The 15s and 16s gathered together with Prof. Cheney Ryan and Dean David Frank to discuss the findings of the Carnegie Global Ethics Fellows Survey in which Carnegie Ethics Fellows identified what they perceived to be the top ten world concerns. As a group we voted on what we thought were the most important of these issues. See the attached file for details on each issue.
Top Three in first choice voting. Click on the Global Ethics Fellow Survey Link above to get details on the survey.
1. Global Development got 15.
2. Climate Change got 6.
3. Post Conflict Reconciliation got 4

But if we were electing by Proportional Representation based on three rounds of voting – winners are:
1. Post Conflict Reconciliation got 22 total.
2. Global Development and Climate Change both got 21.

Global Ethics Fellows Survey Results

Sister Helen Prejean is a prominent opponent and activist of the death penalty and the author of Dean Man Walking and Death of Innocents, which income CGO students read over the summer. The book itself is an intense discussion of the faces of the death penalty, with two in-depth discussions about two men put to death when there was some serious doubt regarding their guilt. She later goes on to discuss larger structural forces contributing the uneven and unjust application of the death penalty, including prosecutors who advance their careers based on the number of people they sentence to Death Row and personality dynamics of the people who make the decisions regarding the legality of capital punishment.

Sister Helen gave a public address to the UO and Eugene community regarding these issues. She is an amazingly powerful speaker, making people laugh and cry by showing her own humanity and emphasizing the profound sense of injustice in our ‘justice system.’ It was a powerful set up for the following days activities with the CGO FIG.

Sister Helen attended an hour-long discussion with just the CGO students and staff where students were able to ask her questions about how her faith informs her activism, what some of her experiences have been and the things she does to get people’s attention. She also talked about how she’s seen the conversation change, especially in light of current events in Oregon, where Gary Haugen, a man on Oregon’s Death Row, gave up on his remaining appeals and asked to be put to death. The situation was an example of the purpose of Death Row, to take the power of making any decisions away from a person and put them in the hands of the government. Even denying Mr. Haugen his request to be put to death could be seen as an extension of government power over what one can do with their own life. This was certainly a controversial and intense discussion. The students had also written up statements in the previous weeks trying to define ethics, which Sister Helen read and responded to, asking questions to push students understanding about where ethics come from, who shares them and the implications in society.

Following this discussion, the students were able to share a meal with Sister Helen in a campus dining hall, which allowed for less formal discussions with the students about Sister Helen’s background and inspirations. From there, the students escorted her to her round table discussions on the international dimensions of the death penalty. This forum consisted of a panel composed of Sister Helen, Terrie Rodello of Amnesty Oregon’s anti-death penalty coordinator, and Greg Kuykendall, the director of the Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program, who Skyped in from Arizona (The entire panel discussion can be viewed here). The event was open to the public, filled to capacity with both students and community members, and considered a great success.

The first week of the CGO was a great success. Students moved into the dorm two days before most of their peers, giving us the opportunity get to know each other and begin to build the CGO community. The first night we had our inaugural dinner, a catered event in the Living Learning Center. The evening began with introductions as we all stood in a large circle. Because much of the lead up discussion on the Facebook group concerned the death penalty, due to our upcoming visit with Sister Helen Prejean, it was important that the incoming freshmen be able to compartmentalize their intense new experiences from the gravity of the death penalty issue. Despite this, student were actively engaged in discussions over the following week as the death penalty was in the national headlines.

We were then introduced to a buffet of Middle Eastern food, with the cultural relevance and importance of each explain to us by Shaul. After dinner, we sat to discuss the summer film assignment Lawrence of Arabia. We focused primarily on issues of identity, the propriety of pretending to be someone from a different culture, ideas of who was using who in the movie (was Lawrence a pawn for the British army, or was he a controller?) and loyalty. Even though people were kind of wired from moving in and their first night on campus,they were very engaged in the discussion.

The following day we had a team cake decorating contest, with judging taking place at our second formal event that evening.

We spent the evening eating cake and have a long but informal discussion, circled up on the floor, about why students enrolled in the FIG and what they expect to get out of it. We focused on asking students why they care, what their definitions of ethics are and why ethics are important to them.

We left the students to their own devices the rest of the week (except for our official first meeting when the rest of the FIGs first meet, where we sat out in the sun and talked some more about the coming year). They were able to explore UO, meet more people and get used to being college students.

