What matters? Conference on World Affairs will talk it over

Annual event at CU-Boulder to feature keynote address by Elizabeth Coleman

The 63rd Annual Conference on World Affairs is set for April 4-8 on the University of Colorado Boulder campus.

The theme of this year's conference is "What Matters." Said CWA Director Jim Palmer, "Given the distractions of modern life and the tsunami of information we're bombarded with daily, it is easy to forget to ask the fundamental questions, the questions of value. That is why our theme, 'What Matters,' matters."

That theme also will serve as the title of this year's keynote address, to be delivered by Elizabeth Coleman, president of Bennington College in Vermont. Coleman, one of the country's leading innovators in higher education, guided Bennington College through a successful, major restructuring in 1994. Under her leadership, the college has experienced record fiscal health and launched new pioneering curricular programs including the ambitious Center for the Advancement of Public Action, which encourages students to put the world's most pressing problems at the center of their education. Coleman also serves on the boards of the European College of Liberal Arts, the Neurosciences Institute and the National Association of Independent Schools.

Coleman's talk will open the CWA at 11:30 a.m. April 4 in Macky Auditorium.

The Conference on World Affairs' opening keynote procession and address is a time-honored tradition in Boulder. Past keynote speakers include Eleanor Roosevelt, Henry Kissinger, Arthur Miller, Charles Krauthammer and Richard Rodriguez. Each year on the Monday morning of CWA week, the keynote speaker leads a procession of university administrators, CWA participants, students and volunteers into Macky, along a sidewalk lined by a brilliant display of international flags.

All Conference on World Affairs sessions are free and open to the public, making the CWA the largest, most accessible event of its kind in the country. Last year's attendance was 92,176 at nearly 200 sessions over five days.
A biographical listing of participants confirmed to date is now online at www.colorado.edu/cwa; the full CWA schedule will be posted by the third week of March.