Dear Colleagues:

Please join us on Friday, February 9, to discuss the choices facing the United States in Iraq.  That is the topic of the Friday Public Affairs Lunch Discussion, which will meet in Crawford Hall, Room 9, from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. on the Case Western Reserve University campus.

Paul Schroeder, currently Lecturing in Political Science at Case Western, will lead the discussion.  Dr. Schroeder spent 10 years as a newspaper reporter before receiving his doctorate in Political Science at The Ohio State University, where his research focused on the development of Chinese business.  He then worked in China as trade representative for the State of Ohio and in New York as corporate programs manager for the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.  Dr. Schroeder has also been managing director of East-West Trade Development, Ltd., a trade management firm with a focus on China.  This past Fall he taught our course on The United States and Asia, and this Spring he is teaching The Politics of Development in the Global South.

In the wake of the August 2005 death in Iraq of their son, Marine Lance Corporal Edward “Augie” Schroeder, Paul and his wife, Rosemary Palmer, founded Families of the Fallen for Change, a national non-profit organization devoted to finding a responsible solution to American involvement in Iraq.  He has worked with Norm Robbins to develop a proposal for American withdrawal from Iraq, and Families of the Fallen has had written testimony accepted by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.  You can find more information about those efforts at www.fofchange.org.

The Friday Lunch is open to all.  Lunch is brown bag, but coffee, tea, and cookies are provided thanks to the generosity of the Office of University Communications and anonymous donors.  We are glad to be back on the lower level of Crawford Hall.  It has been remodeled a bit since we last met there.  Room 9 is within the Inamori Center; you enter the Inamori Center and turn to the right.

Best regards,
Joe White

Spring Semester Schedule

Beginning on February 2, the Friday Lunch will move back to Crawford Hall, in ROOM 9. Room 9 is within the Inamori Center, on the basement level of Crawford.

It is very kind of Bill Deal, Director of the Inamori Center, to make this room available on a regular basis. Thank you, Bill!

Room 9 seats 35, with a central table and also chairs along the wall. It should be a better setup than Guilford. If we expect a large crowd, we may be able to open a partition and join up with Room 11.

There will, however, be a class in the room until 12:20. Therefore it will not be possible to get there much before the lunch begins. On the other hand, people who are a bit early should be able to hang out in the Tomlinson food court. I believe the underground passage from Tomlinson to Crawford will be restored when construction is finished.

Coffee will be provided from the SAGES Cafe’. Which should mean very good coffee.

The tentative schedule of speakers, so far:

January 26: Phil (Perkins Professor of Physics-Case Western Reserve University) and Sarah Taylor, Wind Power and All of It’s Aspects – Environmental, Energy,  Economic, Aesthetic, and Maybe More.

February 2: Ken Grundy, Marcus Hanna Professor Emeritus of Political Science, on subject to be determined

February 9: Paul Schroeder, Visiting Lecturer in Political Science and from Families of the Fallen for Change, on what to do in Iraq

February 16: Mark Turner, Professor of Cognitive Science, on cognition and politics

February 23: Mel Goldstein, Professor of Anthropology, on why the Chinese are winning in Tibet

March 2: Susan Helper, Professor of Economics, on strategies for American workers within the current global competition.

March 9: Baiju Shah, President, Bioenterprise Corporation, on the new economic prospects in Cleveland.

March 16: Break

March 23: Mike Aronoff of Cuyahoga County on the evaluation of sexual predators for the courts―are they really dangerous, and can we predict if they will reoffend?

March 30: Barbara Morrison, Assistant Professor of Nursing, on how current patterns of care for Moms and newborns deny them the peace and quiet and bonding they need.

April 6: Open

April 13: Marixa Lasso, Assistant Professor of History: Drugs, War, and Coffee in Colombia

April 20: Mark Joseph, Assistant Professor, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences: Mixed-Income Development as an Approach to Addressing Urban Poverty

April 27: Christine Cano, Associate Professor of French, on the French elections (this date falls between the first round and the runoff election)