Andrew Crighton
Life Editor
On March 3 and 4, ISU will host the 45th annual Frank Church Symposium. Events will run throughout the day in the Pond Student Union Building Salmon River Suite, unless otherwise noted on the schedule which is available at the link below.
This event is organized and hosted every year by the International Affairs Council, a student organization under the Department of Global Studies and Languages.
It is named after late Idaho Senator Frank Church, who chaired the U.S. Committee on Foreign Relations during the Vietnam War.
The topic for the 2016 symposium is: “Sustainable Development: Security, Health, Technology, and Environment in a Globalized World.”
Among the many delegates who will present and speak in panels is Arun K. Singh, the Indian Ambassador to the United States.
Singh will present the keynote address on March 3 at 7 p.m. in the Jensen Grand Concert Hall in the L.E. and Thelma E. Stephens Performing Arts Center.
“I don’t think that could have ended any more perfectly, because I’m not sure there’s another nation that would be more fit to talk about sustainable development,” said Jessica McBean, president of the IAC.
McBean has worked on four of these symposiums, and explains the process of how the Frank Church Symposium is organized and how delegates are reached.
The symposium is organized and run entirely by the 28 students of the IAC, except for some input by faculty advisers. The week after a symposium is completed, the IAC meets and members bring in ideas about what they would like to cover in the next year’s event.
McBean notes that while topic ideas are often focused on fields of study that interest the council members, they try to broaden it to include other disciplines and colleges at the university.
“Because we’re funded by ASISU and that’s student fees…we want to make it applicable to different colleges,” said McBean.
This year, the IAC has received a lot of aid from the College of Health Sciences in the form of speakers and moderators.
Once a topic is decided they begin reaching out to possible delegates throughout the summer.
Two of the delegates at this year’s event are ISU alumni, Rafi Ahmed and Antonio Taguba.
Ahmed researches vaccines and diseases, notably HIV and Ebola; McBean said she would not be surprised if he is currently working on the up-and-coming Zika Virus as well.
Ahmed is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, an organization that inducts the nation’s leading researchers.
Taguba is a retired Major General of the U.S. Army. Not only was he the second American citizen of Pilipino birth to be promoted to the rank of General, but more notably, Taguba authored the Taguba Report, the Army inquiry into the human rights abuses occurring in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003.
McBean explains that this event is very important to the community because it allows Pocatello and ISU to be exposed to the different ways that global issues are viewed around the world.
“One of the things that I think we’ve seen is that Pocatello can somewhat be in a bubble; I think it’s a great environment to have a university…however, I think we are also somewhat insulated from the outside world.”
An ISU graduate student, who did not wish to be named, explained why he loves the Frank Church Symposium,
“It’s kind of like an extra spring break, except you actually get to learn something.”
He explains that the first year he attended it was purely because it was an extra credit opportunity for a course he was enrolled in, however three or four years later and he still makes it a point to go.
“I think more classes in more departments should offer students an extra credit opportunity to go, because I think a lot of students don’t realize how much of a benefit they can get from this, and it’s really done for their benefit,” the student explained.
All events are free and open to the public, and McBean encourages students to come throughout the day.
“A lot of our events are held in the SUB during the day, so if students want to come in sweatshirts and jeans that’s fine,” said McBean. “The keynote is in the Jensen Grand Concert Hall, so if people feel inclined to dress up a bit more we would love to see that, but there’s no requirement at all.”
