The Division of Student Affairs is sponsoring the presentation in the Small Ballroom of the Student Center today at noon. It is open to all students and lunch will be provided.

The hour-long presentation will begin with an introduction to the 2006 March of Remembrance and Hope, which the 31 UK students attended while they were in Poland.

The presentation also features a slide-show of the trip. UK employee and graduate student Karen Clancy, who went on the trip, will narrate the slide show.

Clancy acknowledged the solemnity of studying the Holocaust, but praised the march as a very educational experience.

“It’s an opportunity to experience what can happen when groups are excluded by society,” she said. “The majority of students felt it was a life-changing experience.”

Beth Goldstein, chair of the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation in the College of Education, led the trip last year.

Goldstein said the trip would not have been possible without scholarships granted by Joe Kelly, the former president of Columbia Gas. She said the full cost of the march was covered for most of the UK students attending.

As part of the trip, Goldstein created a three-credit-hour course on the Holocaust and causes of genocide that the 31 students had to take. In addition to their preparation at UK, Goldstein said that before they went to the March in Poland, they met in Newark, N.J.

“I think the preparation was important prior to going,” she said. “It was important that we had the same shared knowledge about the Holocaust and the way it affected the … victims.”

As a part of her course, Goldstein required each student to do individual projects to show the importance of knowing this part of history.

The presentation will close with Stephanie Denton, Katrina Hutchison and Allison Tabor, three students who went on last year’s trip. Denton, Hutchinson and Tabor will discuss their reactions to their individual experiences as well as take questions from the audience.

“While there where commonalities within the group, no two people responded in exactly the same way,” Denton said. “I will simply be sharing a glimpse of my take-away on the experience.”

Denton hopes that attendees will walk away from the presentation understanding at least one point.

“We all face choices which impact the lives of others everyday,” Denton said. “It is my hope that we will each strive to make more choices which help one another as we navigate the challenges of life.”

In its fifth year, the award is given to a Kentuckian who “has exemplified Dr. King’s principles of racial equality and nonviolent social change,” according to the Kentucky State Commerce Cabinet’s Web site. Members of a 13-person committee appointed by the governor chose the winner.

The ceremony, held in Frankfort, featured Gov. Ernie Fletcher as the opening speaker. His wife, Glenna Fletcher, presented the award to Turner.

“Some people work as carpenters, some people work as surgeons, but my work has always been about human rights and equality,” Turner said.

Turner served on UK’s faculty from 1979 to 1983. At Kentucky State University, Turner served as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1983 to 1984 and as interim president from 2003 to 2004. He has also worked at Fisk, Howard and Winston-Salem Universities. Turner has been an associate provost since 2004.

His essays have been regularly printed in local and national publications.

UK spokesman Jay Blanton said Turner performs two functions in his pursuit for civil rights. In addition to his associate provost position, he is vice president for university engagement, where he works to create partnerships between UK and surrounding community organizations.

“He has a long list of achievements when it comes to civil rights,” Blanton said.

After receiving his award, Turner said that now he will only work harder for civil rights.

“It just meant a lot in terms of recognition,” he said. “It means I must intensify my commitment, intensify my dedication. And I will try to live more humbly and not be distracted by the resistance to the kinds of things that must still be done, that need to be done 40 years after Dr. King’s death.”

In order to end the violence in Darfur, one has to understand the motivations behind that violence (”Optimism Gap,” October 30). To classify that violence as simple “genocide” is not doing the full situation justice.

Sudan is a perfect example of “uneven development.” This development, in large part, has led to the societal rifts fueling the violence today. Over time, Darfur’s crop exports have decreased, and desertification has encroached upon much of the existing cropland. Due to this, a majority of Sudanese citizens in Darfur have become increasingly poor. Those with wealth and power in the government are doing their best to maintain dominance and quell outrage over the rampant inequality.

The government has enlisted the help of a Muslim militia group, the Janjaweed, to aid in quieting rebellion. This alone should lessen any possible arguments that what is taking place is genocide.

There is no argument that the conflict is not violent or that it doesn’t need to end. But part of the original definition of genocide, created after World War II, stipulates that “intent” is necessary for such a classification. The government’s intent is not to destroy a group of people, but to maintain power, which does not qualify as genocide.

