This Week
Monday, September 18
Walk-in hours in the dean's office: 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
4:00 p.m. Basement Lounge Founders - LS 111 Meeting
8:00 p.m. Wallenberg Hall - ACLU representative to speak on presidential powers during times of war; Stephen L. Schalk Lecture in Political Science and Current Events to mark Constitution Day
The director of communications for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois will deliver the Stephen L. Schalk Lectureship in Political Science and Current Events at Augustana College. Colleen Connell will present "Do Check and Balances Still Matter? Executive Power during War Time". The lecture, which marks Augustana's celebration of Constitution Day, is open to the public free of charge.
The Stephen L. Schalk Lecture in Political Science and Current Events was established in 1998 through a gift from Stephen Schalk, a Davenport attorney and a 1969 graduate of Augustana College. United States Congressman Jim Leach presented the inaugural Schalk Lecture in 2002.
The event marks the college's observance of Constitution Day, established in 2004 when President George W. Bush signed into law a bill introduced by West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd. Under the requirements of the bill, all U.S. schools that receive federal funds must implement educational programming on the Constitution annually on September 17, the day in 1787 when delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia's Independence Hall. (Exceptions are made for years when September 17 falls on a weekend or federal holiday.)
Tuesday, September 19
11:30 a.m. Ascension Chapel - Reflections- Pastor Julio
8:00 p.m. Wallenberg Hall - Guest Flute Soloist- Ellen Huntington, flute and Svetlana Belsky, piano
Wednesday, September 20
8:00 p.m. Wallenberg Hall - Eyewitness to tell the true story behind Black Hawk Down - An eyewitness to the events which inspired the book and movie Black Hawk Down will speak. Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow Stevenson McIlvane will present "Black Hawk Down: The Rest of the Story". Stevenson's presentation is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and is open to the public free of charge. McIlvaine, a career U.S. Foreign Service officer, was serving at the U.S. Embassy in Somalia in October 1993 when two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters were shot down, resulting in the deaths of 18 soldiers.
McIlvaine, who served more than twenty years as a U.S. Foreign Service officer in Africa, will spend much of next week visiting classes and meeting with students and faculty as a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. The graduate of Harvard University and former military intelligence officer joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1967, having already served as an interpreter for the Third Nigerian Brigade of United Nations Forces in Congo. He returned to Africa in 1981 and began his work in conflict resolution, negotiations and political analysis in countries including Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Congo, Somalia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zaire. He spent three years in Somalia and was at the U.S. Embassy when the American Black Hawk helicopter was shot down.
McIlvaine received the Superior Honor Award from the Africa Bureau in 1994 for his leadership in Somalia as well as two Meritorious Honor Awards in 2002 and 2003 for his work in conflict diamond legislation and management of African issues. In 2003, he received the Career Achievement Award from Secretary of State Colin Powell. McIlvaine has served as the president of the Longview Foundation for Global Understanding since 2003.
McIlvaine's visit is sponsored by Augustana's Office of International Relations and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The Visiting Fellows program was established to give students the chance to interact with successful men and women from a variety of fields who can help them connect their liberal arts education with larger social, economic, political, and professional contexts. More than 200 colleges have participated in the program since its founding in 1973.
Thursday, September 21
10:30 a.m. Centennial Hall Convocation - Omid Safi, "Islamic Understanding of Origins: Genesis and the Qur'an." Dr. Safi is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion and Director of the Middle Eastern and Islamic Civilizations Studies Program at Colgate University. This year, he is Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a frequent lecturer and author in the areas of Islamic religion, social and intellectual history of pre-modern Islam, and Islamic mysticism. He is also one of the most important voices in contemporary progressive Islam today. He will be discussing in this convocation how Islam understands the divine origins of creation and humanity as related in the Qur'an and other writings. He will also discuss the relationship between the creations stories in the Qur'an and Genesis.
7:30 p.m. Olin Auditorium - The novelist Padgett Powell will be giving a reading. Powell has published four novels and two collections of short stories. His latest the novel is Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men (Houghton-Mifflin.) His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Paris Review, Grand Street, Esquire, The New York Times Book Review and Magazine, and Oxford American. His work has also been anthologized in Best American Short Stories and Best American Sportswriting. The winner of the Prix de Rome and a Whiting Writers Award, Powell has taught writing at the University of Florida since 1984. He has he has also taught at the Sewanee Writers Conference, and currently teaches at the Summer Literary Seminars, St. Petersburg, Russia. There will be a reception immediately following. This event is free and open to the public.
Friday, September 22
4:00 p.m. Board Room - Conversations on Scholarship - Dona Dungan, Computer Science Curriculum: The Winds of Change and Joe McDowell (sabbatical report)
Saturday, September 23
7:00 p.m. Centennial Hall - Quad City Arts Visiting Artist - Four on the Floor.
Tickets are$12 for adults, $8 for full-time students. The musicians in the group Four on the Floor expand the boundaries of classical music by infusing traditional scores with their own distinctive and playful elements of jazz, hip-hop, and rock and roll. Each musician in this innovative group (which includes violin, cello, bass and drums) is a composer in their own right, and the group creates an energetic performance of lively music at the highest caliber.
8:00 p.m. Wallenberg Hall Guest Artist -David Gould, clarinet
Sunday, September 24
2:00 p.m. Wallenberg Hall - Ohmes Quartet
