University, College Presidents & Academics

Niagara Foundation Welcomes Richard A. Rosengarten, Dean of the Divinity School, University of Chicago for a Luncheon Forum.

Theme: Religion, the Public Good, and the Research University

Date: Thursday, October 9, 2008

Reception: 12:00 p.m.

Luncheon: 12.15 p.m.

Venue: Niagara Foundation

203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60601

T- (312) 701-0086 F- (312) 701-0087 info@niagarafoundation.org

Niagara Foundation Welcomes Susan Thistlethwaite President, Chicago Theological Seminary for a Luncheon Forum.

Theme: The Roots of Tolerance

Date: February 14, Thursday,  2008

Reception: 12:00 p.m.

Luncheon: 12.15 p.m.

Venue: Niagara Foundation

203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60601

T- (312) 701-0086 F- (312) 701-0087 info@niagarafoundation.org

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Niagara Foundation Welcomes, Sylvia Manning, Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago for a Luncheon Forum.
http://www.uic.edu

Theme: Women in Higher Education

Date: November 27, 2007

Reception: 12:00 p.m.

Luncheon: 12.15 p.m.

Venue: Niagara Foundation

203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60601

T- (312) 701-0086 F- (312) 701-0087 info@niagarafoundation.org

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Niagara Foundation Welcomes, Mr. Henry Bienen, President of Northwestern University for a Luncheon Forum.
http://www.northwestern.edu

Theme: The Importance of Higher Education on National Issues

Date: Tuesday-September 11, 2007

Reception: 12:00 p.m.

Luncheon: 12.30 p.m.

Venue: Niagara Foundation

203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60601

T- (312) 701-0086 F- (312) 701-0087 info@niagarafoundation.org

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Niagara Foundation Welcomes B. Joseph White, the President of University of Illinois, for a Luncheon Forum.

http://www.uillinois.edu

Theme: Diversity in America -- at a Crossroads

Date: Tuesday-June 12, 2007

Reception: 12:00 p.m.

Luncheon: 12.30 p.m.

Venue: Niagara Foundation

203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60601

T- (312) 701-0086 F- (312) 701-0087 info@niagarafoundation.org

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Niagara Foundation Welcomes Charles Middleton, President of Roosevelt University, for a Luncheon Forum.
www.roosevelt.edu

Theme: Roosevelt University's Commitment to Diversity in the Globalized World

Date: Thursday May 17, 2007

Reception: 12:00 p.m.

Luncheon: 12.30 p.m.

Venue: Niagara Foundation

203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60601

T- (312) 701-0086 F- (312) 701-0087 info@niagarafoundation.org

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Niagara Foundation Welcomes Stephen D. Schutt, President of Lake Forest College, for a Luncheon Forum.

www.lakeforest.edu

Theme: International education at a small liberal arts college

Date: Thursday-May 3, 2007

Reception: 12:00 p.m.

Luncheon: 12.30 p.m.

