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Published in The Spectator, the student newspaper of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire;
Monday, November 12, 2001
Panels will discuss human rights
Student Senate hosts annual event featuring professors, staff
By Bill Olson
UW-Eau Claire professors will share their
knowledge of humanity Monday and Tuesday when Student Senate sponsors
the Third Annual Human Rights Day Awareness Conference.
The theme will be "Issues of Peace."
"We actually started forming this conference shortly after Sept.
11, so that was greatly in our minds when we picked this topic,"
said Sandra Boone, Equality Resource Center co-chairperson.
In previous years, the conference brought together human rights experts
from across the nation, she said.
"Our goal this year was to show what we have here, the knowledge
that our professors and staff already have," Boone said.
An example is Rose-Marie Avin, professor of economics.
Her presentation, "Peace and Economic Development: A Feminist
Perspective," will be at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Menominee Room
of Davies Center.
Avin will examine how the choices Third World countries make between
spending on the military and spending to alleviate social problems have
affected women.
"What I'm trying to say is that the more resources that are spent
on education, the better off women are and the better off the children
in that society are going to be," Avin said.
"So there are not only benefits for women, but for society in
general in the long run."
A. David Gordon, professor and department chair of communication and
journalism, has done research on racism and multi-culturalism.
He will be part of a panel discussion at 2 p.m. Monday in Schofield
Auditorium,
A concern he will bring to the panel is how the media have covered the
Middle East.
"One of the criticisms that's been levied at the media over the
decades is this notion of 'parachute journalism' — you get somebody
and parachute them into a place where there's all sorts of stuff going
on, and they have very little background," he said.
"They cover that and they leave. Some of them are outstanding and
some of them are relatively uninformed," Gordon said.
Being informed is not only necessary for good media, but for good
citizenship, he said.
For more program information, contact Erin Brandt in the Student Senate
office, 836-4646.
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