11/12/01
SPLC'S TOLERANCE.ORG TO CONDUCT SEMINAR AT AU
AUBURN -- Tolerance.org, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, will conduct a three-hour seminar at Auburn University on Wednesday entitled "Education and Tolerance At Home: Turning Hate around through Education and Tolerance."
The seminar, sponsored by the offices of the AU president and provost, will begin at 11 a.m. in the ballroom of the James E. Foy Student Union.
It is aimed at aiding campus and community healing in the wake of the recent controversy surrounding photographs taken of members of two AU fraternities in blackface and other racist costumes.
AU President William F. Walker said Monday that Wednesday's seminar will serve to launch a series of programs on diversity training for students, faculty and staff. Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which created Tolerance.org, has agreed to personally help Auburn in developing the program, Walker said.
"We've got to lower the level of the rhetoric. We've got to create a situation where people have an opportunity to begin to work out the issues," said Walker. "The Southern Poverty Law Center will be coming in Wednesday to begin working with us. I've talked with Mr. Dees and he has agreed to provide us the help we need to get past this issue."
The seminar is open to AU students, faculty, staff and the Auburn community.
Tolerance.org is an Internet project designed to provide programs designed for children, parents and teachers to use to fight hate and promote tolerance.
The Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit organization that combats hate, intolerance and discrimination through education and litigation.
Co-sponsors of the Auburn seminar include the College of Liberal Artsą Social Work Program, the Auburn Black Caucus, the College of Education and the AU offices of Multicultural Affairs, Housing and Residence Life and Student Affairs.
Other related events set for this week include:
** A brown-bag lunch featuring Lou Willie III of the Birmingham Pledge Task Force from noon to 1 p.m. in Foy Student Union, Room 217. Willie will speak on the process of the Birmingham Pledge's development as well as on the significance of the pledge to the present situation at Auburn.
** The Auburn Unity Barbecue, sponsored by the members of Phi Beta Sigma and Phi Gamma Delta fraternities, will be Thursday, Nov. 15, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Auburn's Martin Luther King Park. The event is designed to provide all Auburn students an opportunity to come and enjoy time with one another in a relaxed atmosphere, according to Phi Beta Sigma President Ryan Lee.
"We think that, with recent events, it's really important for diverse groups at Auburn to unite and show that incidents like those that came to light last week are an anomaly," Lee said.