Venue: Niagara Foundation

203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60601

T- (312) 701-0086 F- (312) 701-0087 info@niagarafoundation.org

Stephen D. Schutt 's Speech

Stephen Schutt: Luncheon Forums are Very Important Place to Share Dialogue Another guest of Niagara Foundation’s Luncheon Forum Series was the president of the small Lake Forest liberal art college, Professor Stephen Schutt on 3rd May, 2007 to speak about international education and how to administer it in small liberal arts college: Lake Forest College experience. Mahir M. Zeynul-Abidin, Community Outreach at Niagara Foundation thanked everyone for coming today and wished an enjoyable time to have today with our special guest, Dr. Schutt. He emphasized how it is important to widen the circle of friendship and extend the friendship and dialogue ties with universities and how we experiencing one of those today with Lake Forest College. Mahir presented the president of Lake Forest College and read out his résumé. Mahir then invited Mr. Schutt to the tribune to deliver his speech on international education at Lake Forest College and how it exemplify an example to other small liberal art colleges. Stephen Schutt, first of all, thanked everyone for coming out in a beautiful spring day. He then said that he has been in a lot of jobs and served to many institution in his life time but the best of all is what he is doing right now which is to provide leadership in the small liberal art college in the Chicago area. Lake Forest has a long history of education and this year it will celebrate its 150-year anniversary. Dr. Schutt said that it will be a special year for us and we have international events that will be going on and he delivered calendar of events to participants and invited everyone to show up there in any of those events. “Let me start today with something that completely obvious and well known to all of you. We are living in a global world and it affects us every minute. I want to just cite to make this point” said Dr. Schutt to point out to a very interesting and strange fact of our daily life. I drove in a car which was made in Japan, listened to British band music while coming here in the morning, after the music finished I turned and heard a radio broadcast in India, I used a cell phone which was made in China to call my wife and to ask what I am going to pick up today. My wife’s father is from Ireland and her mother is from Italy, early in the morning we had a study abroad program in Greece and Turkey, I e-mailed the person in charge this morning in Athens. When I get back from here to campus, I am going to meet with a faculty who is a native of Iran on a translation issue of a book from Persian to English, to give a status of alumni to one of our students who is from Japan, and I have a meeting with another alumnus who is interested in developing a gulf course in Samoa. You have your own versions of life. President Stephen Schutt stressed one point regarding the survey that the American College Association did several years ago. According to the survey there were two important findings. First of all, 90 % agreed that future careers were required international competence and deal with broad range of people from around the world. Secondly, it is vital to know at least one language other than English. Regular people get it that we are people of global society and our regular life is shaped with globalization. May be it was a theoretical assumption some time ago, but today it is a daily reality. “Higher education has big responsibility. Our job is to prepare students for future after graduation. They will be all be entering to work in a global society” said Dr. Schutt. Historically in this country, broad universities got more international students in 1950s. American College Association was founded with precise aim of study abroad purposes. We are part of this heritage. Our mission statement is that we prepare our students to become responsible people in global village. Asian student learn Spanish, Europeans going to Eurasia, and Americans get international culture at Lake Forest College. “We have 1400 students” claimed Dr. Scutt that 181 are from 55 different countries which is 30 % of overall student body. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, France, Italy, India, Nepal, Turkey, Greece, Canada are among those countries. Dr. Schutt also said that Associate Dean of Students going literally around the world and recruiting students from all over the world. Results of it are the community I am describing. We have also students from 50 states said Dr Schutt. What is the benefit of that? Learning how to talk to each other about conflicts, problems and learning each other’s perspectives and how to deal with them is of utmost importance. He also said that during a though time, a year ago, very unfortunate cartoons in Denmark had been published and we had discussions about this publication and we had discussions with people from Nepal, Iran, China, Bulgaria and many other people. The value was enormous and lasting. Dr. Schutt also talked about the student and faculty ration in respect to how ‘international’ it is. He said that they have 116 standing faculty who are natives of China, Iran, Nigeria, Palestine and so forth. He said that we are small liberal art college and our classrooms are being intentionally small with 15-20 students. ‘We don’t have any large lecture halls and somebody like me in front. Our classes are like discussions. Instructions of language include Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and so forth. “Every student has to fulfill certain requirements – cultural diversity requirement” claimed Dr. Schutt. Each student has to have at least one course about multi-cultural reality to finish his/her degree. He also said that Chicago is such a great place for our students that they are spending a lot of time in Chicago learning about communities, students from other countries find other people from their countries. Lake Forest College also has study abroad programs where domestic students take the advantage of for over 30 years. Annual semester in Greece and Turkey, in Paris, France, in Santiago, Chile are standing places for Lake Forest College students to get involved in. They also have a new place in Beijing, Pekin University. They learn lessons to come back to campus to further enrich us. “Finally” said Dr. Schutt, “on our campus we hosted Akbar Ganji, an Iranian dissident which is an international related event. In April – invisible children showed a film about Uganda on Global religions, Adam Maria, famous Argentinean novelist had two lectures, one in English and the other in Spanish. Last week, Lake Forest College hosted annual Chinese cultural performance night where not only Chinese people but other students also got involved in. We have new major and programs created about Asian studies, Latin American studies and Islamic studies newly established said Dr. Schutt. Dr. Schutt at the end thanked Niagara Foundation and others who came out to listen to him. After addressing the questions from audience, Mahir invited attendees to have lunch and have a dialogue with one another. In his interview to Niagara Foundation Multimedia Department, Dr. Schutt said that he is very impressed about the event and thanked Niagara Foundation. “I am delighted to be here and speaking on behalf of Niagara Foundation and very important international program that you are doing and the partnerships that you are seeking to develop with colleges and universities in greater Chicago area and I think we are all engaged in the same enterprise of trying to increase multicultural understanding and international good will and I am very pleased to be able to compliment Niagara Foundation on what they are doing. I think the forums that such as today are very important, very important place to share news, good news, problems, challenges, and also very good opportunities for fellowships.”

