Auspcr meeting minutes, 1 February 2000

At the first AUSPCR meeting of the semester we had close to record
attendance.  Good to see many of you again and to see some new faces there,
too.

1.   The first item of the evening was a presentation by Gail K. Taylor,
who was introduced by Brian Wall, and is  from Committee to Free Lori
Berenson.  Lori Berenson is a freelance journalist from the U.S. who was
arrested in Peru in 1995  She was accused of being a leader in a Peruvian
revolutionary guerrilla movement, convicted of treason by a military court,
and sentenced to life in maximum-security prison.  Amnesty International
and other human rights groups have declared Lori a political prisoner, but
the Clinton Administration has let the matter drop.  Gail asked Auspcr to
do what we can in helping to publicize Lori's story .  As many of us may
one day end up working to gather information on human rights, democracy,
and other social justice and human rights issues, it was generally felt
that we have a personal interest in fighting for Lori's freedom.  While no
plans were formalized at the meeting, Gail had several suggestions of
actions Auspcr could take, including arranging for a panel/event at AU,
perhaps in coordination with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,
and/or the Washington Office on Latin America.

2.   New IPCR coordinator and IPCR alumnus Carrie Trybulec attended the
meeting and brought up several issues that Auspcr ought to get involved
with.

   First, the Week Without Violence, which occurs in late March/early
   April.  There will be a committee formed to spearhead initiatives for
   this and anyone interested should contact Carrie at carriet@american.edu
   .   Among the possibilities are organizing workshops (particularly
   nonviolence workshops), setting up booths for various peace and
   non-viol. groups, and organizing the annual Peacemaker Awards for that
   week.

   Second, Carrie brought up and issue we discussed at the end of last
   semester: the need to build a database of  IPCR alumni.  Adnane Raiss
   has volunteered to lead this initiative, but he needs help!  Anyone
   interested please contact him at araiss@aol.com.

   Lastly, Carrie mentioned that she volunteers here in DC at the Gandhi
   Memorial Center, which has an array of books on peace and nonviolence
   which she suggested we make use of.

3.   Faculty Search:  We had a long conversation about the two current
faculty searches, brining everyone up to date with the meeting that Daniel
O'Leary,  Lynne Madnick, and Bethany McAndrew had (as representatives of
Auspcr) with Dr. Said, Dean Louis Goodman, and Dean Levinson last Friday,
Jan. 28.  The students felt the meeting was productive and informed us that
Dean Goodman encouraged us to take advantage of his open door policy to
discuss any issues we may want to discuss with him.  He further indicated
that we ought to get the wider community involved in our quest to ensure
that the administration follow up with the funding to secure the hire of a
senior faculty member for next fall.  We heartily encourage everyone to
communicate your thoughts and feelings to him.

   As for the search for a junior faculty member, student representatives
   of the search committee informed Auspcr that the committee had forwarded
   their preference to the administration and to the faculty rank and
   tenure committee.  These bodies are expected to make decisions on hiring
   in the near future.  Thanks to all those students, alumni, faculty and
   others who attended the candidates' presentations and gave their
   valuable comments to the committee.

4.   Nonviolence Training.  One of our budgetary items for which we
received funding last fall, and which we have yet to carry out is the
nonviolence training(s), which are designed to promote PCR to the  wider
SIS and AU communities, and to offer PCR students trainings in skills which
they might be seeking to acquire.  Bethany & David Kestner have offered to
help plan these trainings, but could use some help.  If interested, please
contact Bethany at:  bethanymcandrew@hotmail.com.  Some Auspcr members had
attended George Lakey's Nonviolence skills institute last weekend and
suggested trying to get him to lead another workshop, while it was also
suggested that we might try to contact Mubarak Awad or Coleman McCarthy.
Any other ideas?

5.   Seminars.  In addition to skills enhancing training sessions, Saji
suggested (and agreed to organize) reaching out to some of the other
programs and organize joint seminars, which would not only cover some
interesting intellectual territory, but would help us forge links with
other graduate student groups on campus.  A couple of ideas were:
a.   Justice in CR and Law (coordinate with Washington College of Law
students)
b.   CR and development (coordinate w/ International Development students)

6.   Mumia.  February is time for month long efforts to free Mumia
Abu-Jamal, an African American man who was convicted of the murder of a
white policeman despite vast amounts of evidence of his innocence.  Valerie
Schrock is coordinating Auspcr's effort to help with the campaign to free
Mumia.  Please contact Val  at  valeriejs@netzero.net  if interested in
helping out.

