nutcase that he often is made to seem. In general, I thought it was a cool opportunity to hear such a prominent public voice speak on the issues of the day.”

When asked about the amount of activism he sees present in the younger generation today, Moore responded that he felt youth engagement often occurs but goes unreported.

“I think there’s actually a lot of activism, but the press just doesn’t cover it,” Moore said. “You made Obama happen. Obama wouldn’t have been elected without young people. He lost every other white age group except 18 [through] 29.”

Throughout the talk, he continually emphasized the overarching theme of the power of youth.

“Most stuff happens because of young people,” Moore said. “All through history, it’s young people that are out there doing it [and] making it happen. That just has to continue.”

A group of OSU students in United Students Against Sweatshops stripped down and protested in front of Bricker Hall on Monday in an attempt to prevent a potential apparel deal between Dallas Cowboys Merchandising and OSU.

In a group of 15 students, all sporting cardboard signs and boxes, most of the men had no shirts on while several women went with only sports bras or strapped shirts to emphasize their point.

“We would rather go naked than wear Dallas Cowboys Merchandising Apparel,” said Terasia Bradford, a third-year in French and sociology.

The protest started in the basement of the Ohio Union where the students got their signs ready and moved on through the Oval while chanting “We don’t give a damn for sweatshop sweatshirts” to the tune of “We Don’t Give a Damn for the Whole State of Michigan.”

The group traveled to Bricker Hall where they delivered a letter of delegation stating their demands to the secretary office of university President E. Gordon Gee before heading back to the Union.

Nicholas Pasquarello, a fourth-year in psychology and sociology and co-president of USAS at OSU, said the demands included having the Cowboys’ merchandising company and its off-shoot Silver Star Merchandising, disqualified from the bidding process for an apparel deal, to have Rick VanBrimmer, director of trademarks and licensing for OSU, removed from the deal and fired and that students and faculty be allowed to participate in the decision for an apparel deal.

The University of Southern California recently signed a 10-year exclusive-merchandising deal with Silver Star Merchandising.

University spokesman Jim Lynch said in a statement Monday that OSU is currently talking to license apparel companies, including Silver Star Merchandising, about an exclusive apparel model.

USAS, however, said that Ohio State has been secretly communicating with Bill Priakos, chief operating officer for Dallas Cowboys Merchandising Ltd., since spring of 2010 in an attempt to secure the Cowboys bid.

The USAS has emails posted on their website, obtained by the Freedom of Information Act, between VanBrimmer and Priakos. In one of the emails, VanBrimmer responds to questions from Priakos about making a bid.

“The only caveat is that I may be forced into looking at ‘bids,’ simply because we are a state agency. But don’t fear that process,” VanBrimmer wrote to Priakos.

Pasquarello said there are several problems with the deal and Silver Star Merchandising.

“Silver Star has been in communication with Rick VanBrimmer for the past year-and-a-half basically setting up the ground work for Silver Star to come in and take a monopolistic contract for OSU apparel,” Pasquarello said. “It’s going to wipe out the hundreds of independent contracts we already have and basically have all of our apparel solely produced by Dallas Cowboys and Nike.”

Neither Silver Star Merchandising nor the Dallas Cowboy’s organization were able to be reached for comment.

The last problem the USAS has, and why it first got involved against Silver Star, is it believes Silver Star is using sweatshops in several countries.

“Looking on the surface we have found four reports from the Worker Rights Consortium detailing worker abuses in Indonesia, Bangladesh and El Salvador and one from the Fair Labor Association as well,” Pasquarello said.

Both are independent labor-rights organizations that monitor and try to stop the use of sweatshops by companies.

Lynch said in the university statement that OSU is a member of both organizations, is a leader on initiatives dealing with fair labor practice and has scheduled a meeting for Oct. 3 with USAS representatives to hear their concerns.

In Bradford’s opinion, the university has not done enough.

“I hoped in May that the university would make some changes, but we’ve seen that the university doesn’t actually care,” Bradford said. “We are more and more like a corporation and not an institution for higher learning.”

Samir Sumaida’ie, who was appointed as Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S. in 2006, spoke to a group of Duke U. students and faculty Thursday evening. He addressed a range of issues related to Iraq—from the country’s origin to its future political standing.

“In America, 100 years is a long time—in Europe, 100 miles is a long way. In Iraq, neither is true,” Sumaida’ie said.

Sumaida’ie— exiled from Iraq in under Saddam Hussein’s regime—shared his beliefs about Hussein’s effect on the Iraqi people.

“I saw a completely shattered city—not only the infrastructure, [but] the people had changed,” he said. “It was a great mistake the Americans made in not finishing off Saddam Hussein’s rule in 1991.”

Sumaida’ie recounted the horrors produced by Hussein’s Iraq, noting that there have been nearly 2,000 suicide bombings in the country since 2003. He also spoke of his return to Baghdad after 26 years in exile.

“I did not recognize it,” he said. “[Baghdad] was a shadow of its former self.”

Although Sumaida’ie noted the devastation Hussein caused to Iraq, he said there is hope the country will return to its former glory in future generations, recalling the flourishing Iraq that he knew in his youth.

“I remember Baghdad as a child,” Sumaida’ie said. “It was peaceful, orderly—a city in which people tended their gardens, looked after their children…. By and large, the country was coming up in the world.”

He acknowledged the difficulties that stand between the Iraq of today and the state that its citizens want it to become.

“Iraqis suffered the losses, but we crossed that bridge, and I believe we are on the other side,” Sumaida’ie said. “The process of putting Humpty-Dumpty together has started.”