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Niagara Foundation Welcomes, Bryant L. Cureton, the President of Elmhurst College, for a Luncheon Forum.

www.elmhurst.edu

Theme: Humility and Engagement: Reflections on the Legacy of Reinhold Niebuhr

Date: Tuesday - March 27, 2007

Reception: 12:00 p.m.

Luncheon: 12.30 p.m.

Venue: Niagara Foundation

203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60601

T- (312) 701-0086 F- (312) 701-0087 info@niagarafoundation.org

Bryant L. Cureton 's Speech

Bryant Cureton: I Thank NF For its Efforts to Promote International Friendship and Interfaith Dialogue Niagara Foundation continues to get connected with institutions on various levels. One of them is certainly building friendship and interfaith ties with educational institutions. Another attempt of Niagara Foundation to build friendship relations was with Elmhurst College. Niagara Foundation has short yet strong and everlasting friendship relations with Elmhurst College. The best example is that Niagara Foundation sent 26 professors, faculty and staff to Turkey in January for dialogue and friendship trip. “I am here in fact representing an institution that has a particular reason to be grateful to the Niagara Foundation as faculty and staff of Elmhurst College traveled to Turkey with the support and encouragement of Kemal and his colleagues and in May a group of students will go” noted Prof. Bryant Cureton, the president of Elmhurst College. Before Prof. Cureton speech, Mahir M. Zeynul-Abidin, the Community Outreach at Niagara Foundation thanked everyone for coming and making Niagara Foundation for their favorite venue. Before reading Prof. Cureton’s résumé, Mahir invited everyone to watch a brief documentary about luncheon forums which are Niagara Foundation’s a-year-long initiative that hosted significant voices in Chicago area and beyond from clergy, community leaders, TV general managers, from local and city mayoral offices, governmental agencies, FBI, educational institutions, academicians and from other spheres of life. After the brief trailer, he read the résumé of Prof. Bryant Cureton and invited him to the tribune to speak on ‘The Legacy of Reinhold Niebuhr in Diversity”. Prof. Bryant Cureton, first of all, thanked everyone for coming and added that “it is a real pleasure to be with today and have a chance publicly to thank Niagara Foundation for its efforts to promote International friendship and understanding across cultural differences and I am here in fact representing institution that has a particular reason to be grateful to the Niagara Foundation”. He also noted that Niagara’s interfaith oriented works are very much appreciated and “these extraordinary luncheon forums have welcomed variety of representatives of different institutions including many institutions of higher learning in diversity and cross-cultural issues. He emphasized that a university like Elmhurst College – what college ought to be – should follow the footsteps of an ideal person, someone who can launch the idea of commitment and leadership in diversity, Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the greatest political scientists and teacher of giant political scientists like George Kennan, Hans Morgenthau and also the student and the late president of the Elmhurst College. Prof. Bryant Cureton thanked Niagara Foundation for taking students of Elmhurst College to Turkey in May which is an ‘invariable life-changing experience for students’. “We Elmhurst very much appreciate these support, partnership and encouragement with Niagara Foundation ensuring that this high quality of these learning experiences is in fact helping us to build citizens of the world. Prof. Bryant Cureton then went on speaking about Reinhold Niebuhr’s works and his contribution to political science. According to Reinhold Niebuhr, man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. Politics will, to the end of history, be an area where conscience and power meet, where the ethical and coercive factors of human life will interpenetrate and work out their tentative and uneasy compromises. For Niebuhr, democracy is a method of finding proximate solutions for insoluble problems. Prof. Bryant Cureton then talked about the children of light and darkness and the differences between them. According to Reinhold Niebuhr, the children of light must be armed with the wisdom of the children of darkness but remain free from their malice. On the other hand, “the children of darkness are evil because they know no law beyond the self. They are wise, though evil, because they understand the power of self-interest.” “The children of light are virtuous because they have some conception of a higher law than their own will. They are usually foolish because they do not know the power of self-will” however, “it must be understood that the children of light are foolish not merely because they underestimate the power of self-interest among the children of darkness. They underestimate this power among themselves” he added. Prof. Cureton drew the conclusion about diversity that “only a great multitude of diverse, and sometimes contradictory, traditions can serve to illumine the meaning and mystery of human existence. [Thus we must be devoted to] the principles of religious pluralism in an open society which allows the various religious faiths and traditions to contribute their treasures to our common fund.” At the end of his speech, Prof. Cureton made a prayer which is written by Reinhold Niebuhr and was very famous at his time which was “O God, give us the serenity to accept the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.” After his speech, he addressed the questions asked by the audience. Mahir M. Zeynul-Abidin gave a very meaningful and precious gift to his president at Elmhurst College, a Turkish handicraft of Ebru with the Prof. Bryant Cureton’s name written on it. After all that, Mahir invited everyone to have delicious, home-made, Turkish food while portraying sweet picture of friendship and dialogue. Near the very end of the event, Prof. Bryant Cureton thanked Niagara Foundation and appreciated the level of luncheon forums. “I think these luncheon forums are just a great ideas bringing people together around international subjects and topics and fascinating group of people that you assembled here and I congratulate Niagara Foundation doing wonderful job creating these forums. ‘Luncheon Forums are exactly something to voice people like Niebuhr’ added Prof. Cureton. The wife of Prof. Cureton, Mrs. Jeanette Cureton also thanked Niagara Foundation for their wonderful job. “I think this is just a marvelous example of value of dialogue and providing opportunities to connect people from different background or similar backgrounds to talk about important issues and share commonalities to help to reinforce the notion we all, after all, are people who have many of the same principles and beliefs and although we may have cite differences in our backgrounds. Nevertheless, we have very similar goals and what we want out of life and I think this is a marvelous example of what people achieve by dialogue. Again, I think I don’t know how you could say anything except congratulating to Niagara Foundation for being so forward-thinking and pro-active in doing what they have done to provide these opportunities and again, there are more than enough of ways of examples that we differ from each other and at the time when we focus more on these differences, we fail to see our commonalities and bringing people together who can talk and agree and share each other’s companionship and learning process is nothing but remarkable.”

