Celebration of Ideas Lecture Series Announced

Fairmont State University's Celebration of Ideas Lecture Series brings nationally prominent speakers of diverse viewpoints to campus each fall and spring.

"It is the goal of Fairmont State to create a campus environment where open exchange of ideas is both promoted and celebrated," said Persis Bates, Coordinator of Multicultural Affairs.

"We believe that the development of our student body must include exposure to a variety of ideas. Through this exposure, our students will be better prepared to operate in an increasingly complex society. We are very fortunate to be able to bring this diverse and talented group of speakers into the Fairmont community."

This year's speakers include Marva N. Collins, Tom DeLay, Marvin Stewart, Eugene Robinson, John Bul Dau and Davar Ardalan.

Admission is free and open to the public for all of the events in the lecture series. Tickets are not required. For more information, call the Student Affairs Office at (304) 367-4215.

Marva Collins
7 p.m., Sept. 20
Turley Center Ballroom

Marva N. Collins, born in Monroeville, Ala., is an educator who in 1975 started Westside Preparatory School in Garfield Park, an impoverished neighborhood of Chicago. She is famous for applying classical education successfully with impoverished students, many of whom had been labeled as "learning-disabled" by public schools. She has written a number of manuals, books and motivational tracts describing her history and methods, and she has a web site and public speaking service. She was most widely publicized in the 1981 biographical TV movie "The Marva Collins Story" starring Cicely Tyson and Morgan Freeman. Collins graduated from Clark College in Atlanta, known today as Clark Atlanta University, and then taught school for two years in Alabama, then moved to Chicago, where she taught in public schools for 14 years. In 1975 she started Westside Preparatory, which became an educational and commercial success. In 1996 she began supervising three Chicago public schools that had been placed on probation. In 2004 she received a National Humanities Medal, among many awards for her teaching and efforts at school reform.

Tom DeLay
7 p.m., Sept. 25
Turley Center Ballroom

Thomas Dale DeLay (born April 8, 1947) is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Sugar Land, Texas. He was House Majority Leader 2003-2006 and is a prominent conservative member of the Republican Party. DeLay was first elected to the House in 1984. He became known as "The Hammer" for his enforcement of party discipline in close votes and his reputation for taking political retribution on opponents. He was appointed Deputy Minority Whip in 1988 and was elected House Majority Whip in 1995 after helping Newt Gingrich to lead the Republican Revolution. In the 1990s, he helped to start the K Street Project, an effort to pressure lobbying firms to hire Republicans to top positions. He was a driving force behind the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998. DeLay was elected House Majority Leader after the 2002 midterm elections, and he compelled House Republicans to unite to an unprecedented degree, especially in support of President George W. Bush's agenda.

Marvin Stewart
7 p.m., Oct. 4
Turley Center Ballroom

Marvin Stewart began his career at UPS in 1972 as loader/unloader in Fairmont. Over his 36-year career, he has rotated through various hub and package operations. The past 20 years of his career have been spent in Human Resources working in Workforce Planning, Employee Relations, Safety and presently Community Relations. Stewart recently completed a special assignment in New Orleans, La., representing UPS assisting the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree from Fairmont State College in Business Administration and a master's degree from West Virginia University in business and economics. He is currently pursuing a Masters of Science Degree in Non-Profit Management from Eastern University. Stewart is a member of the St Paul's Baptist Church in West Chester, Pa., and serves as a Board of Directors member for various organizations including the West Chester Police Athletic League, United Way of Chester County, Cigna Health Care and the Fairmont State University Foundation, Inc. He is married and has four children: three daughters, Autumn, Kristen, Danielle and son Matthew. He and his wife Phyllis reside in West Chester, Pa.

