UCLA to hold seminar series on events of Sept. 11

By Hemesh Patel
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Just days after last week’s terrorist attacks, university
administrators have decided to launch a series of seminars this
year with topics related to the tragedy.

The series, titled "Perspectives on September 11," will feature
one-unit courses on topics such as tolerance; terrorism and civil
liberties; literature of war; trauma and its aftermath; and
religion and politics in global society.

"The university is the principal institution to which we look
for rational discourse of contemporary issues," said Chancellor
Albert Carnesale, who will be teaching one of the seminars.

"These seminars provide an opportunity for informal discussion
in small groups where each participant can air his or her own
perspective," he continued.

Enrollment in the courses, which are labeled under Honors 98,
will be limited to freshmen and sophomores for the first 72 hours,
beginning 6 a.m. Sept. 26. After that time, the courses will open
up to all undergraduate students.

Each one-hour seminar will be limited to 15 students and will
take place once a week. Seminars will be graded on a pass/no pass
basis and will begin Oct. 1 and end 10th week.

Judith Smith, vice provost for undergraduate education in the
College of Letters and Science, first proposed that the university
offer a series of seminars.

"This would be an opportunity for students to meet informally
with faculty to talk about various perspectives of the issue,"
Smith said.

Administrators have not determined the exact number of seminars,
which will depend on the faculty’s response.

Faculty interested in teaching a seminar will be given until
Sept. 28 to make a proposal, which a small committee will review.
Professors who teach the seminars will not be compensated.

"It’s something we expect them to do as an extension of the
academic community," said Smith, who hopes to see as many as 50
seminars fall quarter.

A number of high-ranking officials at the university, including
Carnesale, have already responded, indicating they want to teach a
seminar.

Carnesale will be teaching a seminar titled "National Security
in the 21st Century." The class will focus on threats to the
security of the United States and other nations and how those
threats might be minimized.

"The idea is to engage students in conversation," Carnesale
said.

Carnesale, who has served as a consultant to the Departments of
Defense, Energy and State, as well as the U.S. Arms Control and
Disarmament Agency, has in the past co-taught the course, "Nuclear
Weapons: The Critical Decisions."

Joseph Mandel, vice chancellor for legal affairs, will be
coordinating the seminar "Understanding, Respecting and Honoring
the First Amendment in a Terrorist Environment."

The seminar aims to explore judicial opinions and supplementary
materials that address interpretations and applications of the
First Amendment during the country’s most politically charged and
turbulent times.

He said he volunteered to teach the course, "as we proceed in
the aftermath of this situation with anger that persists." He hopes
people go about restoring some sense of security the right way,
without overreacting.

Mandel hopes lower-division students will benefit from the
seminars.

"I think undergraduates, particularly freshman, do not have a
very sophisticated understanding of the First Amendment," he
said.

Brian Copenhaver, provost of the college, has also proposed a
class that would look at the present situation in regard to Niccolo
Machiavelli’s "The Prince." The novel discusses monarchies and
republics as two forms of government.

Geoffrey Garret, vice provost for the International Studies and
Overseas Programs, will focus his proposed seminar, "America as a
Hyperpower," on the country’s global dominance.

With the fall quarter schedule already in place, those who are
organizing the series must find time slots and rooms to hold these
seminars, working out logistics within three days.

According to Karen Rowe, chair of the faculty in the college,
the chancellor’s cabinet met Sept. 12 and planning for the series
started on the 13th. "It will be a challenge to see if we can pull
this off," Smith said. "Will (students) feel the civic
responsibility?"

Rowe said organizers wanted to target lower-division students in
the midst of their transition from high school to a seemingly
impersonal college setting.

Students with less than 90 units will be given priority
enrollment for three days to give students who traditionally have
larger classes the opportunity to take part in discussion with
fewer students.

"We hope students take the opportunity to explore this hard and
complex issue; it’s a hard and complex thing to deal with
emotionally," Rowe said.

"Having a locus and a focus for different things students are
concerned about is part of what UCLA is about."

For more information, go to http://www.college.ucla.edu/hnrs98/newseminars.htm