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Niagara Foundation Welcomes William Carroll, President of Benedictine University for a Luncheon Forum.

www.ben.edu

Theme: Benedictine Leadership in Diversity

Date: February 28, 2007

Reception: 12:00 p.m.

Luncheon: 12.30 p.m.

Venue: Niagara Foundation

203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60601

T- (312) 701-0086 F- (312) 701-0087 info@niagarafoundation.org

William Carroll 's Speech

William Carroll: the World Surely Needs an Organization like Niagara Foundation Niagara Foundation’s recent initiative – luncheon forums were founded to foster interfaith dialogue and friendship and bringing presidents and managers of important civil society institutions as well as governmental agencies and educational institutions together so that participants get to learn about particular institutions or intellectuals’ approach to multiculturalism, plurality, diversity and their institutions commitment to diversity and plurality in their institution. Pointing out all deeds that Niagara Foundation has been accomplished so far, Hilmi Cinar, the Associate Director of Niagara Foundation, spoke a little bit about Niagara Foundation and its recent highlight activities within the framework of luncheon forums. Then he went on presenting Dr. William Carroll, the president of Benedictine University, also the keynote speaker of February 28th luncheon Forum and without further ado, he invited him to the tribune. Once, Dr. William Carroll stepped up to the stage, he talked about his experience as a fire fighter and a story that occurred on the last day of his training by trying to relate his fireman picture. The topic that he was supposed talk about was Benedictine University’s commitment to diversity and plurality. Dr. William Carroll added to his resume that he worked in formal black school (HPS) for 20 years. Then he worked in a Catholic university and at last, in 1995 he came to Benedictine University. ‘All these experiences were of huge help in having commitment at Benedictine University’ said William Carroll. He told that Benedictine University was first founded by Czechs and Slovaks and they are joined by Irish people later on. Benedictine University does understand that 21st century is a century of dialogue of sciences so that Benedictine University also wants it to be part of this dialogue. At first, Benedictine University needed help in those areas; however, today it made a far more advance in diversity affairs. Even Benedictine University is the only university that has its name on the moon. While Radiation Detectors sent to the moon, Benedictine University wrote its name on it. He kept on stressing Benedictine University’s role in sciences. He told that Benedictine University is so vibrant in sciences so as to they have well-known physicians all around the nation. ‘If you happen to check out physician in Illinois hospitals, you will find scores of Benedictine University alumni physicians. Benedictine University had ranked 5th in the whole nation in 1980s. Jumping in to diversity issues at Benedictine University, Dr. Carroll told that it has a long history of diversity at Benedictine University. First waves, may be not important, were polish and Czech diversities. Benedictine allowed women in 1968 in huge numbers so as to women consist of 63 % of overall student body. “When I arrived at the university in 1995” he claimed, “there were no colors in the area”. Even before, black males would be pulled over; they would be arrested for being black. He told if a black man comes to a restaurant, administrator would call 911 because there is one black inside. In those though times, where there were racial wars going on on campus and white kids would beat up black kids, gangs would walk freely and you have, literally, arm camps on campus. There were arsonists who terrified beating up those who don’t look like them. However, Catholic tradition has a long history of tradition of hospitality and welcoming people. We gradually turn out this old generation and new young cadres came in. Diversity is a spark that fills up the catholic. He talked about an incident that happened in 1989. While people were eating lunch, there was one blind man who couldn’t walk and while having lunch, white males saw that a black girl holding from shoulders of white blind man and trying to help. There was a huge silence in the café. After this event, many things have been changed since then in diversity and tolerance issues at Benedictine University. Then he went on to talk about Benedictine University’s value system