Fairfield University is participating in an unprecedented national teach-in on the Guantánamo Bay Prison and detainees on Thursday, Oct. 5, in the Barone Campus Center, Lower Level. The Teach-In, entitled, "Guantánamo: How Should We Respond?" includes an eight-hour live simulcast broadcast from Seton Hall Law School from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., followed by a live panel from 6 to 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Inspired by the techniques of the teach-ins of the 1960s, but utilizing the technology of the present, the conference will be a collaboration of more than 200 colleges and law schools. Sessions will include academics, journalists, military officers, theologians, human rights activists, lawyers for detainees, and released detainees themselves, considering two overriding themes:

1. Whether Guantánamo can exist in a democracy committed to the rule of law, and

2. Whether and how various communities - journalists, theologians and physicians - should respond to this unprecedented governmental action.

Topics to be covered within those themes include: administration detention policy and the debate on prisoner abuse, the obligations of medical professionals, Guantánamo and religious communities, prisoner suicide and forced feeding, and the roles of our military and civilian authorities.

The day will conclude with a live panel of Fairfield University students and faculty at 6 pm. Participants will include Rev. Richard Ryscavage, S.J., director of the Center for Faith and Public Life, Dr. Janie Leatherman, professor of politics, Dr. Donald Greenberg, associate professor of politics, and students from the Debate Team and various classes.

A full program and information as it develops can be found at www.guantanamoteachin.com

Among the many distinguished speakers are:

• Joe Margulies, Professor of Law at Northwestern Law School, lead counsel in Rasul v. Bush and author of Guantánamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power
• Jane Mayer , New Yorker , Ms. Mayer is the author of several major articles on elements of the administration's detention policy
• Carol Rosenberg , Miami Herald , the first print journalist allowed to report from Guantánamo
• Adam Zagorin , Time , Mr. Zagorin and his colleague Michael Duffy were the first journalists to reveal the details of an interrogation at Guantánamo
• Walter Pincus , who has reported on the history of coercive interrogations for the Washington Post
• Rear Admiral Donald Guter (Ret.), Dean of Duquesne Law School; Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Navy from 2000-2002
• Commander Charles Swift , who started the Hamdan litigation as military defense counsel to Mr. Hamdan two years ago
• Capt. James Yee, former Chaplain atGuantánamo and author of For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire
• Dr. Gerald Koocher , President American Psychological Association
• Leonard Rubenstein , Physicians for Human Rights
• William H Taft IV, former Chief Legal Adviser, U.S. State Department

For more information on the Teach-In, please contact Dr. Lucy Katz, (203) 254-4000, ext. 2840.

Posted On: 09-27-2006 09:09 AM

Volume: 39 Number: 41