In the year ahead we will have the opportunity to engage with ethical questions that are specific to our coursework, and also issues that are part of our broader Carnegie Global Oregon Learning Community (C-GOLC) initiative.  An early example of the type of thing we will do outside of official class content  will be our reading and subsequent discussion of the book The Death of Innocents by Sister Helen Prejean.  Our group will meet with Sister Helen in the third week of the fall term to explore what it means to live an ethical life and make choices that are grounded in principle rather than convenience or opportunity.  Reading The Death of Innocents will not be easy—it is a book about the death penalty, and draws upon Sister Helen’s experience counseling two men who she is convinced were innocent of the crimes that resulted in their execution.  The book goes into the legal specifics of the cases in question, but it is about much more than the particular men that she describes and  their fate.   She is indicting the justice system, to be sure, but calls upon society as a whole to react to a set of problems that she argues undercut the ethical stance of our government (and to some extent organized religion) and challenge the moral character of our community much more broadly than that.  Thus we will be grappling with the ramifications of an element of crime and punishment in the United States, and we will also be dealing with the question of human rights in a national and international context, and what it means to us.  Sister Helen has been coming to the University of Oregon for the past couple of years as a visiting Presidential Scholar and will join us again this year and next, and this is a wonderful opportunity for us to engage a figure renowned for her strength, her faith, and her willingness to fight for the rights of others.  She is also a lively and provocative person, so bring your best game to our discussion, because she’s likely to challenge you, tease you, and make you THINK about some critical things—and she has a wicked sense of humor too.  A Cajun with a cause, we’ve got a fighting nun in the house!

And a recent article from the New York Times that ties together the death penalty, 9-11, Texas, and compassion – an interesting read! http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/us/19questions.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20hated%20and%20the%20hater%20both%20touched%20by%20crime&st=cse

Our Graduate Teaching Fellow (GTF) for the year is Leslie Mclees:
I am in my final year of the PhD program in the Department of Geography at the University of Oregon. In 2010 I conducted research in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where I worked with urban farmers in order to study issues of planning and food justice in the city. In addition to conducting my research, I worked with a local NGO to bring farmers together with planners in some of the first conversations regarding policy-making and land tenure. Prior to coming to Oregon, I received my masters degree in Geography at the Universitymof Hawaii where I also completed training in conflict resolution that focused on how different cultures understand and resolve conflicts. I have taught several introductory courses both at the Universities of Oregon and Hawaii, including World Regional Geography, Introduction to Physical Geography, Geography of the US and Canada and the Geography of Oregon as well as an upper-division course on the Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa. I have also been a Graduate Teaching Fellow for Professor Cohen’s Geography of the Middle East and North Africa course.  Upon graduation in 2012, I intend to pursue a career in academia with a focus on urban design, social justice and how people can assert their right to use the city to attain their livelihood needs.
-Leslie

Our Fig Assistant (FA) for the year is Miriam Fisher:
My name is Miriam, and I will be your FIG assistant this year.  Some  information about me: I am from a small town in Central Oregon called  Madras.  After high school I was an exchange student for a year in Belo  Horizonte, Brazil, and have since been studying Latin America, diplomacy  and law in the International Studies department at U of O.  I have  continued studying Portuguese, and have recently put a year of Spanish  under my belt.  Next year I will be a senior, and will finish my  International Studies degree as well as a minor in Geography.  Apart from  school I really enjoy playing intramural soccer, dancing, and have  recently become an avid (but amateur) gardener.

I am so excited to be a part of the new Carnegie Global Oregon Learning Community FIG!  This year we  will have the chance to meet with various authors and guest speakers  during our FIG class, as well as students and professors from around the  world.  Through our class we will explore a wide range of international  issues through different types of media and experience.  Professor Cohen  and I hope to infuse our FIG class with plenty of experiential learning,  food, and discussion. As far as FIGs, you picked a great one. Enjoy your  summer! Looking forward to meeting you in September.  Miriam