Sumaida’ie had unique insight into U.S.-Iraqi relations, Mbaye Lo, Duke assistant professor of the practice for Asian and Middle Eastern studies, said.

“He is a living history of the two countries’ relationship,” Lo wrote in an email Thursday.

He also discussed the American intervention, noting that the U.S. was ignorant to the realities of Iraq’s political situation upon its invasion.

“[The U.S.] toppled Iraq, but they had no idea what they were getting into,” he said. “They didn’t have a clear vision of what to do after they deposed the regime.”

As one of the authors of Iraq’s previous constitution, Sumaida’ie said the processes of writing a new constitution for the country is a struggle and perhaps premature.

“In my personal opinion—not representing the government—the Americans pushed us too early to write our own constitution and have our own elections,” he said. “Simply electing your leaders does not constitute democracy.”

Although he said he does not agree with some of the actions the U.S. took in Iraq, Sumaida’ie concluded his lecture with a message of hope for a relationship between the two countries.

“[The U.S. and Iraq] have managed to forge a bond because of that common experience and common struggle, and this bodes very well for the future,” he said.

Duke sophomore Lekë Badivuku said he appreciated the ambassador’s comments on the ethics behind instituting a democratic process where historically there had not been one.

“It was really interesting to see his personal stand, along with his official government position because it was clear he displayed both,” Badivuku said.

The event, titled “Facebook, PayPal and the College Bubble: A Conversation with Peter Thiel,” was sponsored by the American Whig-Cliosophic Society and the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club.

As a nation, Thiel said, “we’re very geared toward globalization” rather than toward technology.

He added that he feels there has been a significant deceleration in the rate of technological innovation in the United States.

When asked what would need to be done to cause technological innovation to move forward, Thiel explained that methods such as open encouragement, fewer government limitations on innovation and changes in society’s views toward higher education were crucial for technological advancement.

Throughout the discussion, Thiel focused on changing societal views in the United States to increase opportunities for the nation’s best students.

The most talented students, Thiel explained, are the ones who should be encouraged to innovate.

These top students are currently producing less than they are capable of because “they can sort of coast,” unchallenged, in the current education system, he said.

Thiel noted, however, that he was “not quite as worried” about the rest of the student population.

Students who are not at the top are encouraged to participate in vocational training or other specialized programs — but the nation’s pre-eminent students are given few choices once they are accepted into universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, he said.

Students who are accepted into these schools are pressured to enroll, Thiel explained, and are criticized if they choose to go into specialized programs. Instead, they are encouraged to follow paths typical of the top schools, resulting in less risk-taking by the country’s cream of the crop.

Thiel said that regaining the momentum of technological innovation requires reducing the burden of risk-taking for top students.

He also said he sees the current education system as “problematic” because students are not aware of what they are doing — after each education step, there is typically another, he said, creating an atmosphere in which one remains in school without knowing precisely what he or she would like to do after graduation.

This pattern perpetuates a cycle of “avoiding the question of the future,” Thiel said.

Thiel explained that the future of the United States is very uncertain: While it is currently the most technologically advanced country in the world, he said, China is aware that in 20 years it will look just like — at least technologically — the current United States.

As such, technological innovation is of paramount importance regardless of what the future holds for the country, Thiel said.

“Technology is the key … for a much better future,” he added.

As Ramsey shared his experiences and strategies of running and building his business from his living room to a national brand, local business leaders and students said they found the principles practical for business and for personal life.

“Businesses need more than leaders,” Ramsey said in an email exchange with the Technician before the show. “They need the personal power of an entrepreneur combined with the passion to be a quality leader. EntreLeadership is the process of leading to cause a venture to grow and prosper.”

The principles of being an “entreleader” begin with practical lessons of Ramsey’s Christian faith.

“My faith plays a role in every part of my life. There are many biblical principles that apply to business,” Ramsey said in an email. “Because I am Christian, I know that my company is run by someone much larger than me.”

Among those principles is the Golden Rule from Luke 6:31, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

“This is our HR manual,” Ramsey told the audience Tuesday. “Treat people as you would want to be treated. People matter.”

Ultimately, Ramsey said, most problems go back to a weakness or a decision made by the leader.

“When I realized the problems in my organization were my fault, it was a breakthrough,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey said he has learned to recognize 90 percent of his ideas are bad.

“I have an idea every morning inspired by the Holy Spirit, Starbucks or last night’s pizza. I don’t know which,” he said.

Small business owners at the workshop frequently nodded their heads in agreement as they identified with Ramsey’s stories, mistakes and strategies. Laura Zande, owner of the small business Proactive Energy Systems in Raleigh, came to look for help in stabilizing her business and getting through the rough times in her business.

“It was extremely helpful and I can apply some of what he taught to the business and also to my personal life,” she said.

Brooke Baker, an NCSU senior in business administration with an entrepreneurship concentration, said she learned much she could put into practice.

“I liked that he said profit was not a dirty word,” she said. “Capitalism exists for a reason and it’s great for wealth to be spread, but you can do it in a caring way and a way that is going to employ people.”

Baker was also encouraged that Ramsey said now is perhaps the best time to start a business. He said competition thins in a down economy because “all the doofuses have gotten out of the way.”

“All you hear right now is that, ‘Oh, it’s a horrible time to graduate and try to get a job or open a business,’” Baker said, “but Dave puts a more positive spin on that and actually a more realistic approach.”

Baker, who wants to start her own business after graduating, said she appreciated the advice.

