University of Colorado Associate Professor Timothy Weston said in a news release that it’s important for people to engage and discuss the current political climate of American society, leading him to organize an event Tuesday on Boulder’s campus.
Buffs United will host Engaged Citizenship: A Teach-In, at the University of Colorado’s UMC West Ballroom starting at 11 a.m.
The event is free and open to the public. It will consist of two roundtable discussions, each followed by a Q&A.
“My hope is to get people to consider themselves to have a responsibility to be educated and involved in issues of their local community, the state level, the national level, but also very importantly, at the global level,” said Weston, an associate professor in the Department of History.
“My great concern too is with what I think is a very diseased public discourse in our country. These are extremely negative attacks on people, there’s a lack of seriousness, and a tremendous amount of dishonesty coming from certain kinds of political figures, mostly Donald Trump’s administration.”
Other members of the CU faculty will speak on different issues, such as immigration law, responsibility of the media and free speech.
The teach-in is intended to provide information to the public about recent initiatives taken by the Trump administration.
Violeta Chapin, associate clinical professor of law, is one of the several guest speakers presenting during the first half of the event. She will focus on immigration law under Trump.
“I’m specifically talking with respect to immigration, and I imagine I will spend some time talking about the recent developments around the executive order known as the Muslim ban,” Chapin said.
She will also be discussing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival. DACA is an immigration program created under the Obama administration back in 2012, which allows certain immigrants to stay in the United States if they entered as minors.
Trump has threatened to eliminate this policy several times. There are several students attending CU that fall under this category and now fear their residence status is at risk. Chapin will talk about the potential risks students may suffer if DACA gets revoked.
Sarah Krakoff, professor of law, Wolf-Nichol Fellowship, will start off the second half of the teach-in at 12:30 p.m. and will present on environmental issues and alternative facts. Her focus will be on the government’s current position on matters such as climate change while giving it a historical perspective.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