7.   Faculty Talks.  Last fall we began the faculty talks (or "fireside
chats" as they were called by some) series to get students to be more aware
of what the IPCR faculty members are busy researching, what their academic
interests are, and to allow a forum for more social interaction between the
IPCR faculty and students.  This semester we hope to continue having one
talk every month (or more frequently, if possible), beginning with Dr.
Abu-Nimer and then Dr. Hammer.  As Dr. Abu-Nimer will be traveling abroad
for most of the second half of the semester, we need to grab him soon!
Thanks again to Lynne for all her work last semester in organizing these
talks.  She has volunteered to assist David Kestner, who will take on
primary responsibility for this semester's series.  As always, any help
would be appreciated.  Contact David at  davidkestner@yahoo.com

   Carrie also brought up the point that we ought to make use of the
   incredible resource we have in our adjunct faculty to the IPCR program.
   It was generally felt that both past and present adjunct faculty ought
   to be sought out to see if they would participate in the series of
   talks.  Not only would this give us all exposure to new ideas, but would
   serve as another way in which we would be building the kind of IPCR
   community that we're striving for.  Other suggestions?

8.   Speakers.  Also discussed was the idea of bringing more speakers to
campus, which is also in our budget as an educational event.  There was
some discussion about whether these funds for education ought to be
primarily used for speakers or to help send students to conferences, which
they would then have to make a presentation on, which would be open to the
AU community.  It was agreed that the funds could be split between the two
activities.

9.   Peacewalk.  After the small but successful Peacewalk during the
'98-'99 school year, it was felt that Auspcr ought to make this an annual
event, and we therefore need to plan it for the spring.  Ideas for a theme,
and for what the money raised should be for are still undecided, so get
your ideas in!  It was suggested that this would be a good activity for the
Week Without Violence.

10.  Thank you cards & Tape recorder.  By consensus it was decided that we
purchase a few thank you cards  (for whom I won't tell), and that be begin
looking into getting a tape recorder that we could tape Auspcr-sponsored
events with and then put the recordings on our website
(www.dreamwater.com/auspcr). Karen Verney has volunteered to search the web
to price some models.

11.  Social activities.  As usual, it was felt by a large majority that
Auspcr members have more social interaction.  Tracey Tasch  has suggested
that if we were to meet at the pub she works at in Georgetown (Garret's (?)
on 30th & M), we would get a special rate on the local fare.  Of course, no
Auspcr funds can be used for alcohol!  The point here is for us to get
together and hang out with no special incentives except for each other's
company.

12.  Need to incorporate more CR.  Some of the first-time attendees
mentioned that they felt Auspcr has been a bit heavy on the peace side
while neglecting the Conflict Resolution aspect.  In an effort to balance
this more it was discussed that Auspcr ought to promote more activities
such as Skills training (separate from skills institutes), facilitation
trainings, brown bag lunches with prominent practitioners in the field,
etc.  Neil Laslett (laslett@starpower.net  to help) and John Lewis have
volunteered to contact some leading practitioners in the field (such as
Louise Diamond) to try to develop a series of brown bag lunches, affording
students excellent opportunities to meet with leaders in the field of CR.
John has already begun putting this effort into motion.

13.  Next meeting.  Val has agreed to chair the next meeting (TUESDAY, 8
FEB.  6PM in the SIS lobby?If the location changes, it will be posted to
the listserv and signs will be left in the SIS lobby), but we still need
someone to take the minutes and post them on the listserv (I'm sure the
next meeting won't be so long, and the notes will be less cumbersome than
this weeks?).


Obviously, we have some pretty ambitious ideas for this semester and are
going to need a lot of effort from everyone to get it all done.  Hope to
see many of you at the next meeting, Tuesday at 6 in SIS.

Peace,
Karl Riber