With many students graduating with debt, Ramsey suggested that students take their dreams slowly.

“You [might need] to take a full-time position at another company while doing your start-up business part-time on the side,” he said in an email to the Technician. “Not only will this ease your stress and give you money to pay your bills, but it will also help you make sure that your start-up will, in fact, be profitable.”

But EntreLeadership applies to all disciplines, start up or not, he said. Students have great resources to learn about leadership.

“Take the time to really learn how successful leaders lead,” he said. “I also suggest finding a mentor that you can trust and will help you grow your skills.”

Hundreds of students and community members convened at U. California-Berkeley Tuesday to protest the controversial “Increase Diversity Bake Sale” hosted by the Berkeley College Republicans, peaking in a demonstration that saw hundreds of protesters lie on their backs in front of Sproul Hall.

The bake sale, which was first announced on Facebook Thursday night, was intended to satirically protest SB 185 – affirmative action-like legislation that is currently awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature. The time and location of the bake sale coincided with an ASUC-sponsored phone bank where students called the governor in support of the bill.

The bake sale began at 10 a.m. Tuesday morning near Sather Gate and is being held by the Berkeley College Republicans in protest of SB 185 — affirmative action-like legislation currently awaiting signature from Gov. Jerry Brown. Nearby, an ASUC-sponsored phone bank is encouraging students to call for the governor’s signature of the bill.

Since the kickoff of the events, crowds of hundreds of activists, students and community members have swarmed the plaza. The bake sale has garnered national media attention and heavy negative backlash from the community due to the pricing structure it publicized, in which the cost of a baked good varied according to the consumer’s race and sex.

“Yeah, it’s racist, but more importantly, SB 185 is racist,” said former UC Regent Ward Connerly, who has been sitting behind the campus Republicans’ table.

But the Republican group has not been enforcing its pricing structure, instead choosing to let consumers pay what they wish.

Demonstrators in support of SB 185 — including activist group By Any Means Necessary — and the bill’s opponents have clashed throughout the afternoon.

A group of about 300 students — mostly dressed in black — gathered on Lower Sproul Plaza and began to move silently at about 11:30 a.m. The group assembled on Upper Sproul Plaza, and as the clock struck twelve, the line of protestors lay down on the ground.

Slightly after 1:00 p.m., the protesters stood up and chanted, ”It is our duty to fight for our freedom.” They subsequently dispersed and left the plaza. Members of the protest said it finished early because of the heat.

Bush outlined the sweeping reforms he implemented in K-12 education during his time as governor in a presentation titled, “The Architect: Radical Education Reform for the 21st Century.”

Bush said the college attendance rate is a testament to the shortcomings of the current system.

“Sadly, today, one-third of our young people get to their senior year [of high school] ready to be in college, one-third take remedial courses at community colleges and one-third don’t graduate at all,” he said. “The Florida story has begun to reverse that trend.”

As governor, Bush said he found a number of excuses being used in the public education realm, including a lack of funding and the effects of poverty on students’ achievement.

“The fact is, the United States spends more per student than any other country in the world,” he said. “And because we have kids in poverty, it isn’t their fault. Their life circumstances shouldn’t define who they are.”

According to Bush, these excuses were allowing the perpetuation of substandard educating.

“We tried to change this culture of excuses and pessimism about whether children can learn,” he said. “Every child would be held to the same standard.”

Bush implemented a wide range of reforms, including higher expectations for all students, greater academic standards for teachers and more accountability for school administrators.

Florida was the first state to create a statewide voucher program, expanding the accessibility to alternatives for underachieving public schools, according to Bush.

“We expanded school choice in our state to include the greatest number of options for parents,” he said. “We have voucher programs that create choice for people who otherwise wouldn’t have it and, along the way, public education has improved.”

Bush said he also focused on expanding the Advanced Placement (AP) program to urban-poor and rural areas. The AP program is offered through College Board, the same nonprofit that publishes the SAT. The program offers accelerated classes for college credit.

“We created the first College Board partnership and generated significant improvement in places that never would have seen an AP teacher of any kind,” he said.

The mix of reforms, often referred to as “the Florida cocktail,” has led to a rise in graduation rates within the state, according to Bush.

“These are results are now being emulated around the country,” he said.

Despite the successes of the “cocktail,” Bush said the reform of public education in Florida and across the United States is not finished.

“The lesson of policymaking is that success is never final and reform is never complete,” he said. “I found in Florida’s education story that you constantly have to be rebuilding on the reform that you have.”

Bush said the future of public education lies in regulating the teaching profession and increasing the use of digital learning, and that Notre Dame can play a role.

He suggested that Notre Dame graduates could advance the mantle of reform and digital learning throughout the world.

“The brand of Notre Dame is world-class,” he said. “Why not take this incredible brand … and take it to many places where many other people wouldn’t experience it?”

The sale — intended as a satirical response to the affirmative action-like SB 185 currently awaiting California Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature — will involve baked goods that are priced by race and sex. Under the pricing structure, white students would have to pay $2.00 for a pastry, for example, while Latinos would pay $1.00 and Native Americans would pay $0.25. Women would receive a blanket 25 cent discount.

It is scheduled to occur in Sproul Plaza from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. — the same time period as an ASUC-sponsored phone bank in support of SB 185.

Since its announcement last week, the sale has received the attention of several major media outlets and heavy criticism from the campus community. Most recently, a campuswide email signed by Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion Gibor Basri and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Harry Le Grande states that the publicizing of the event was “contrary to the Principles of Community we espouse as a campus.”

