NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Journalist Lou Dobbs, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former U.S. Representative Harold Ford Jr. will deliver public lectures at Vanderbilt University March 19-21 as part of the university‘s annual Impact Symposium.
Dobbs will speak Monday, March 19, at 7 p.m., Gingrich will speak Tuesday, March 20, at 7 p.m. and Ford will speak Wednesday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. The lectures will be held at Vanderbilt‘s Student Life Center.
Tickets to each of the lectures are free to Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff. Tickets will be available to Vanderbilt students only now through March 3. Only one free ticket may be picked up per student with Vanderbilt identification card at the university‘s Sarratt Student Center box office. Beginning March 3, tickets will be available to Vanderbilt faculty and staff – only one free ticket may be picked up per employee with Vanderbilt identification card at the Sarratt box office.
Non-Vanderbilt students and the general public may also purchase tickets beginning March 3. Non-Vanderbilt students with their college or university identification cards may purchase tickets for $5 at the Sarratt box office or any Ticketmaster outlet. General public tickets are $10 at Sarratt box office or any Ticketmaster outlet.
Dobbs is the Emmy award-winning anchor and managing editor of CNN‘s Lou Dobbs Tonight. He also anchors a nationally syndicated financial news radio report, The Lou Dobbs Financial Report, and is a columnist for Money magazine and U.S. News and World Report. His most recent book, published in October 2006, is War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back.
Gingrich is well-known as the architect of the “Contract with America” that led the Republican Party to victory in 1994 by capturing the majority in the U.S. House for the first time in 40 years. He served as speaker of the house from 1994 to 1998.
Following his life as an elected official, Gingrich has become a highly sought after public speaker. He is a news and political analyst for Fox News Channel and chairman of Gingrich Group, a communications and consulting firm with offices in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He has published nine books including the best sellers Contract with America, To Renew America and Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America. His most recent book, published in October 2006, is Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation‘s History and Future.
Ford spent a decade in Congress before losing his bid for a Senate seat last year. He served five terms in the House of Representatives and was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate and fiscally conservative Democrats that has built a reputation for promoting positions that bridge the gap between ideological extremes. He is currently a visiting professor of public policy at Vanderbilt where he teaches a class on American political leadership. He was recently named chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council and vice chairman and senior policy adviser for Merrill Lynch and Co. Inc.
This year‘s Impact Symposium continues a long-standing tradition at Vanderbilt. Impact, one of the oldest university lecture series of its caliber in the nation, began in 1964 when a group of Vanderbilt students saw the need to increase the campus‘s exposure to current issues by providing a symposium in which intellectually challenging – and sometimes controversial – speakers could be heard.
In 1968, the series passed a milestone when Robert Kennedy drew a record attendance of 16,000 people from more than 100 college delegations across the United States. Over the years, successive Impact programs have brought speakers such as George McGovern, Robert McNamara, Jesse Jackson, former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to campus.
For more news about Vanderbilt, visit VUCast – Vanderbilt‘s News Network at www.vanderbilt.edu/news.
Media contact: Princine Lewis, 615-322-NEWS
princine.l.lewis@vanderbilt.edu