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OPINION 2
CAMPUS 3-5
ABE 8-9

SLIPSTICK 10

SPORTS ll

 

Students get exclusive opportunity to
meet with Presidential Lecture speaker

Utsav Gandhi
CAMPUS EDITOR

Instituted last year, the Presidential
Lecture Series is hosted by the Office of the HT
President, Dr. John Anderson and focuses on
bringing highly reputed speakers to campus to
engage and enlighten the audience about some
of the most critical and relevant issues of our
times. After last year’s theme of sustainability, the
theme this year has been chosen as Immigration
Policy, one of the most hotly debated issues of
our time. To kick things off for this academic
year, the first speaker invited to campus was
Dr. Douglas Massey, Professor of Sociology
and Public Affairs at Princeton University
and one of the country’s leading experts on
demography, urban sociology, race/ethnicity,
international migration and Latin American
society (particularly Mexico).

Before his actual lecture to the
HT community, several students, received 112
exclusive opportunity to meet with him in a
smaller, more informal group setting where they
had a chance to ask him some questions on his
career and work The group had representation
from the Student Government, the RA Diversity
Committee, the Undocumented Students
Association, TechNews as well as a sophomore
enrolled in the new Economic and Social
Development Policy program, also affiliated
with Engineers without Borders. The students
had some great questions for the speaker,
ranging from national level policies regarding
immigration to the undocumented student
movement on college campuses, to media
representation on the topic to his own career
and interest in the field.

Dr. Massey spoke at length about

how he was disappointed in the national
government, saying that the elected officials
don’t want to fight and follow through with
their promises regarding immigration reform.
He believes that the country is in the midst of
a major demographic transition, and it is no
longer just California wherein undocumented
immigrants are filtering in - in 1970, towards
the start of his career, 4.7% of the American
population was foreign born. Today, it is almost
16%. There needs to be stricter voter ID laws
and control of the borders. He talked about
misrepresentation in the media regarding the
issue, especially Fox News. He recommends
NPR, CNN International, BBC and the New
York Times as more trustworthy sources of
unbiased information on the topic. He spoke
about how his career has been an amalgamation
of psychology, sociology, demographic studies
and anthropology as well as his work at
Princeton; and mentioned how universities
can be a major_ asset in aiding and assisting

__>,_

undoéufiiéh‘l’ed 'Students in securing equal rights
as other students.

It was a fantastic opportunity for
students to take advantage of in learning more
about a topic not discussed too widely at IIT,
but highly relevant for our times. The next
lecture hosted by the President will be a special
presentation by renowned Chicago civic leader
John W. Rowe will be held on Wednesday,
November 20, 2013 at 4:00 pm. He will be
discussing the 2013 report published by the
Commission of the Humanities and Social
Sciences of the American Academy of Arts 8!
Sciences and its relevance to higher education.
Dr. Rowe is an IIT regent, current member and
former chairman of the IIT Board of Trustees,
and chairman emeritus of Exelon Corporation.

  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  

Photos by Khaleela Zaman