“It is our sincere hope that the strong reactions generated by the proposed bake sale provide a vivid lesson that issues of race, ethnicity, and gender are far from resolved, and very much a part of lived experience here and now,”  the email states.

The email also “firmly endorses”  the sentiments of a bill in support of respectful student group conduct,  passed by the ASUC Senate in a special meeting Sunday night.

Due to the amount of press coverage that the event has garnered, Andrew Glidden of the California Patriot, a conservative political magazine published at UC Berkeley, said there is a possibility that other universities’ political student groups will show up tomorrow to voice their opinions as well.

“We’re going to see college Republicans from San Jose, Sacramento, (UC) Davis, University of the Pacific,” said Shawn Lewis, the president of Berkeley College Republicans. “We’ve heard that they’re going to be sending some people out. There’s a lot of excitement building.”

Anais LaVoie, president of the Cal Berkeley Democrats, called the event “too much of a publicity stunt.” She said she encourages UC Berkeley students to attend the originally planned phone bank event in Sproul.

Some members of the Berkeley College Republicans said they have received threats from opponents of the bake sale.

“I’ve been personally targeted many times,” said Mia Lincoln, the group’s external vice president. “People are saying that we brought this discussion off in an inflammatory way, and that’s true. It was just meant to get the discussion started: Is it fair to base college admissions off of race? Is it fair to base cupcakes off of race?”

A similar anti-affirmative action bake sale, also staged by the Berkeley College Republicans, occurred at UC Berkeley in 2003. Bake sales have also occurred at UC Irvine and UCLA, among other colleges.

UC Student Regent Alfredo Mireles Jr., who was present at the 2003 bake sale, expressed his disapproval about tomorrow’s event.

“I remember being kind of baffled by such a clumsy, insensitive way to deal with an issue that is very sensitive,” he said. “It is not only an offensive way to address a sensitive issue, but it is also something college Republicans have been doing for years. The affirmative action bake sale is not only offensive, but it is really unoriginal.”

Lincoln said that the current group knew about these previous events.

“We were thinking it would be timely with the ASUC-sponsored phone bank — this is a really timely issue,” she said. “We thought the ASUC was sponsoring something that the (student body) might not have a complete opinion on.”

A number of people have posted their personal comments on the Facebook event page for the bake sale.

“I support the work that the College Republicans are doing on our campus. Their fight against affirmative action is honorable and justified by any means necessary,” posted Daniel Cardenas, a UC Berkeley alumnus. “This fight has been going on since before I was a student.”

UCPD Lt. Marc DeCoulode said the police are aware of the bake sale. Following traditional procedures, the department will monitor Sproul Plaza in ways similar to how they monitor any event, said DeCoulode. In addition to a Sproul Plaza officer, other police officers will be also on the scene to ensure crowd safety.

Paul visited LSU as the first stop on his Campus Youth Tour.

“We have to take the concept of liberty and put it back into one piece,” Paul said, as he addressed the crowd of University students.

The best way to achieve prosperity is through true freedom, he said.

“I believe we have been an exceptional country,” Paul said, adding that the nation could be exceptional again. “When the example is set, others will emulate us.”

The “exceptional” aspects of the nation have been mitigated by the federal government, he explained.

“The First Amendment is pretty clear,” Paul said as he discussed the various ways the federal government becomes socially involved with the American people.

Using food as an example, Paul said the federal government is regulating everything the American people consume.

“Why shouldn’t you be able to make up your own mind?” he asked the audience.

Paul applied the idea of freedom to all facets of American life, namely economics.

“We need a new system of economics, absolutely,” he said. “Freedom is economic liberty and personal liberty.”

While the concepts of freedom and liberty have always been staples of American culture, Paul explained how it has recently grown after years of being undermined.

“I believe the idea of liberty is spreading,” he said.

He described how “amazing” it was that the message has spread, especially among college students and young Americans.

“People are now studying free-market economics,” Paul said.

The U.S. has not had “true emphasis on liberty” for a century, he said.

Paul seeks to end what he referred to as the “interventionist plan” of economics and entitlements.

While speaking of welfare programs and bailouts for banks and bankrupt nations, Paul said, “Eventually the burden comes back to the American tax-payer.”

Paul hearkened back to the 1930s when he said it was “permissible to let someone go bankrupt.”

He also declared his support for the abolition of income taxes. With this, Paul had to pause to let the crowd quiet down.

“Now I know why my favorite place to campaign is college campuses,” Paul laughed.

“I’m delighted to be back in Washington,” Morrison said to a sold-out crowd at George Washington U. “I have some rather special feelings about this town.”

The celebrated novelist joined the community and members of the Toni Morrison Society to read from her upcoming book and participate in a ceremony commemorating the desegregation of the auditorium in 1947.

Associate professor of English Evelyn Schreiber, who is vice president of the society, led the dedication of a bench as part of The Bench by the Road Project, initiated in 1993 to mark the history of slavery in America through a series of memorials.

“A bench is such an un-decorative, easy-access place,” Morrison said. “You don’t pray there, you don’t stand there and look. It’s not awe. It’s just a place to sit down.”

After the dedication, Morrison took questions from the audience and discussed obstacles she faced as a struggling young writer.

With nine critically acclaimed novels, Morrison has not been deterred by previous attempts to censor the controversial subject matter of her work.

“She pushes us to think about the jagged edges of our experience, to reflect and to recollect on the nastiness and beauty of life.” Terri Harris Reed, vice provost for diversity and inclusion, said.