Our Resident Assistant (RA) for the year is Mika Weinstein:
Greetings future residents!  I will be the Resident Assistant in your beautiful hall next year. A little bit about me: I am from San Anselmo, CA, which is in the San Francisco Bay Area. This coming year I will be a sophomore in the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the UO. My current plan is to apply to the Planning, Public Policy, and Management major and to do a Peace Studies minor.  A taste of some things that I love: my beagle, Calvin and Hobbes, Firefly, avocados, Orson Scott Card’s books, Pastafarianism, and sponge-on tattoos. There’s so much that you guys have to look forward to this year; I can’t even remember most of the awesome stuff that went down when I was first in the dorms. However, here are a few highlights so you can get excited! Firstly, all of the Week of Welcome events are pretty fun. The street faire comes through twice a year with booths for shopping, food, and different organizations. The Residence Hall Association and other student groups bring in a lot of cool events, ranging this year from a hypnotist to formal, catered dinners. One of my favorites was having comedian Hari Kondabolu do a show in the LLC Performance Hall. Even though it wasn’t on campus, I can’t overlook the awesomeness of getting to go to Sasquatch this year. This, along with other retreats I went on this year, was a definite highlight. Honestly, there are way too many cool and interesting things going on around campus to begin a comprehensive list here. However, I must address one more exciting part of the UO: the Oregon Carnegie Network Initiative. I’ve been to a few of the preliminary meetings to determine the different ways that this initiative will manifest itself on campus in the next few years and I couldn’t be more excited. I give props to you all for recognizing the coolest place to get involved from the start of your college career.  That being said, I can’t wait to meet all of you, and please don’t hesitate to ask any questions you may have by leaving a response.

Mika

Prior to joining the University of Oregon I worked on two campuses located in the heart of international affairs.  My office in Washington, D.C. was just blocks from the White House and the State Department, and, before that, my office in Jerusalem overlooked the Old City and the Temple Mount.  These days my office isn’t quite so close to power and politics, yet I feel surrounded by people who are dedicated to making the world a better place through commitment to action near and far.  One of the many pleasant surprises for me in moving to Oregon some years back was the excitement of the students and their eagerness to engage in the critical issues facing our world.  I am looking forward with great anticipation to the launch of the Carnegie Global Oregon Learning Community (CGO), which will pair the imagination and creativity of students, staff and faculty with the capabilities of modern technology to expand and enhance our ability to learn together.  The CGO will become a hub of activity that will take us out of the traditional educational mode, and allow us to learn from people who will share their worlds with us as we share our questions, ideas, and concerns with them.

We are already moving toward this model through a number of events that have taken place recently.  The “Revolution in the Arab World” panel showcased our technological innovation as UO faculty members were joined by colleagues in Iraq and the Sudan to share views with our audience and respond to questions from students and community members.  I was very impressed at the ease with which UO staffers were able to make this work, and it was very rewarding to have people in Eugene in conversation with our faculty and people in the Middle East at the same time.  Most of us were in the Living Learning Center on campus, while our guests joined us on big screens as they spoke to us from their homes thousands of miles away as we worked together to try to increase our understanding of the historic events reshaping a critical part of the world.  Next, we brought Catholic and Protestant peace workers to campus to participate in our “Lessons From the Streets of Northern Ireland” series.  Our guests gave a public presentation, participated in classes around campus, and joined an Inside-Out class that blends campus-based students with men incarcerated in the Oregon State Penitentiary for a course on Post-conflict Transformation.  Finally, our “Ethics and Global Health” workshop highlighted the way that students can initiate focused intellectual inquiry on our campus and join faculty and visitors in designing programs that speak to the most pressing issues of the day.  With this event, we go “live” on the internet (and i-phones too apparently), so that people can participate in real time from anywhere in the world with internet access.  Our classroom is suddenly global!   All of this has happened within a span of five weeks, and serves as a preview of what we hope to do with the CGO in the years to come.

The CGO is part of the broader Oregon Carnegie Initiative with the New York-based Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and our work comes under the umbrella of Global Oregon programming here at the University.  And, while I celebrate the technology that allows us to learn in these exciting ways and appreciate our opportunity to engage in these academic pursuits, I am mindful that this is a life of privilege and that our aim is to make the world a more just, peaceful, and healthy place.  I expect that when we start working together in the Fall of 2011 we will be challenged, inspired, and motivated to make the CGO a special learning experience, and that each of us will grow in ways that we cannot even anticipate.  The world is a complex place, full of wonders and problems, joy and sorrow; I look forward to exploring it through the CGO in a way that will bring greater understanding and lead us to productive and ethical partnerships on campus and to the farthest reaches of our imagination.  See you there!

Shaul Cohen
Academic Director