September 9, 2001
by Susan Murphy

RIT Celebrates State Humanities Month with Lecture Series Exploring Fairness and Electoral Reform

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Fairness and electoral reform, hot topics resulting from the 2000 presidential election, will be the focus of a series of talks by scholars in philosophy and law to be held at Rochester Institute of Technology as part of the annual Ezra A. Hale Lecture Series. Sponsored by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities, the lecture series will be held at RIT throughout October in celebration of State Humanities Month and repeated at the Rochester Public Library. The series of five talks was arranged by Wade Robison, RIT’s Ezra A. Hale Professor in Applied Ethics, College of Liberal Arts.

"The 2000 election revealed problems with the electoral process that need to be addressed if every citizen is to have an equal right to vote and each citizen’s vote is to be counted," says Robison. "The aim is to discuss the issues and alternative solutions, not to argue for any one solution."

The following talks, free and open to the public, will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. each Monday in October in RIT’s Liberal Arts Building, room A205, and will conclude with a discussion:

  • "Flawed Machines and Incompetent Voters" on Oct. 1 by Burton Leiser, professor in the philosophy and law school, Pace University

  • "The ‘Least Dangerous Branch’ and Civic Virtue: A Cautionary Tale from the 2000 Presidential Election" on Oct. 8 by Richard Nunan, professor of philosophy, University of Charlestown

  • "Supreme Reasoning?" on Oct. 15 by Jonathan Schonsheck, professor of philosophy, Le Moyne College

  • "Delegitimating Delegitimation" on Oct. 22 by Lester Mazor, professor of law, Hampshire College

  • "Judicial Restraint, Probity and the 2000 Presidential Election" on Oct. 29 by Christine Sistare, professor of philosophy, Muhlenberg College.

    With joint sponsorship of the Friends of the Rochester Public Library, the talks will be repeated at the Rochester Public Library from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. the same day, except for Nunan’s talk, which will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 7. Please note that all talks will take place in the Gleason Auditorium of the Bausch and Lomb Library Building except for the first, which will take place in the Rundel Auditorium.

    State Humanities Month, October 2001, is an annual celebration sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities, a not-for profit organization dedicated to ensuring the presence of the humanities in the state’s cultural and intellectual life. The council’s grants program is designed to provide financial support for public humanities programming conceived and implemented by not-for-profit organizations across New York.

    For further information about the lecture series, contact Cassandra Shellman at 716-475-2057.

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