While reading excerpts from her book, Morrison stressed the importance of maintaining an open dialogue between writers and readers.

“My feeling is that people should read anything and everything,” she said. “You can’t be frightened by dirty words.”

Despite historic strides in civil rights, Morrison believes that racism persists as a relevant theme in her literature.

“It never occurred to me that racism disappeared just because they elected Barack Obama,” she said.

At 80 years old, Morrison still finds the energy to wake up before dawn to hone a craft she continues to find fulfilling.

“I’m very happy when I’m writing,” Morrison said. “It sort of fills me together, intellectually and spiritually and in every way.”

During her two speeches at U. Florida on Monday, O’Connor addressed the American public’s ignorance regarding judiciary and civics education.

O’Connor said two-thirds of Americans can’t name the three branches of government and less than half of Americans can name a Supreme Court justice.

“I think the biggest challenge we face today in our judicial government is the lack of understanding of the public of the role of courts in our country,” O’Connor said at the Phillips Center.

For her first appearance, O’Connor spoke in front of a full house at the Phillips Center, where she discussed judiciary reform.

O’Connor’s second appearance took place at University Auditorium, where she spoke in front of another full room of about 860 people. Her second appearance, during which she discussed civics education, originally was supposed to be held in the Pugh Hall auditorium. However, due to overcrowding, organizers had to move the event to the auditorium, said Ann Henderson, director of the Bob Graham Center for Public Service.

Pointing out that young people spend more than 40 hours a week in front of TV and computer screens, O’Connor said she mixed civics education with gaming to attract young people on her innovative website icivics.org.

“We need to educate, starting with young people,” O’Connor said. “Those are our future voters.”

Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince, who was also on the panel at the Phillips Center, said the biggest problem is people not thinking for themselves and instead being told what to think by the media and talk shows.

“Americans take [talk shows] as gospel,” Quince said.

Martha Barnett, moderator and former American Bar Association president, said education on the judicial system is the responsibility of the American public.

At University Auditorium, O’Connor said the United States education system is “unacceptable” and said that Americans should make civics education a requirement to re-engage citizens.

“We are complacent in this country about our rights and the responsibility we have,” O’Connor said.

One of Boehner’s prominent assertions during his address was that government regulation strangles the free market system.

“I went to Washington as a small business person thinking government was becoming the problem,” Boehner said. “And having been in Washington for 20 years, I can tell you that government is the problem,” Boehner said.

Rep. Boehner reiterated that government regulations are costly, stifling and unattractive to small private businesses and contribute to slow development in the private sector.

“Increased regulatory costs, the level of taxation and the fact that the cost per employee in America is raising at a faster rate than their profits,” were some of the reasons given by entrepreneurs for exporting jobs to other countries, according to Rep. Boehner.

Boehner expressed agreement with President Barack Obama in that “everyone should pay their fair share” regarding tax breaks and being extended to smaller private companies rather than taxing wealthier Americans more as implied by President Obama. He commented that billionaires could donate to the government if they feel. The statement was received with light chuckles.

Boehner stated that more than $2 trillion in U.S. corporate profits are lost to foreign taxation and suggested simplifying tax codes as means of incentives for U.S. employers to bring jobs back stateside.

“Those profits are not coming back here … If we want jobs in America why wouldn’t we provide some special assistance that encourages those corporate profits back to the United States,” Boehner said.

He also suggested that Congress should become more involved with tax reforms.

“We also believe that Congress should have a more active role in approving rules and regulations as they come out of agencies,” Boehner said. “If there is a significant rule change that has an impact on our economy of at least $100 million or more [it should be voted on by Congress].”

Contrary to Obama’s recently proposed American Jobs Act, Boehner said, “we need to deal with excessive government spending and we have a tax code that the American people believe is fair and actually understand,” rather than spending $447 billion to create infrastructure jobs and payroll tax cuts for employers.

The meeting did not ignore the much-publicized visit from Obama to the Brent Spence Bridge later this week with the issue of unemployment taking center stage as term elections near.

“I do believe that our country has big infrastructure needs,” Boehner said. “But why wouldn’t we tie that with additional exploration for oil and natural gas.”

Ohio has a 9.1 percent unemployment rate as of August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national average sits at 8.9 percent, not including those who are no longer pursuing employment or have not filed for unemployment, which pushes estimates into the double digits.

“At a time that spending is out of control, giving the federal government more money, would be like giving a cocaine addict more cocaine,” Boehner said.

In his pitch for Credit Suisse, Dougan credited the bank’s ability to stay afloat during the economic crisis of 2008 to its client-oriented approach to finance.

Credit Suisse was one of 30 financial institutions from the top 100 banks that did not receive government aid after the crash, according to Dougan.

“Our business model has proved perfectly suited for this economy,” he said. “We were partly lucky, partly smart.”

In spite of the unpredictable economic climate, Dougan encouraged students to consider careers in finance, noting that the upheaval has opened up the possibility for more creative thinking in the field.

“The structure is changing, and it creates opportunities for people coming in at entry levels with fresh perspective,” Dougan said.

Still, Credit Suisse this summer announced it would cut up to 2,000 jobs. And some other financial firms that normally recruit extensively on campus have cut back or cancelled hiring programs this year.

Credit Suisse Campus Relations Manager Betsy Covitt, who organized the event in conjunction with the Veritas Financial Group, said that the bank was still enthusiastic about recruiting on Harvard’s campus.