which still enlightens its bright diversity policy. The first one is listening with silence. One should not speak while others are talking; students understand that they should listen with their heart and get to know what’s going on. Otherwise, you can’t understand what another person wants or has desire for. The second value for Benedictine University students and staff is hospitality. We do appreciate other people and ‘there was no any single man who said to me that I am not welcome here’ claimed Dr. Carroll. Benedictine University is one of the most diverse universities in the nation. While I was in black college, there was no diversity, everyone was black. But at Benedictine University, we have even a special prayer room for Muslims and we are intending to build a mosque for them. ‘I will never forget’ said Dr. Carroll, ‘how people from different traditions, cultures and religions be it Hispanic, Asian, Muslim, Christian, Jewish made a chain in front of the university for condemnation the 9/11 event, in 2001. They were not condemning anybody; they were praying God for a better world to live. Benedictine University has a huge diversity. Average Muslim student population in the country is around 0.2 %; however, it is 13-18 % at Benedictine University. Benedictine University has 14% African population, 14% Hispanic population and very large Asian population. When people ask where from those Muslims are coming from or whether or not we call them from Arabic or other Muslim countries. ‘I answer like Lombard, Elmhurst, and Naperville…” he added. They are third-fourth generation American kids who go to American Universities and schools. Benedictine University, which is a diverse, small and science-oriented university, is given a gift of friendship. Dr. William Carroll told that we are not afraid to send our students to outside world, because we know that how they will approach to people who are not from their origin and country because that’s the thing they learned here at Benedictine University. “I am very worried and afraid of religious and ethnic incidence on campus” told Dr. Carroll while articulating his excitement. As he noted before they pulled out old generation staff; however, it is difficult to change faculty. There are also big problems with curriculum so as to administration has to change it. Because all these textbooks have been written by white males and if you are Hispanic, Muslim, Asian probably you won’t find yourself there. However, minorities have contributed to the overall development of the world in huge numbers. ‘Islam was a center of civilization’ told Dr. Carroll, “if not Islam, Catholicism would be not the place that it is right now. All those early Islamic scholars contributed to Western philosophy in huge amount” He then went on stressing inventions of different innovations by minority groups, particularly black people. He finished his speech with some examples that he brought from the real life. He told that God created us in the image of Him and He wants us to be generous and constructive like Him. God, in fact, will not be happy to see what we have done in the world. He told that he has contests in the university about the religions and religious-cultural traditions and people get prizes for that. There were students who answered very shameful answers to simple questions asked about Islam and Judaism. He also promised that he will have a campus-wide contest by three religions – Islam, Judaism and Christianity and those who win will get the full semester covered by the University. Dr. Carroll also stressed the fact that gender equality is as important as diversity issues at Benedictine University and they certainly take care of these issues. After addressing the questions, M. Hilmi Cinar gave a gift of Turkish handicraft to Dr. William Carroll. The event had been concluded by a delicious, home-made Turkish lunch. Dr. William Carroll told that “I am extremely excited discovering Niagara Foundation. If there was no any organization like that, someone would have invented it, because the world surely needs it” in his interview to Niagara Foundation. The next luncheon forum is announced to be by John Rowe, the president of Exelon Corporation on 7th March, 2007 at Niagara Foundation venue.

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Niagara Foundation Welcomes Martin E. Marty, the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago for a Luncheon Forum.

Theme: Hospitality" among religions and ethnic groups as a stronger and more assertive to"Tolerance

Date: February 15, 2007

Reception: 12:00 p.m.