Eugene Robinson
7 p.m., Oct. 24
Turley Center Ballroom

Eugene Robinson (born in 1955) is a newspaper columnist and assistant managing editor for The Washington Post. His columns are syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group. In his columns he generally espouses left-wing views, and he often criticizes President George W. Bush for his perceived domestic- and foreign-policy failures, especially the Iraq War. He is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. Robinson was born and grew up in Orangeburg, S.C., and attended Orangeburg High School. He went to college at the University of Michigan, where in his senior year he was co-editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, the Michigan Daily. In 1976 he began his journalism career at the San Francisco Chronicle, where he covered the trial of publishing heiress Patty Hearst. He joined The Washington Post in 1980 and worked his way up the ranks, starting as a city hall reporter, then becoming assistant city editor, city editor, South America correspondent, London bureau chief, foreign editor and, most recently, assistant managing editor. He began writing opinion columns for the paper in 2005. Robinson currently lives with a wife and two sons in Arlington, Va.

John Bul Dau
7 p.m., Nov. 6
Turley Center Ballroom

John Bul Dau has experienced journeys in life that most people never imagine. Dau was born in war-torn Sudan, and in 1987, his village was attacked by government troops involved in the civil war involving the Muslim-controlled government in northern Sudan and the non-Muslims in southern Sudan. The violence scattered his family, and Dau was forced to travel on foot for three months until reaching the relative safety of Ethiopia. Dau stayed in a refugee camp in Ethiopia for four years, but civil war then broke out, and he was once against forced to flee. As one of thousands of Sudanese Lost Boys, Dau wandered hundreds of miles and faced disease, starvation and violence, until arriving in Kenya. After several years living in another refugee camp, he was sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church in Skaneateles, N.Y., and along with three other Lost Boys, came to the United States in 2001.

Despite the initial culture shock  women driving cars, huge stores filled with food  Dau has succeeded in the United States and can proudly say that he is living the American dream. Not only was he able to bring his sister, mother and fianc'e from Sudan, but while working 60 hours a week as a security guard, he received an associate degree at Onondago Community College. He is currently pursuing a degree at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Additionally, Dau has begun two non-profit 501(c)3 organizations to help Sudanese youth in Syracuse and throughout the United States. The Sudanese Lost Boys Foundation of Central New York has raised $35,000 for books and medical expenses for Lost Boys in the United States. Additionally, he helped to organize the American Care for Sudan Foundation, which has raised over $150,000 for a medical clinic in southern Sudan. He has also been named the Director of the Sudan Project at Direct Change, a non-profit organization where he is working to raise funds for health and education projects in southern Sudan.

Dau's move to the United States and early experiences in the country are the subject of the film "God Grew Tired of Us," which won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. His memoir, also titled "God Grew Tired of Us," was released in January 2007 by National Geographic Press.

Dau's command of the English language has also helped assure that his voice and the voice of the Sudanese will be heard in the United States and around the world. He has become a successful public speaker around the country, focusing speeches on his life story and the importance of perseverance against all odds. His moving talks also focus on the importance of human rights and on ending the tragedy in Darfur.

In his brief time in the United States, Dau has earned many awards for his public achievements and for his charitable work. He has received the Onondago Community College Distinguished Alumni Award, the Barney II Foundation Leadership Award and the Good Society Award from the Maxwell School at Syracuse. As he continues to work to succeed in the United States he envisions a positive future for Sudan. He says, "I hope for my country to get out of war and secure a good government. I want Sudan to become a place where people are welcome and hope is restored."

Davar Ardalan
8 p.m., March 31
Turley Center Ballroom
Due to a scheduling conflict, this lecture has ben canceled.


Her full name, Iran Davar Ardalan, inspired the 2004 NPR/American Radioworks series, "My Name is Iran." In the stories, she explored the country for which she was named, tracing her Iranian heritage and her own experiences after the 1979 Islamic revolution. The struggle of a nation as reflected in her family's story led to a memoir to be published by Henry Holt in January 2007. Ardalan's career in the American media began in 1991 at KOAT-TV in Albuquerque, N.M., A year later, she made the switch to radio as a reporter at KUNM-FM in Albuquerque. She produced award-winning cultural and news stories on health and environmental concerns in Los Alamos for which she won first place in documentaries from the Associated Press in New Mexico. Ardalan earned a B.A. in communications and journalism from the University of New Mexico. She was born in San Francisco and has also lived and worked in Iran as a television newscaster. Ardalan attended elementary and middle school at Iranzamin International School in Tehran and graduated from Brookline High School in Brookline, Mass. Away from NPR, she is the mother of four.