“To give a whole day to recruiting efforts is a real commitment to Harvard as a university,” Covitt said, noting that the event was unique to Harvard.

Deborah Carroll, Director of On-Campus Interview and Employer Relations at the Office of Career Services, said that a large number of firms are still recruiting on campus, a fact she attributed to the University’s prestigious reputation.

“In this economy we are fortunate to be Harvard,” she said.

“We are fortunate that these high level executives want to talk to Harvard students.”

The President of Veritas Financial Group, Pim Valantagul ’13, echoed these sentiments.

“I would never get a chance like this outside of Harvard,” she said.

The program on Monday is expected to be the first of many between Credit Suisse and Harvard students this year.

The session marked the second time that Dougan has come to Harvard, following an event last October.

Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, moderated the discussion focused on combating non-communicable diseases in developing countries, which included doctors Wafaa El-Sadr and Lawrence Shulman. The panelists focused on nontraditional solutions to the diseases, and especially on giving those affected by the diseases a greater voice.

Dr. Linda Fried, dean of the Mailman School of Public Health and senior vice president of the Columbia University Medical Center, stressed the prevalence of serious, non-communicable diseases today, especially in countries that are ill-equipped to cope with them.

“These are no longer diseases of the rich,” she said. “In fact, you might say that non-communicable diseases have proven to be communicable.”

The panelists played a short video in which they discussed their work in global public health, and some of their patients around the world spoke about the how access to adequate treatment changed their lives.

“These are solutions that may surprise you,” Gupta, who introduced the clip, said of the work he and his colleagues have done in the realm of public health.

Farmer said that it was important not to force families in developing countries to choose between prevention and treatment.

“We really need to build health systems, which is not a sexy topic,” he said.

As for progress already made, Shulman added that there was cause for optimism in the fight against non-communicable diseases.

“We’ve identified 29 anti-cancer drugs … we know what the drugs are, we just need to work with industries,” he said.

Throughout the evening, El-Sadr, professor of epidemiology and medicine at the University, focused on the importance of bringing citizens of developing countries into a dialogue with government officials, to determine what resources are most needed to help heal their communities.

But questions remained about how to bridge the gap between discussion and action. “What can a humble undergraduate like me do … right here at Columbia?” asked Jordan McKittrick, GS, who has done public health volunteering in Haiti.

In response, Farmer noted that undergraduates have raised over two million dollars for public health over the past decade, and Armstrong thanked the students in attendance, saying that the discussion itself was a step forward.

After the panel, El-Sadr said that it was heartening to see the number of students who turned out for the event.

“I came because I want to set up nursing clinics in Africa,” said Ray Palmer Foote, CC ’15, who professed to be “Lance’s biggest fan.” Foote said that the event was of particular importance to him because he has Type 1 diabetes and is a cyclist himself.

“The way athletics and medicine can work together … that’s huge,” he said.

Though the tone of the event was unquestionably serious, some panelists injected humor to make a point. When asked by Gupta what people should know about the human papillomavirus vaccine, Farmer said that political opposition and closed-mindedness about the vaccine is hindering its progress.

“There are some diseases that can’t be cured,” he said with a laugh.

Though Gibbs continues to act as an adviser to the president for the 2012 election, his Blackberry’s battery and his stamina are not quite as tested as they were during his days on Pennsylvania Avenue.

“It’s gearing back up, but thankfully it’s not as crazy and chaotic as it used to be,” Gibbs said of his 2012 campaign involvement in an interview with the Eagle. “There’s some things that you miss and some things that you don’t miss.”

In a Sept. 19 speech at American U., Gibbs reminisced about his White House days. His greatest memories included the opportunity to have a close working relationship with the president and access to plentiful bowls of red, white and blue M&Ms in the Oval Office.

Gibbs doesn’t miss the constant stress of his former job or 15 extra pounds he gained during his tenure. He kept an anonymous postcard joking about his weight in his office as a reminder of the ups and downs of being the press secretary.

“Though that postcard was hard to read, I kept it on my desk for the rest of my days at the White House to try to instill in myself a little humility,” Gibbs said in his speech.

But neither humility nor humor could prepare Gibbs for having to handle the White House’s response to the catastrophe that arrived on the Gulf Coast in the summer of 2010. As the BP oil spill leeched out into the ocean off the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, Gibbs struggled to respond to reporters’ relentless questions in Washington about Obama’s response to the spill.

“The hardest obstacles are the ones you don’t expect,” he said.

At the time, he was shocked by the sheer volume of questions from reporters about the oil spill.

“Frankly, those were some of the toughest briefings I ever had,” Gibbs said.

Now, Gibbs said with some sarcasm, he has more knowledge of the inner workings of relief wells than anyone other than oil company employees.

He settled back into his former role as press secretary for a moment while taking questions from students. He came to the defense of President Obama when one student asked about the president’s wavering stance on gay marriage.

“If you could not use the word ‘evolve’ in your answer, I would really appreciate that,” the student said, referencing the administration’s tendency to say Obama’s opinions are “evolving.”

Though Gibbs refrained from using that language to describe the president, he was nevertheless ambiguous in his answer.

“I will say this: He’s thinking through a lot of this,” Gibbs said to laughter from the audience before turning serious. “The president wrestles with this question a lot, I don’t know when he’s going to stop thinking about it and start talking about it, but I think the acceptance [of gay people] of this country is changing every day.”

Gibbs also said the media does not cover developing situations like the Gulf Oil Spill and Arab Spring are not covered with enough depth. He repeated throughout his address that the mentality of some cable news commentators is that “every day is an election.” He said even the format of these cable news programs, with talking heads framed in boxes, creates divisive discussion.

