Carleton News Updates
Carleton College to Hold Katrina Symposium
March 17th, 2006
This story is provided by Carleton News
Carleton College will suspend classes on Friday, March 31 to hold an all-day, all-campus symposium called “Confronting Katrina: How Should We Respond?” This day of education, discussion and reflection is the College’s most recent response to last fall’s Gulf Coast disaster.
Said Dean of the College Scott Bierman, “In his inaugural address John F. Kennedy said, ‘man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty . . .’ Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Coast crisis made starkly visible how far America is from realizing President Kennedy’s challenge. The complexity of the issues illuminated by the disaster calls out for academic exchange that is thoughtful, interdisciplinary and inclusive. Through ‘Confronting Katrina’ the Carleton community will have a collective day of learning that will impact students, faculty, staff and the public far into the future.”
The day will be kicked off by a convocation address entitled “Discovering Poverty While in College” by Carleton alumnus Margaret Simms, vice president for governance and economic analysis at Washington, D.C.’s Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The Joint Center is one of the nation’s premier think tanks on a broad range of public policy issues of concern to African Americans and other communities of color. Her talk will be held at 9 a.m. in Skinner Memorial Chapel.
Following Simms’s convocation address, Bierman will moderate a group of panelists who experienced the disaster firsthand, including New Orleans freshman Brandon Walker, National Public Radio correspondent and Carleton alumnus Martin Kaste, and representatives from a student group that took part in a 12-day Biloxi, Mississippi, service trip last November.
The rest of the morning will be devoted to student exhibits and presentations covering such issues as institutional failure, race and social inequality, urban disasters and environmental hazards in New Orleans. The afternoon will include faculty-led panel discussions on the causes of the disaster; rebuilding New Orleans; race, class, and poverty; human suffering and moral responsibility; how the media told the story of Katrina; and how the disaster and America’s response to it were seen internationally.
Two plenary sessions will be held during the afternoon. Martin Kaste will share his recent coverage in the Gulf Coast and comment on the media and Katrina, and Stan Honda, well-known photojournalist of 9/11 events and staff photographer for the international wire service Agence France-Presse, will discuss his images of the Katrina disaster, some of which will be on display in campus buildings.
The day will conclude with a wrap-up discussion on the ethical response to the disaster, moderated by President Robert A. Oden, Jr., and featuring Emmett Carson, Minneapolis Foundation president and interim CEO of the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation and Alexander Keyssar, professor of history and social policy at Harvard University.
The public is invited to attend all events, although space is limited and priority seating will be given to Carleton students, faculty and staff. For a complete listing of the day's events, see the Katrina web site.
The Dean of the College Office is sponsoring the day’s events. For more information and disability accommodations, call that office at (507) 646-4301. Tickets for the Mardi Gras themed lunch can be obtained at the College Relations office, 415 Leighton Hall, (507) 646-4308.