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Their Response:

The politics of Darfur are complex. Too often, this complexity has been a crutch for those who argue that the killing and destruction still unfolding in western Sudan does not constitute genocide or does not merit Western intervention. They point out that Darfur’s rebels are not exactly blameless: After all, they note, it was those rebels–not Sudan’s leaders–who ignited the conflict nearly four years ago, and many refused to sign an internationally mediated peace accord last spring. All true. But nowhere is it written that complex conflicts cannot also be genocidal ones. Indeed, it is those who refuse to call the Darfur conflict genocide who seem incapable of dealing with complexity. They cite historical and political factors, as if the mere existence of history and politics in this remote corner of Africa disproves the charge of genocide–as if genocide cannot be committed by those who have complicated political motivations or against those who belong to groups represented on the political stage by unsavory actors. But this is nonsense. That Darfuri rebel groups have committed atrocities does not prove Sudan’s government innocent of committing genocide. That Darfur’s non-Arab tribes desire a greater share of national power and wealth does not change the fact that they are victims of terrible crimes. That the Darfur crisis is partially the result of morally neutral environmental factors does not refute the charge that it is also the result of manmade evil. Blake Tyra’s argument is riddled with this illogic. Unfortunately, he isn’t alone. Certain commentators seem to take special delight in explaining just how complex the Darfur conflict is. Sudan’s leaders are merely trying to hold the country together, they argue. So what? The means Sudan’s leaders have chosen to hold their country together–defeating the Darfur insurgency by altering the region’s demography–are genocidal, and that is the only thing that matters. International law on genocide does not recognize a complexity defense: If leaders order violence with “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” it doesn’t matter whether their motivations for doing so are geopolitically complex. Nor does it matter if the groups they target have complicated ambitions and motivations of their own. Genocide is still genocide. And inaction is still shameful.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Hydee Hawkins, it’s a “national epidemic,” affecting otherwise law-abiding Americans and their children, and is the number one drug that law enforcement battles today.

This was the focus of an hour-long symposium last night in the Small Ballroom of the Student Center for National Methamphetamine Awareness Day. The day was created after President George W. Bush issued a proclamation earlier in November.

“On National Methamphetamine Awareness Day, we underscore the dangers of methamphetamine and reaffirm our collective responsibility to combat all forms of drug abuse,” Bush wrote in a statement.

Hawkins was the speaker at the event. She has been prosecuting meth cases for 15 years.

Three students and eight adults listened to Hawkins as she detailed the physical effects of meth, the basics of meth production and the effects of meth usage and production on children.

Sometimes called the “poor man’s cocaine,” Hawkins said that the effects of meth last for 14 to 16 hours and that the user cannot sleep during that time. She said she has seen many cases of truck drivers using meth because it allows them to drive all night.

“I can’t think of anything worse than an 18-wheeler on the road with a driver that’s under the influence of meth,” she said.

Because of its potency, 99 percent of users are hooked after their first try, Hawkins said. There are 1.5 million regular meth users in the U.S. with one to two labs being discovered each day.

“If you do not stop, if you do not get help, you will die,” Hawkins said.

In addition to death, meth usage can cause blindness, tooth decay and birth defects as well as many other health complications.

Hawkins stressed that meth affects many children.

From 2000 to 2005, 15,000 children were removed by law enforcement from homes with meth labs, she said. Many of these children had been exposed to the chemical fumes used in making meth, but the long-term dangers of such exposure are unknown.

Kentucky is one of 41 states currently restricting the purchase of pseudoephedrine, a common decongestant in cold medicine and a key ingredient in homemade meth production, by placing the medication behind pharmacy counters.

Van Ingram, of the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, expressed doubt over the effectiveness that limiting access to pseudoephedrine is having on meth production.

“Folks who make meth won’t be put off,” he said.

At UK, Holly Hopper coordinates the Drug Endangered Child Training Network and is chairwoman of the Kentucky Alliance for Drug Endangered Children.

Hopper said that she works with the Colleges of Dentistry, Medicine and Public Health, as well as the Kentucky Public Safety Cabinet to help children affected by meth and other drugs.

“We put forth a concerted effort to protect and treat kids,” she said. “We are making progress, but there’s always more to do.”

Undeclared freshman Stephanie Kenney was one of the three students who attended the symposium. She said she went for her UK 101 class.

“I really liked it,” she said. “I didn’t know it was just so easy (to make meth).”