THE UNIVERSITY OF DARTING KANSAS
TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2006
NEWS
》 SPEAKERS
3A
Evolution to be foundation of upcoming lecture series
Speakers will discuss faith and reason in attempt to find a common ground
BY DANNY LUPPINO
The controversy about evolution will be the order of the day Sept. 7 as the Hall Center for the Humanities and the Biodiversity Institute begin their new lecture series about science and faith.
The semester-long series, "Difficult Dialogues at the Commons — Knowledge: Faith and Reason," will feature speakers talking about various issues of faith and reason, most obviously the evolution debate. Hall Center director Victor Bailey said the lectures would explore what science could and could
"The main thing wed like to accomplish is just to raise this entire issue of how do we understand this rather strange universe we're all a part of", Bailey said.
Bailey said the lectures would take a less adversarial approach than similar discussions. He said the goal was to help people attending the lectures to seek a harmony of faith and reason.
"It's assumed that people will always take extremely polarized positions," Bailey said. "We want to bring the debate back to the vast amount of people in the middle ground."
Both Bailey and Leonard Krishtalka, Biodiversity Institute director, said that even though evolution was the most notorious issue, the center's hope was that the lectures would not make evolution their sole focus.
"Hopefully the speakers will use evolution as a launching point to a broader discussion of faith and reason," Krishtalka said.
Despite this hope, the first lecture in the series will be "God, Darwin, and Design: Creationism's Second Coming." Kenneth Miller, professor of biology at Brown University, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 7 at the
Ballroom in the Kansas Union. The following morning he will lead an open discussion at the Conference Hall in the Hall Center for the Humanities. Kristalka said open discussions with the speakers would be a staple of the lecture series.
"Part of the mission of The Commons is to provide many different forums for this discussion of difficult issues," Krishtalka said.
Kansan staff writer Danny Luppino can be contacted at dluppino@ kansan.com.
- Edited by Alv Barland
Upcoming lecture series schedule
The "Difficult Dialogues at The Commons" lecture series begins Thursday, Sept. 7. Seven lectures have been scheduled for this semester.
Sept. 7 — Kenneth Miller "God,
Darwin and Design: Creationism's
Second Coming"
Sept. 26 — Judge John E. Jones
llt "Judicial Independence and
Kitzruller v. Dover, et al."
Oct. 3 — Do Guinness: "A World Safe for Diversity: Living with our Deepest Differences in an Age of Exploding Pluralism"
Oct. 16 — Richard Dawkins, "The God Delusion"
Nov.16 — Euganie C. Scott
"Faith, Reason, and Assumption In Understanding the Natural World"
Nov. 30 — Michael Behe 'The Argument for Intelligent Design in Biology'
Dec. 7 — Sue Gamble, Bishop Scott Jones; Richard Larviere, Derek Schmidt and Edward O. Wiley; Panel Discussion on Knowledge; Faith and Reason
Source: Hall Center for the Humanities
> WORLD
Ernesto crosses Cuba, threatens Florida coast
BY ANITA SNOW ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA — Tropical Storm Ernesto hit Cuba west of the U.S. naval air base at Guantanamo Bay on Monday after killing one person in Haiti as it stayed on track toward Florida, where forecasters expect it to strengthen back into a hurricane.
Ernesto became the Atlantic season's first hurricane on Sunday morning with maximum sustained winds of about 75 mph before weakening and moving ashore about 20 miles west of Guantanamo, with top sustained winds of nearly 40 mph
- that's 1 mph above the minimum to be a tropical storm.
Forecasters said Ernesto would regain strength once it reached the warm waters north of Cuba, and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush declared an emergency, ordering tourists to evacuate the Florida Keys.
About 400 miles of the Florida coast were under a hurricane watch from New Smyrna Beach southward on the east coast and from
Chokoloskee southward on the west coast. The Keys were put under a watch Sunday.
NASA gave up on a Tuesday space shuttle launch and moved to Atlantis into its giant shelter at Cape Canaveral, Fla., if the storm continued to threaten.
At 2 p.m. EDT, Ernesto's poorly defined center was about 15 miles east-southeast of Holguin, Cuba, moving northwest near 10 mph. It dumped heavy rain in localized areas of eastern Cuba, but the storms winds had diminished greatly as it started moving across land, leading Cuban meteorologist Jose Rubiera said on state television.
The storm could return to open ocean north of Cuba as early as Monday night, Rubiera said.
A hurricane watch also was posted for the northwestern Bahamas and a tropical storm warning was issued for the central Bahamas.
Cruise ship companies said they were diverting several liners to avoid the storm.
A boy carries sugar cane to sell on his shoulder as he passes a flooded road en route to Les Cayes on the southern coast of Haiti, Monday, Aug. 28, 2006. Heavy rains passed yesterday from Hurricane Emma as it moved along the South Coast.
Ariana Cubillos/ASSOCIATED PRESS
GLOBALIZATION
Arabic language classes see increased enrollment
BY KIM LYNCH
Following national trends, enrollment in Arabic languages at the University of Kansas has increased significantly.
According to an article in Newsweek magazine, the number of United States college students enrolling in Arabic courses has increased 92 percent nationwide between 1998 and 2002.
At the University, this trend holds true as well. In the fall of 1995 there were 12 students enrolled in Arabic language classes. By fall 2005, there were 310 students in Arabic language classes, said Todd Cohen, interim director of university relations.
Peter Ukpokodu, chairman and professor of the department of African and African-American Studies, said the department had added one section of Arabic 1 and almost needed to add another section of Arabic 2.
There are several reasons for the
increased enrollment.
Ukpokodu said some of the increased enrollment could be due to the oil industry's prominence, or Arabic being the primary language of the Koran and also the conflict in the Middle East.
Tyra Blew, Wamego junior, said she was taking an Arabic language class because she was interested in the culture and because world events made it a timely language to learn.
Gina Starnes, associate director of the University Career Center, said that any foreign language training would make someone more attractive to prospective employers. She said she had noticed that global businesses, as well as the federal government, had expressed an interest in hiring Arabic speakers.
Kansan staff writer Kim Lynch can be contacted at klynch@kansan. com.
— Edited by Dianne Smith
THIS WEEK ON CAMPUS
August 29,2006
Attention KU Freshman: Freshman Elections are Fast Approaching!
VOTE FOR FRESHMAN SENATORS
funded by:
SENATE
Next Tuesday and Wednesday September 5th and 6th vote for your freshman senators! www.elections.ku.edu
PIZZA AND POLITICS
PAID FOR BY KU
12-1pm, Tomorrow Kansas Union, Malott Room
Guest: Phil Scaglia, Former Chief of Staff to U.S: Rep. Karen McCarthy (D-MO)
Free Pizza!
www.doleinstitute.com
Informal!
Dole Institute of Politics Student Advisory Board
No Spin!
If your student organization is registered with the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, you may get FREE ADVERTISING here in the Kansan through Student Senate!
Attention Student Groups:
Email chrisblackstone@ku.ed for more information.
Falafel on the Beach
with KU Hillel
Stop by Wescoe Beach for $2 falafel.
Need lunch on campus?
Tomorrow, 11:30am - 1:30pm
http://www.kuhillel.org
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