WFU to continue Year of Unity and Hope in spring semester with speakers, films, forums and service projects
Wake Forest University will continue its “Year of Unity and Hope” theme year in the spring semester with a variety of educational programs and service projects. Events will include a film series and talks by Human Rights Watch’s Middle East director and a senior correspondent at Time magazine. All events will be free and open to the public.
A group of student leaders organized the theme year at Wake Forest after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The series began with monthly forums led by Wake Forest faculty whose research specialties include politics and religion in the Middle East. Other fall events included a presentation by the founder of the FBI’s anti-terrorism unit and the screening of a film about Muslim women in Egypt. Some of the events attracted audiences of more than 300 people, including members of the local community.
This fall, through the Wake Forest Volunteer Service Corps, the university community also raised more than $10,000 for the September 11 Fund set up by the United Way and the New York Community Foundation.
The Year of Unity and Hope committee has launched a second fund-raiser for the September 11 Fund. Greeting cards that feature the theme year logo, designed by senior Melissa McGhie, are now on sale through the Wake Forest College Book Store. The cards are blank inside and cost $10 for a pack of 10 with envelopes. Donations from local printing and paper supply companies made it possible for all $10 from each purchase to go to the September 11 Fund.
Year of Unity and Hope monthly forums will continue in the spring semester. Speakers will include a Wake Forest professor who volunteered at Ground Zero as a grief counselor for victims’ families. A faculty panel will address how the government’s response to the events of Sept. 11 has affected Americans’ civil liberties.
The theme year committee will also bring experts from across the country to speak about issues relating to the events of Sept. 11. Joe Stork, the Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, will speak at Wake Forest on Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m. Doug Waller, a congressional correspondent for Time magazine, will speak on Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. Locations for these programs will be announced later.
The film series will feature movies that focus on the roots of terrorism, the intersection of religion and politics in the Middle East and the plight of women who live in countries ruled by extreme religious factions. Faculty members will make short presentations before each film, and a question-and-answer session will follow each screening. A schedule will be announced later.
The theme year committee is also organizing a spring project that will allow the campus community to send postcards to family members and co-workers of the victims of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. This will take place in March, six months after the September attacks.
Finally, the theme year committee is still collecting books to send to a library in Uzbekistan. Jessica Jackson, a Wake Forest graduate, started an English language library there during her work with the Peace Corps. She kicked off the book drive at Wake Forest in November when she came to the university to speak about her experiences in the Muslim nation that borders Afghanistan. Used books are being collected at the Wake Forest Book Store.
Several other Year of Unity and Hope events are still being planned for the spring. For more information, visit the theme year Web site at www.wfu.edu/unity. The site will be updated regularly during the spring semester to include locations and times for theme year events.
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