AU to host Latino youth conference
American University’s Latino and American Student Organization will host the first Latino Youth Conference Saturday for Washington-area Latino youth.
“Leading the World into the Next Millennium and Beyond” will focus on preparing Latino youth for the next millennium. The conference will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on AU’s campus.
Among the topics discussed at the conference will be the history of Latinos, diminishing stereotypes and enacting immigration reform laws. The conference also will feature a career fair.
AU’s Latino and American Student Organization serves as a resource for the university’s Latino community and educates other students about the culture and heritage of the Americas, according to a press release.
All local high school and college students are invited to attend the conference. For more information, call Orjaria Izquierdo at 885-7963.
-Becky Neilson
GW to host poetry reading
GW will host a poetry reading featuring African-American poets Thursday at 8 p.m. in Funger Hall room 108.
Cornelius Eady, Toi Derricotte and E. Ethelbert Miller, local poets from the Cave Canem African-American Writers Workshop, will read poetry.
The group’s poetry “overflows with jazz and blues like a rhythmic journey through the African-American landscape,” according to a University press release.
Derricotte and Eady founded the Cave Canem writing retreat in 1996. The retreat was created in appreciation of African-American culture.
Thursday’s reading is sponsored by the Jenny McKean Moore fund. The fund provided 11 scholarships to poets from the D.C. area. Admission is free.
-Steven Postal
Former GW professor receives award
GW awarded its President’s Medal to former physiology professor M. Elizabeth Tidball Wednesday.
In 1970, Tidball was the first woman professor of physiology hired in GW’s medical school. She joined the medical center in 1960 as an associate professor, according to a University press release.
In November 1998, she published her book Taking Women Seriously: Lessons and Legacies for Educating the Majority.
After serving as a professor emeritus of physiology in 1994, she became co-director of the Tidball Center for the Study of Educational Environments at Hood College.
Tidball has received 17 honorary doctorate degrees. The Board of the Women’s College Coalition honored her in 1998.-Steven Postal
LGBA changes name to GW Pride
The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alliance voted in February to officially change its name to GW Pride after three years of debate.
Former LGBA President Jason Anthony said members have criticized the LGBA, which stresses equality for students of any sexual orientation, for endorsing a name that excludes transgendered, transsexual and straight students.
When the LGBA’s first transgendered member expressed feelings of exclusion in 1996, debate began between members loyal to the 30-year-old name and those who desired a more inclusive label, Anthony said.
Students who had been involved with the LGBA for a number of years argued that changing its name would hinder the group’s tradition. Others said they felt GW’s only support organization for gay, bisexual, transgendered and transsexual students should follow a recent University trend toward more inclusive names, Anthony said.
“The queer community is so diverse that the name left out many people, including straight allies,” said Patrick Moloughney, GW Pride’s executive co-chair.
A group of graduate students unwilling to include straight people in the organization comprised a strong force against the name change in the past, Moloughney said.
The name debate continued after 1996, while similar student groups at universities around the country adopted more general names. An effort to change the group’s name to “GW Spectrum” was rejected after heated debate in 1997.
When the issue arose again last fall, students were more responsive than in past years, Anthony said.
“This year, they have a strong group of people who really wanted to change the name,” Anthony said. “With fresh blood comes fresh ideas.”
-Russ Rizzo
