SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY NEWS

Contact: Funda Alp, 203-396-8241, alpf@sacredheart.edu

For Immediate Release
May 16, 2007

SHU HOSTS “WOMEN AS AGENTS OF CHANGE” FORUM ON MAY 30

FAIRFIELD, Conn. —Throughout history women have played a significant role in shaping the world, some through unintended acts of courage like that of Rosa Parks, who refused to relinquish her seat on a bus in the segregated South, which catapulted forward the civil rights movement, to deliberate acts of courage like that of Betty Williams, who walked door to door in Northern Ireland appealing to Catholic and Protestant mothers to end decades of bloodshed in favor of peaceful coexistence.

The ways in which women improve the world and contribute to gains in their own communities will be examined in a public history forum titled “Women as Agents of Change: The Law, Education and Society … from Brown v ... To No Child Left Behind” at Sacred Heart University’s Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts, May 30, 4-7 PM.

All interested teachers, students and members of the public are invited to attend this free event, at which Elaine Jones, an attorney and retired director of the Legal Defense Fund for the NAACP will deliver the keynote address, followed by a panel discussion on the impact women have made in the struggle for human rights.

Panelists include Dr. Irene Cornish, Superintendent of the Stratford School District; Dr. Ann Clark, Superintendent of the Fairfield School District; Dr. Edna Vega, Director of Implementation, New York Educational Initiative (for minorities) and Amanda Johnson, Project Strong, Bridgeport, Conn.

“I think it’s very important for the community at large to see that women are in all kinds of roles of responsibility. I think it’s important for young women who are coming up, but I think it’s also important for men to see there are capable women that are moving into all aspects of authority and we are affecting change. That has an impact on the way men view women and hopefully the way younger men and boys will view women in the future,” Cornish said.

The forum is sponsored by Sacred Heart University’s College of Education & Health Professions, the Stratford School District and New Haven’s Teaching American History Project: The Story of American Freedom.

The forum will conclude with a complimentary wine and cheese reception.

Reservations are required and can be made by sending an e-mail to Beverly Birch at birchb@sacredheart.edu.

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About Sacred Heart University
Sacred Heart University, the second-largest Catholic university in New England, offers more than 40 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs on its main campus in Fairfield, Connecticut, and satellites in Connecticut, Luxembourg and Ireland. Approximately 5,800 students attend the University’s four colleges: Arts & Sciences; Education & Health Professions; University College; and the AACSB-accredited John F. (Jack) Welch College of Business. The Princeton Review includes SHU in its “Best 366 Colleges: 2008,” U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges 2007” ranks SHU in the top tier of Master’s Universities in the Northeast, and Intel rates it #11 among the nation’s most “unwired” campuses. SHU fields 32 division I athletic teams, and has an award-winning program of community service. www.sacredheart.edu

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