Members Present: Rani Carson, Norman Daniels, Nancy Ellis, Joy Mahabir, David Marshall, Louis Roccanova, Denise Sariego. One new member of the committee, Nancy Ellis, was also present.
The first topic was student objections to the literature promoting the college's trip to Spain this summer. This led us to Denise's suggestion that we have a panel discussion on Columbus next semester. This event will be held on Wednesday, October 10 during Common Hour in Captree, Room 114, and the panelists will include Joy Mahabir, David Marshall and Denise Sariego, and some students. As Coordinator of Multi-Cultural Affairs and member of FOCUS, Norman agreed to forward Joy's memo about student objections to the committee which created the brochure, saying that we thought they should be aware of this, and inviting them to come to our panel discussion in October.
The Campus Life Committee has proposed the idea of showing films as a regular thing every Thursday afternoon, so that the campus community would know that every Thursday there would be the screening of a film. Then FOCUS could claim, say every third Thursday, and perhaps the audience for our films would build. We discussed several interesting possibilities for films next semester: Born Into Brothels, Fahrenheit 911, Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, Burn, Reds. It was thought that Reds would be too long (4 hours); but that Burn could be co-sponsored by FOCUS, the APA, the Haitian Club and the Caribbean Club, and could occasion an interesting discussion.
The suggestion was brought to the attention of the committee that since the flags on campus (or college-wide?) were at half-mast for the Virgina Tech. tragedy, we could suggest they be at half-mast for those who have died, and are dying, in Iraq. However Lou suggested that if we were to propose this as a resolution, it would probably be better to do it on the anniversary of the war.
We decided to take up Freedom of Speech issues as part of our September meeting. The general feeling was that we should ask for more bulletin boards all over campus so that we will have enough room to put up notices for various events. Nancy Ellis, our newest member, suggested inviting Kevin McCoy from the Ammerman campus, and member of the A.C.L.U., to our September meeting. He might, if he is able and willing to come, educate and inform us better about what we have a right to expect in this area. There was also some interest in a speaker on peak oil and its effect on our lives, and Rani promised to bring information about this to our meeting in September.
Since the newspaper is functioning again, it was also thought that FOCUS should notify the newspaper staff about our events so that perhaps we can get publicity and even some coverage.
Setting up meeting dates would be easier if the chair had everyone's phone number as well as e-mail addresses. (I do have some of the members' phone numbers but would the other people on the committee e-mail theirs to me (or put them in my mailbox) so that I can make a file of them to use? (Only when I really need to.) Thanks!
We didn't hold an election and everyone is pretty much continuing in their present roles. The contributions of Denise, Alex and David were especially acknowledged.
Have a great summer, everyone!
Respectfully submitted,
Rani Carson
Professor of
Art