Hundreds of West Chester University students turned out on Oct. 11 and 12 to participate in the 2004 Teach-In that featured controversial political issues such as the justification for war, the reliability of media coverage, and global perspectives on Iraq.The Teach-In gave students the opportunity to interact with community leaders and professors from various departments who gave informed opinions on media activism, challenging mainstream ideals, U.S. foreign policy, the role of religion in politics, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” and related issues.
Students and faculty generally expressed positive feedback from the event.
“It was good to learn what professors and students think about war because I?m not up to date on much of the news explaining war,” said first-year student Meg DeCesare about Monday?s “Just War” discussion guided by Fred Struckmeyer, a professor in the philosophy department.
While some students noted that their beliefs remained unaltered by the new information, they ultimately said they appreciated the use of a public forum to address the issues.
Although pleased with the fact that writing professor Seth Kahn, in the session on media activism, said that the media?s profit-driven motive can inhibit sound journalism, student Thomas Gard said he disagreed with one of Kahn?s suggested solutions of correcting faulty reporting by demanding retractions.
“The only way to make them [the media] change is by affecting their pockets,” Gard said.
Audience member Munisa Ahmed reported agreement with the views expressed during the session on global perspectives, stating that “a lot seemed like a reiteration of my personal opinion.”
Although Africa was not represented, students could benefit from seeing the multifaceted global positions of Asia, Russia, Latin America and Europe, said political science professor Linda Stevenson of the session.
As a representative of the Latin American perspective, she noted that while the lecture gave beneficial insight to students, the representatives had “a short amount of time to discuss complex issues.”
Departments such as english, history, political science, philosophy and women?s studies contributed to the program at times having more than one speaker representing each department.
WCU students Tyler Bradway and Meg Panichelli also played major roles in organizing the event and helping the two-day program run smoothly in each session.