Luncheon: 12.30 p.m.

Venue: Niagara Foundation

203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60601

T- (312) 701-0086 F- (312) 701-0087 info@niagarafoundation.org

Martin E. Marty 's Speech

Martin Marty: I Welcome Works of NF on Interfaith Level in Chicago and Beyond. Time was approaching to noon when small yet passionate people had begun entering in to Niagara Foundation’s office for an annual forums with lunch so as to what we call as ‘luncheon forums’ – a new project that Niagara Foundation has recently initiated and successfully hosted many important figures so far. Looking so excited about the upcoming people and the guest speaker, people kept coming in and impatiently waiting for the speaker. Speaker had been introduced by the Executive Director of Niagara Foundation, Kemal Oksuz. Kemal Oksuz especially noted the richness of Professor Martin Marty’s academic background and invited him to the tribune when ‘words were not enough to describe him further’. Professor Martin Marty thanked Niagara Foundation for its excellent job and he admired by welcoming the works of Niagara Foundation on interfaith level in Chicago and beyond. He also noted that he was beneficiary of a number of Niagara Foundation’s event as he received Commitment Award in the Annual Peace and Dialogue Awards. Professor Martin Marty began his speech by pointing out an interesting statistics about various religious and ethnic communities’ correlation with the term ‘hospitability’. Stressing the fact that ‘tolerance’ and ‘hospitability’ are not confronting and we can’t raise the issue of polemic between them at all, he brought facts or samples that a search engine turns up for hospitability. Results are ‘hospitability’ with Christian (1, 750, 000), Jewish (309,000), Muslim (1, 090, 000), Hindu (678, 000), Buddhist (552, 000), Middle Eastern (1, 340, 000), Bible (1, 250, 000), “Old Testament” or “Hebrew Scriptures” (470, 000). He also criticized his work by emphasizing the factors that might affect the result of the study like size of religious group, its location, arguments and other things related to that. He also raised questions like whether or not one can face hard issues (risk) with tolerance like war, terrorism or conflict and how important it is to talk about this when big issues such as terrorism, war, global economy which frames everyone’s life or environment are urgent. Seeking any kind of power in alternatives like non-violent actions were also among notes of Professor Martin Marty that he recalled in his speech. He reminded Martin Luther Kind and Mahatma Gandhi as such of non-violent leaders. But he also noted that yet we can assume conflict as it is undeniably nature of humanity. He also talked about the fear or hatred and the term “the other”. People fear to what they are not familiar with. He also pointed to the threat of different values whether to be too ominous or too alluring. He said that ‘On this front, all through history, there are a very few voices for alternatives”. He then talked about the modern struggle and emergence of the idea of tolerance. He said that sometimes it seems problematic if it seems as weakening one’s own hold on belief, system, context and faith. It is an idea that one begin to understand ‘the other’, accommodate ‘the other’ in his/her life and arrange life different from how s/he is used to live. He talked about how leaders interpret the idea of ‘togetherness’ and making ordinary life positive by the role of leadership. They emphasize advance of guards and boundaries of the unity. At this point, things that seem to be remote to us are actually not remote like Serbo-Croatian confrontation, Sunni-Shiite issues in Dearborn, Michigan, and Catholic-Protestant problems in Northern Ireland. But Professor Martin Marty offers solutions for these problems. One of them is kind of pessimistic and not-acceptable. It is Dawkins/Harris model which claims to kill and demolish all religions. Because religion claims revelation, distinctive stories that are often exclude one another, it is also group-empowering, eschatological verification and they can’t compromise. However, Professor Martin Marty continues as “Here comes a great invention: Tolerance! And he elaborates it as “‘I’ or ‘we’ set the terms against the other and if I can get you to believe as little as I do, we can get along”. Nevertheless, he also voices over the threat of hospitality which might be gift relation like we ‘owe’ and become dependent, lure of the other in unguarded settings, difficulty of changing ‘back home’, sending the wrong signals and actually betraying your own at the end. At the same time, tolerance and hospitality also lead people to things like awareness of otherness, self-examination, telling of stories, facing of issue and the importance of face-to-face actions. He concludes his speech by a final note which should be a formula in all of our lives: “To be hospitable, to the merely tolerant”. Professor Martin Marty continued answering many and interesting questions from audience. The speech ended when Kemal Oksuz, the Executive Director of Niagara Foundation presented a very nice and invaluable gift to Professor Martin Marty. Professor Martin Marty thanked Kemal Oksuz for the sweet present and ‘hospitality’ and to the audience for being patient and ‘tolerant’ in his interview to Niagara Foundation’s Media Department. The event followed by informal discussions, lunch and wonderful portrait of dialogue, friendship and acquaintances.