“I think media and news information is flying around faster than before and as fast as it happens today, people want it faster tomorrow,” Gibbs said.

In 2004, they passed that weight to Congress.

Six-hundred-and-twenty-four pages of answers and a decade of questions later, the members of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, better known as the 9/11 Commission, reunited yesterday at Indiana U. to reflect upon their findings and evaluate Congress’ response to their advice.

Welcomed by IU President Michael McRobbie and introduced by moderator and journalist Ken Bode, the commissioners found their respective seats center stage in the IU Auditorium. It was the first time the commissioners had reunited since the commission report was released in 2004.

The applause subsided as Lee Hamilton, former congressman for Indiana’s 9th District and vice chairman of the commission, thanked the University for its hospitality.

He casually spoke of the need for a public officials hall of fame, where he would induct Thomas Kean, chairman of the commission. Kean spoke admirably of Hamilton as “one of the most extraordinary public servants I know.”

Former Indiana Congressman Timothy Roemer summarized the introductions in a light-hearted manner, boasting about meeting IU mens’ basketball coach Tom Crean earlier in their visit.

But the tone swiftly shifted to that of a more serious note as Kean, Hamilton and Roemer spoke of the extraordinary significance of the commission’s bipartisan efforts.

“This is the first time we have been together since we wrote the report, but when I read the report now I can still hear your voices,” Kean said.

Moderator Bode noted that the commission was created to fail based on its combination of five Democrats and five Republicans, a bipartisan effort many doubted could succeed.

The commission exceeded expectations.

“The country saw for the first time in a long time a group of Republicans and Democrats working together in the interest of the American people,” Kean said.

Roemer was quick to clarify that their success need not be credited to the commissioners’ ability to set aside their own political interests.

Rather, he said it was the resolve of the 9/11 families, which had lost so much and craved the truth, that propelled the commissioners to investigate the attacks for the American people.

“They put America first. Unity, flying flags, giving blood … The American people rallied, and they weren’t going to be terrorized,” he said.

Challenging their findings and demanding accountability, the 9/11 families served as some of the commission’s toughest critics. But the commissioners said their responsibility to the American people diminished any natural tendency they had to be partisan.
“I recall vividly the day we released the report,” Commissioner Fred Fielding said. “I think we were more nervous than anything, because we met with the families before we had the public hearings and the release. We were so nervous they would turn on us or wouldn’t be happy, and it was the greatest relief to all of us when they walked up and asked us to sign their books. “

The bipartisan strategy and genuine inspiration allowed the 9/11 Commission to meticulously comb through the events leading up to the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2011, and formulate a plan to prevent such acts from occurring ever again.

But Commissioner Slade Gorton said their’s was merely a procedural success.

“We started something,” he said. “We didn’t finish it. We showed that different parties and administrations can work together.”

And they expect Congress to follow their example.

Commissioner Jamie Gorelick said Congress’ response to the 9/11 Commission’s report was one of the quickest in U.S. history.

The administration implemented national security policies that prevented another attack on the United States over the last decade, and they took down Osama Bin Laden.

The only thing Congress didn’t react to, however, was itself, she said.

“I don’t think we can be safe if we are as divided as we are now as a country,” Gorelick said. “You cannot look at New York and not see that resilience … We need that sense that together we can prevail against almost anything.”

The commissioners listed several security measures they say Congress has yet to act upon, including reorganizing and enhancing a communication network amongst the intelligence agencies.

“The 9/11 Commission is a high point of public life,” Commissioner James Thompson said. “There are key areas left undone. Lives were lost on 9/11 because police and firemen were not able to talk to each other properly.”

Hamilton said the commissioners still fear complacency throughout the government and the nation 10 years after the attacks.

“I think we learned an awful lot about America,” Hamilton said. “Where else in the world can we sit down with the President and Vice President? I came out of it all with a whole lot more faith in our government.”

At noon, Thomas spoke at the Roman L. Hruska lecture in the auditorium at the UNL College of Law. Rather than present a speech to the students, Thomas instead had a panel discussion with three professors of law.

“I was encouraged to be less formal, when I came to talk, by my wife,” Thomas told the crowd.

Professors Josephine Potuto, Richard Duncan and assistant professor Eric Berger sat on either side of Thomas and asked questions ranging from his take on the role of the court system today to his affection for RV trips.

“It was a great event for the college of law,” Berger said of Thomas’ visit. “Justice Thomas is a warm, engaging speaker with a great sense of humor and interesting points of view.”

Throughout the talk, Thomas also reflected on his nearly 20 years on the Supreme Court and the changing times.

“Some say it’s a life well spent,” Thomas said. “Well, it’s a life spent.”

Thomas frequently returned to the important quality of being humble as a judge as well as retaining a healthy skepticism rather than cynicism. As the talk began, Thomas frequently thanked the audience for letting him “interrupt what they have to do.”

“It has been an honor to be in the court, but I would not pick a job in the spotlight like it,” Thomas said. “You have a calling and you have to go do it.”

Thomas has been referred to frequently as the originator of modern-day originalism or the act of interpreting the original meaning of the Constitution. He brushed this title off, asserting that the Constitution was the only thing he felt he could base his decisions on.

“I’m not a worshipper of methodology,” Thomas said. “The point is to not bring my viewpoint into it. What else am I supposed to do? Use an Ouija board? Chicken bones?”

