THE WEEK THE WORLD CAME TO CAMPUS
By the time former director of enforcement for the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission William McLucas ’72 political science stood before a capacity Penn State Forum crowd, Liberal Arts had already hosted two other distinguished visitors that week, and had two more to come. Despite what might have been fatigue, despite what could have been a difficult talk—what went wrong with financial markets oversight in the nineties, prior to the recession that ushered in the twenty-first century—McLucas spoke to an audience engaged and riveted.
In a conversation that endeavored to explain aspects of the financial markets as well as their oversight, McLucas stayed close to the topic of accountability. He said, “The question in the minds of most people is ‘What's going on in the marketplace? Is the whole system broke, is it corrupt, or is it both?’ ... One thing I think is true is that we didn't go to bed three years ago with a marketplace in corporate America that was transparent, well-run and ethical and perfectly fine and then wake up the next morning with a system that was broken and corrupt and flawed and populated by greedy people. These problems really evolved over a period of time."
After all the graphs and charts, all the explanation of high-end economic theory, all the grim news of a sort, the audience even laughed several times. Those in attendance in the room as well as over the airwaves left with a greater understanding about the basis of trust governing the U.S. Stock Market, delivered by the man who had held the position as its watchdog longer than anyone else has in the nation’s history.
Heavy stuff, for a week before midterms at one of the high-stress peaks of the semester. But consider that earlier in the week, audiences listened to Lani Guinier, a professor at Harvard Law School and the person tapped by President Clinton to run the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice before a massive campaign led to Clinton’s stopping her appointment before a confirmation hearing. Guinier has since employed the experience as a means to view ongoing debates regarding civil rights and democratic process in American culture, and spoke to a capacity crowd in Schwab Auditorium on the subject.
The same day as Guinier’s visit, Emmy-award winning 60 Minutes producer Peter Klein ’91 philosophy spoke as part of the Rock Ethics Institute’s War and Ethics speaker series. Klein spoke to a packed room about the role of the news media, particularly with regard to coverage of foreign policy and the election. Klein has been recognized for his early work on the danger of biological weapons, before 9-11, and for being one of the first Western journalists to warn about the threat posed by Muqtada al-Sadr.
Later in the week, internationally acclaimed political scientist Morris Fiorina spoke on his book Culture War: The Myth of a Polarized America, wherein Fiorina argues, “increasingly, we hear politicians, interest group leaders, and assorted 'activists' speak half-truths to the American people. They tell us that the United States is split right down the middle, bitterly and deeply divided about national issues, when the truth is more nearly the opposite.”
A professor at Stanford and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Fiorina has argued aspects of his book in the pages of The Wall Street Journal and on PBS, among other places. His thinking on the so-called divide, as well as on civic engagement, political institutions, and other topics, made its way into discussion leading to the November election.
The week closed with the 2004 Emily Dickinson Lecture in American Poetry, a poetry reading and discussion delivered by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa to a crowd of four hundred students, faculty, and members of the community. While lauded for his work on the soldier’s experience in Vietnam, Komunyakaa has also worked as an ambassador for contemporary poetry as an influential speaker and a former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
While the week did not necessarily feature more events than is typical for the College, it did host more high-profile visitors than is typical. But in the last decade, weeks like it have become more common. As the College of the Liberal Arts has elevated its intellectual profile nationally, and benefited from greater support from its alumni and friends, students are put in more regular contact with people like those mentioned above, those whose work effects the national conversation on important debates. Although the calendars from the week do not reflect it, each individual was also involved in visits with students, informal talks in classes and over meals, engagement of the sort that students rarely had just a decade ago.