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Niagara Foundation Welcomes The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, President of DePaul University for a Luncheon Forum.

Theme: DePaul University's Commitment to Diversity

Date: November 8, 2006

Reception: 12:00 p.m.

Luncheon: 12.30 p.m.

Venue: Niagara Foundation

203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60601

T- (312) 701-0086 F- (312) 701-0087 info@niagarafoundation.org

Dennis H. Holtschneider 's Speech
Dennis H. Holtschneider: Works of Niagara Foundation are outstanding accomplishments. Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman. I would like to thank Kemal Oksuz and the Niagara Foundation for inviting me to speak to you today. The Niagara Foundation and its parent company, Niagara Educational Services have accomplished a great deal for the short time and they have been in Chicago. Serving students by tutoring in mathematics, computer education, the SAT and TOEFL tests as well as through the establishment of the Science Academy of Chicago, whose students have gone on to great success in universities all over the United States, are outstanding accomplishments. I am honored to have been chosen to address this forum and find that in this luncheon series I am in company with such other distinguished Chicagoans as Martin Marty of the University of Chicago, Emily Barr of WLS Channel 7, Marshall Bouton of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, John Rowe of Exelon and Eboo Patel of the Interfaith Youth Corps in this luncheon series. Eboo Patel is particularly well-known to us at DePaul University thought collaboration with his Interfaith Youth Corps. Last year the Interfaith Youth Corps and DePaul brought together hundreds of religiously diverse high school and university students from around the city for a service project at the Martin Luther Kind Jr. Day of Interfaith Youth Service. We also collaborate on the Chicago Youth Council, which is an intensive interfaith, leadership development, service-learning program for Chicago area high school students. The Chicago Youth Council grew out of the Martin Luther King Day event and, in partnership with DePaul, has brought together young leaders during the winter and spring quarters of the last academic year. We are proud to be associated with this fine organization and look forward to collaborating with them in the future. I have been asked to speak to you today on DePaul University’s “Commitment to Diversity”. DePaul is the largest private university in the Midwest, and the largest Catholic University in the nation. But there has never been a day in our history when we were only for Catholics. The University’s entire history in Chicago is deeply and consistently intertwined with the idea of diversity. Our namesake, St. Vincent DePaul, devoted his life and his ministry to serving the poor. He instilled a love of God in his contemporaries by leading them in serving urgent human needs. We are dedicated to serving the city of Chicago, our home. When the university was founded in 1898, the Vincentian fathers and brothers chose to follow Vincent’s example by opening a university to provide high-quality education to Chicago’s early immigrants and minorities, and women. Our College of Law has provided lawyers and judges for our courts; the School of Education has provided teachers for our schools; the College of Commerce has graduated some of Chicago’s best known business men and women and our schools of theater and music have enriched the cultural life of this city beyond measure. As it has fulfilled its Catholic, Vincentain, urban mission over the past century, DePaul has been ever mindful of the wide range of people it served. DePaul was the first institution of higher learning in Chicago to welcome Catholic and Jewish. We were the first to admit women students as equals. Or early student bodies reflected Chicago’s immigrant population at the turn of the 20th century – Irish, Polish, Italian, Czech, Greek – groups who were not welcome at other universities. These students were for the most part the first in their families to attend college. DePaul University was diverse before the word ‘diversity’ came to occupy our thoughts as it does today. So, yes, we have had a commitment to diversity for over a century, indeed for our whole existence as a university. Today, our students are now African-American, Hispanic, Turkish, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Vietnamese, as well as new generations of Polish, Russian and other white ethnic immigrant students. They are still in many cases the first in their families to attend college, and they are still becoming our lawyers, teachers, business people and artists/ The composition of our student body may change, but our commitment to educating the underserved has remained steady. DePaul University is a campus where we currently have a two Islamic prayer rooms; a space for Hillel, the Jewish student organization; a place for the Buddhist students to mediate, a place for the Christian organizations to gather, and for the Catholic students to have daily Mass. We teach Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Catholic studies. We are hoping to begin an Abrahamic Studies major that would bring together Muslim, Jewish and Christian students. We have a Multi-Cultural Center, a Center for the Black Diaspora, and a thriving Study Abroad program which sends our students and faculty all over the world. And so, it wasn’t a complete surprise when DePaul was recently this past summer by the Princeton Review as first in the nation in its ‘Diverse Student Population’ category. Certainly, they recognized our long history of being a welcoming place