When asked about the future, an air of mystery and excitement entered Thomas’ booming voice.

“We just can’t predict what’s next,” said Thomas. “I remember when cellphones were as big as a loaf of bread and had no reception. I think technology issues will be big, and things we couldn’t do before like decide who is born and who dies.”

From there, Thomas moved to much lighter topics, such as his pastime enjoyments and RV excursions.

“We stayed in an RV park in Sydney, Neb., and got to ride in a combine,” Thomas said. “It wasn’t a Case, but it worked.”

Thomas said he likes trips like this to the Midwest and out of the political bubble of Washington, D.C.

“It’s good to not get sucked into the vortex,” Thomas said. “We do a disservice when we go to the beltway and become a Tower of Babel.”

Thomas took written questions from the audience and the conversations gradually and inevitably turned to Husker football. Even avid fans would be in shock of how much the Georgia native knows about Husker athletics.

“Every year is an undefeated year until we get robbed,” Thomas said.

The talk, titled “The Law of 9/11: Reflections by former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff,” came two days after the tenth anniversary of 9/11. It was sponsored by the Harvard Law School chapter of The Federalist Society, a group of conservative, moderate, and libertarian students.

From 2005 to 2009 Chertoff served as head of the Department of Homeland Security at a post created by former President George W. Bush in the wake of 9/11.

At the time of the attacks, Chertoff, a graduate of Harvard Law School, was chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division.

“There were points in that morning where we seriously thought there was a possibility of eight, nine, ten, a dozen jets crashing into American buildings and killing not only the passengers on the plane, but the people in the buildings themselves,” he said.

Uncertainty and a lack of information created “a real sense of urgency in proceeding forward,” Chertoff said.

“You may see things like this in movies, but let me tell you it’s a lot different when you see them in video conferencing. You hear people talking about the fact that American fighters are going to be ordered to shoot down American passenger planes on American territory,” he said.

Chertoff then segued into a discussion of the flaws in national defense policy exposed by the 9/11 attacks.

Before 9/11, the government had organized itself according to a “binary view of security,” Chertoff said. Threats were either labelled as war or crime, two categories that have separate agencies, doctrines, and laws.

Globalization, technological advances, and the rise of “ungoverned space” since the Cold War have contributed to the deterioration of the applicability of a binary view of security, according to Chertoff.

The “eroded limits of a nation-state” and the ability to travel, communicate, and send money around the world gives networks “more global reach, often equal to or exceeding that of a nation.” Such groups now have access to biotechnology and radioactive material and are thus capable of widespread destruction, according to Chertoff.

He also cautioned that the rise of “ungoverned space” in countries like Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan allows groups to build laboratories, recruiting centers, and training camps without fear of law enforcement.

“Depending on the nature of the technology and the nature of the global reach of the particular threat, the consequences of [groups’] acts may be equal to or greater than what we experience in conventional wars,” Chertoff said.

He called on Congress to address the legal gap between the criminal justice system and wartime policy, arguing that a lack of clear legislation has left the government with antiquated, Cold War-era guidelines for dealing with the new threat of terrorism. Congressional silence has also forced the judicial branch to apply traditional laws to a modern security landscape.

According to Chertoff, the government needs “fine-grained analysis” of the current security threats to produce a “legal architecture” capable of dealing with current security issues.

A week before, Hamza al-Ghamdi purchased tickets for himself and his older brother for United Airlines Flight 175—a flight on which they would, on September 11, 2001, hijack and crash into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

As the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks near, events around Harvard U. are commemorating the attacks and their transformative effect on the country. Last night, the Institute of Politics hosted a forum discussion about how America has been shaped by the attacks in the past decade.

The panel—”9/11: Ten Years On”—focused on what moderator Graham T. Allison Jr. called the most pressing questions about post-9/11 America: Are we safer? Are we more aware? What mistakes have we made in hindsight?

Former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Michael E. Leiter said that he is confident that America is a safer place after 9/11 because of, among other reasons, drastic changes in the intelligence community and acute sense of awareness among the government and citizenry prompted by the attacks. Still, Leiter and other panelists acknowledged that an individual or small group will always have the potential to do a great deal of harm.

“One big issue that our generation and the people in this room are going to face, is that technology makes it easier to kill people,” Leiter said, adding that “dumber and dumber people with less and less training are going to be able to harness these technologies.”

Kennedy School Professor of International Relations R. Nicholas Burns, who was finishing his first month as the U.S. Ambassador to NATO on 9/11, said that the U.S. needs to return to outsmarting its enemies instead of blindly applying force.

“What was interesting about the last decade is that the military was on the front, and diplomacy was on reserve,” Burns said, adding that “the diplomats, economists, aid workers, and journalists need to be the front line” instead of the military. “We can’t fight everybody. You can only do that so much.”

But like so many conversations about 9/11, the conversation inevitably strayed to personal stories from the panelists, who recalled their personal interactions with the tragedy. Leiter had his high school prom and swearing-in ceremony for the Navy in the Twin Towers, and ate his high school graduation dinner in the Twin Towers’ top floor restaurant, Windows On The World. Allison’s wife had bought a ticket for American Airlines Flight 11, but cancelled the trip last minute. Allison still has the boarding pass.

The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania told students why he wants their support in his run for the White House, come November 2012.

“This place has changed a bit since 1980, and it’s amazing to see the tremendous developments,” he said. “I’m excited to hold the Penn State winning tradition.”

Santorum addressed a crowd of about 60, made up mostly of students from the Penn State College of Republicans, the organization he founded in 1