Ithaca College's chapter of STAND, the national student anti-genocide coalition -- in conjunction with Cornell University’s anti-genocide group, STARS -- will host "Dream for Darfur: A Two-Day Academic Symposium on the World's Darkest Olympics" on Saturday, April 5, and Monday, April 7.
Events on April 5 will feature speeches by Adam Sterling, director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force and star of the documentary Darfur Now, and Mohamed Yahya, executive director of the Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy. The speakers will be at Ithaca College in Textor Hall 102 at noon. At 2:30 p.m., they will speak at Cornell at the HEC Auditorium, Goldwin Smith.
The symposium culminates on April 7 with a visit and speech from internationally acclaimed New York Times columnist and Darfur activist Nicholas Kristof. Kristof will speak at Cornell in the Anabel Taylor Hall auditorium at 4:30 p.m. and at Ithaca College in Textor Hall 102 at 6:30 p.m.
The speakers will emphasize the constructive role that China can play in ending the ongoing atrocities in Darfur, Sudan. The symposium is tied to a national movement called the Dream for Darfur Olympic Torch Relay, which has also traveled internationally to countries with a history of genocide and mass atrocities, and aims to urge China -- as Sudan's chief diplomatic sponsor, major weapons provider, and largest foreign investor and trade partner, and as host of the 2008 Summer Olympics -- to use its unique position to lead the world in bringing an end to the ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis in Darfur. The symposium will shine a light on the role that China can and must play to ensure that the violence and suffering in Darfur come to an end.
The symposium is funded in part by the SAFC, Cornell University Near Eastern Studies Department, the Bartels Family, Cornell University Peace Studies Program, Cornell University Office of the Vice Provost, Cornell Hillel, Ithaca College Residence Hall Association, Ithaca College Student Government Association, Ithaca College Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, and the Division of Student Affairs and Campus Life.
For more information, please e-mail STAND at stand@ithaca.edu.
