On Sunday evening, June 5th, the Cazenovia Forum hosted a lively presentation of “The Ivory Tower Half Hour”, a weekly Friday night public affairs television program broadcast in Central New York on PBS affiliate WCNY. The event was held at Johnny Appleseed Farm, a lovely and comfortable setting for the Forum’s fundraiser.
The Ivory Tower panel addressed three critical current issues with their usual smart, thoughtful analysis and commentary. They debated the pros and cons of the NYS Legislature passing a law that would allow the public the power to recall elected officials from office. They also examined the question of fairness when in many states, college or university admissions committees can deny a potential student admission to the college or university because he or she has a felony record. Finally, the panel tackled the enormously complicated problem of the U.S. Government’s budget deficit.. The panel ended their presentation by giving their personal F’s and A’s to deserving newsmakers of the week. The audience responded with instantaneous applause to many of the choices, especially the F’s.
The distinguished Ivory Tower panelists, Kristi Andersen from S.U.’s Maxwell School, Tim Byrnes of Colgate University, Lisa Dolac from S.U.’s College of Law, Bob Greene of Cazenovia College, Tara Ross, from OCC, Bob Spitzer from SUNY Cortland, and moderator David Rubin, former Dean of the Newhouse School at S. U., also readily answered many questions from the audience about how the program works, how they prepare for the show each week, and how they arrived at the name of the program. The panel was altogether engaging, articulate, and delightful which made the entire evening a huge success. Comments by several people attending the event were, “This was the best fund raiser we’ve ever been to!” and “The evening was interesting AND fun!”
Cindy Sutton, for the Cazenovia Forum
