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Day of Learning focuses on Dalai Lama’s message
Activities designed to educate campus on theme of DSS lecture
By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer
Members of the UB community will have an opportunity on Sept. 19 to participate in a full slate of free lectures, panel presentations, performances and exhibits focusing on the visit to UB of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and the message of peace and nonviolence he will present during his Distinguished Speakers Series lecture that day.
September 19 has been designated a special Day of Learning at UB. Classes on the North Campus will be suspended for the day so that faculty, staff and students may attend Day of Learning activities, as well as the Dalai Lama's lecture at 3 p.m. in UB Stadium. Some units on the South Campus will hold classes on Sept. 19.
John Wood, associate vice provost for international education, said organizers conceived the Day of Learning as a chance to turn the Dalai Lama's address into more than a "one-shot" experience.
Although all classes on the North Campus will be cancelled on Sept. 19 so that UB students, faculty and staff may attend the Distinguished Speakers Series lecture by His Holiness' the 14th Dalai Lama, as well as participate in special Day of Learning activities being held in conjunction with the visit, some units on the South Campus will be holding classes that day.
The School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the School of Dental Medicine will hold classes on Sept. 19. The School of Nursing will cancel afternoon classes, although students with clinical placements who elect not to attend will have to arrange to make up the sessions.
The School of Public Health and Health Professions is leaving it up to individual faculty members as to whether to cancel classes.
The School of Architecture and Planning has cancelled classes for the day, as has the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences.
Michael Ryan, vice provost and dean for undergraduate education, told the Reporter that when the university decided to suspend classes on Sept. 19, concerns were raised by administrators in the medical school and some of the other health-sciences schools on the South Campus whose students undergo clinical rotations. Ryan said the decision to cancel classes held on the South Campus then was left to the individual units, although all were "strongly encouraged" to cancel classes.
"We realized this was an opportunity to build an entire event around the Dalai Lama," he said. "We wanted to give people incentive to spend the whole day on campus."
Events are planned across the course of more than 12 hours-from a morning meditation session beginning at 8 a.m. to a film screening starting after 8 p.m.
"These are opportunities for both the campus and outside communities," said Wood.
Highlights of the morning events include panel discussions on such subjects as world peace, education, spirituality and other topics of abiding interest to the Dalai Lama, he said.
A panel on the prospects for peace five years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 will feature presentations from Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Professor of American Culture in the departments of English and American Studies; Roger Des Forges, professor, Andreas Daum, professor, and Ramya Sreenivasan, assistant professor, all in in the Department of History; and Mark Nathan, adjunct professor in the Asian Studies Program. Wood said the scholars will evaluate the current geopolitical situation through the lens of their specific areas of interest.
"Putting Your Education to Work for Peace" includes a student voice in the mix as part of a talk about service in the Peace Corps, and the panel on nonviolent conflict resolution features panelists from organizations within Buffalo and Western New York, said Wood.
He also noted that publication of His Holiness' latest book, "The Universe in a Single Atom," makes the panel on spiritual and scientific issues particularly timely.
"What to Expect in the Dalai Lama's Address" and "What the Dalai Lama Said" offer a bridge between the morning and afternoon in the form of pre- and post-lecture commentaries on the address by His Holiness. Lama Surya Das, a UB alumnus whose studies took him to India and Nepal after graduation to become one of the foremost Western Buddhist meditation teachers, is scheduled to present the two talks for the Day of Learning.
Organizers are confident activities slated in the morning are of great enough interest to attract students onto the North Campus, despite the cancellation of classes, said Wood.
Most of the events after the lecture will take place in the Center for the Arts. Among the highlights cited by Wood are the performance by Deborah D.L. Chung, National Grid Endowed Chair and Professor of Materials Research in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and an accomplished pianist, as a one-of-a-kind experience that combines a lecture and music to communicate its subject: "Science, Music and Life: Lessons from a Scientist's Quest."
Texts, images and artifacts on view in UB Libraries' exhibits across the North and South campuses also form an integral part of the Day of Learning.
The scope of events at the Day of Learning are due to the remarkable reaction the steering committee planning the Dalai Lama's visit received in response to its call for proposals for activities from faculty and staff, said Wood.
"We had a very positive response," he said. "They really took the initiative to the call that went out in the spring."
For a complete schedule of events and further details about the special Day of Learning, visit http:// www.buffalo.edu/dalai_lama/day_of_learning.