Classroom on the Quad

Opening Remarks

By Jim Grimsley, Senior Writer in Residence, Director of the Creative Writing Program


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Classroom on the Quad
Welcome and Introductions
Bruce Knauft, Faculty Council

Jim Grimsley, Faculty Council

Purvi Patel, College Council

Donna Wong, Campus Life

Iraq: The Challenge of Responsibility
Rick Doner, Political Science

Weapons of Mass Destruction and U.S. Foreign Policy
Dan Reiter, Political Science

A Call to Words
Asanka Pathiraja, Foreign Policy Exchange

Hearing in Eqanimity: Deciding Your Path
Bobbi Patterson, Religion

The Necessity of War with Iraq
Bob Bartlett, Political Science

The Humanitarian Cost of War
Laurie Patton, Religion

A Man of Honor: The President's Noble Vision
Daniel Hauck, College Republicans

Women: War and Peace
Lili Baxter, Women's Studies

The Morality of War
James Tarter, Students for War Against Terrorism

Speak Up or Get Out
Erin Harte, Young Democrats

War Does Not Resolve Conflict, War Is Conflict
Mark Goodale, Anthropology

A War of Liberation
Frank Lechner, Sociology

A Call to Consciousness, A Litany of Questions
Juana Clem McGhee, Institute for Comparative and International Studies

Student Activism: Ways to Be Involved
Erik Fyfe and Rachael Spiewak, Emory Peace Coalition

Cross-Cultural Communication: U.S. and Iraq
Devin Stewart, Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies

The U.S. Has Never Been Alone in the World
William Chace, University President

 

I’m Jim Grimsley, director of the creative writing program and a co-chair of the planning committee for this event. For most of this semester, a group of us having been gathering on Fridays to discuss a way to prepare our campus for this war that has come. The idea for these gatherings grew out of the University Faculty Council, and subsequently traveled through Campus Life into the Office of Multicultural Programming. The meetings began with a few student groups in attendance and grew to include a great number.

I would name these groups but, since we moderators have asked that all speakers hold strictly to talks of five minutes only, we have limited ourselves to two minutes apiece to set a good example.
From these meetings emerged an idea for this event which we are convening here on the Quad. Today we have a number of people who will be speaking on many subjects related to the war with Iraq. Some speakers are pro-war, some are anti-war, some are providing information.

Tonight a group called the Emory Foreign Policy Exchange will hold a follow-up discussion event, and you will hear about this as well. Information on other follow-up events is on the information tables.
We have challenged each of our speakers to envision a listener of good will who disagrees vehemently with the speaker’s positions; we want each speaker to speak respectfully and each listener to listen respectfully. If the point of view of a particular speaker makes you crazy, hold your breath for five minutes and the speaker will be gone.

Will we succeed at such an idealistic undertaking? We all know that people of good will disagree on how the business of the world should be conducted. At this moment when such disagreements can become profound, it is vital that we try to talk and listen to one another.