for immigrants and first generation students. They recognized that 32 % of the freshmen are students of color, and that we are considered a safe and respectful place for our gay and lesbian students as well. But the Princeton Review didn’t name us first, merely because so many families send us their children to education. No, this distinction was the result of a survey of more than 115.000 college students nationwide at 361 top schools, and they determined that DePaul faculty and staff make DePaul a welcome place for each one of our students. We strive to be a place where the world’s diverse communities are represented and a university where all students, faculty and staff are respected. For DePaul, nothing short of achieving this ideal will suffice. Diversity is more than numbers of diverse students, and a welcoming atmosphere. Diversity doesn’t mean much if you don’t learn from it. There’s a chance that our students can learn from one another, and that’s our most important objective. We actively encourage our students to interact with each other, and this process should continue for a student’s entire time at our institution. The truth about diversity, though, is that it’s messy and sometimes difficult to achieve. When we bring all these disparate student groups together in Lincoln Park or the Loop they don’t always get along with each other as well as we would like, just as in our greater American society we don’t always get along either. The most important thing about diversity is not ‘keeping the peace,’ it’s helping students to learn from their disagreements. In the past two years, we have had to confront some contentious and disturbing incidents at DePaul: protests surrounding an exhibit of Palestinian art and its accompanying historical texts an “Affirmative action” bake sale sponsored by an organization that opposed affirmative action and was insulting to our African-American students; swastikas and anti-Semitic symbols painted on the walls of dorms and campus buildings/ Every school experiences these kinds of things from time to time. What’s important to us at DePaul is that we move swiftly to restate our values about true human community, and to offer our students a chance to learn from this. In fact when this last incident occurred, I broke off my New York trip and returned to campus in order to conduct a prayer vigil with our students, faculty and staff and to meet with the police as they began their investigation. Diversity, then, sometimes causes conflicts that keep us engaged in educating our student on this key issue. We all talk about wanting more diversity as if it were a commodity that can be acquired. And I think we are all agreed that interaction with people of dissimilar backgrounds and beliefs should reinforce in all of us the basic humanity and dignity of all people. But are we really open to interracial, inter-ethnic, inter-religious life? We can learn about other cultures through their music, their literature, their food, their art. But is eating in ethnic restaurants or listening to World Beat on WBEZ enough? Are we really aware of the sometimes profound differences in world view, morality, and social mores that can often mystify, challenge, anger and therefore separate us? Do we back away from discussion of the mistakes of the past, such as the Holocaust, or our nation’s acceptance of slavery or our terrible treatment of Native Americans? In not confronting these things are we in fact engaging in a process of forgetting them and therefore repeating them? Think of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa and the immense degree of courage it took for blacks and whites to look beyond racial stereotypes and to tell their stories to each other in order to forgive past injustices and cruelties. Answering these questions lies at the heart of our commitment to diversity. I don’t have the answers yet, but I can assure you that all of us at DePaul work at it each day. I want DePaul University to be diverse, but I want us to go beyond statistics and numbers and aspire to real understanding and respect for differences. I want to prepare our students to go out into the world when they graduate and have the ability to go deeper to explore and if necessary overcome the differences of religious belief, and racial and cultural identity that they will inevitably encounter among their fellow human beings. We are living at a time when diversity is in the news. We talk quite a bit about equal opportunity, the global village, doing business internationally, but synagogues are still vandalized, people don’t want mosques in their communities, racial profiling exists and our best instincts toward acceptance and understanding are challenged by religious extremism, racial and ethnic violence, and civic dialogue that is anything but civil. I think our students need to be prepared for that and they need to have the tools and the desire to try to change it. I have told you how I view DePaul University’s commitment to diversity. I am proud that the Princeton Review thinks that DePaul is the best in the country at building a diverse campus. But I know that we have constant work to do, using our diversity to educate ourselves and each other. Thank you for inviting me to join you today. I consider our organizations have shared goals. I have great respect for the work your organization undertakes, and I look forward to working closely with you in the years ahead. Minimally, I hope we can continue to sponsor gatherings such as this that encourage the kind of inter—religious conversations that will challenge and enlighten us. God bless you.

Shots from the event (click on image to enlarge it)

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