Kicking off the first of a three part guest lecturer series on terrorism, Catherine O'Neill, director of the United Nations Information Center in Washington, discussed statements made by Secretary Kofi Annan and measures adopted by the U.N. Security Council last Wednesday.
"In the weeks since the terrorist attacks, the U.N. has been a focal point in galvanizing the world community to adopt agreed standards and practices to fight what [Annan] called a crime against humanity," O'Neill said in front of about 20 students and staff members in Logan Hall.
Administrators said they wanted to provide specialized information to students on the recent terrorist events through programs like the one last week, but students had other ideas in mind.
Before O'Neill began, Bruce Newsome, activities advisor of the International Relations Program stated the main goal of the event.
"Terrorism is not a strong research area at Penn, and Penn's reaction to the Sept. 11 events was not particularly intellectual," Newsome said. "And our activities are geared toward bringing in speakers from off campus that are not well covered on campus."
But about 20 minutes into O'Neill's lecture, rather than raise questions about the events of Sept. 11, students wondered how the U.N. was handling specific issues regarding Israel and Russia as well as human rights.
Motivated students actively delved into the conflict involving Israel and the recent happenings at the United Nation's World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.
Frank Plantan, associate director of Penn's International Relations Program, showed his frustration and eventually spoke out, trying to steer both the students and the lecturer back on topic.
However, students persisted, asking more general questions regarding terrorism in countries such as Russia and China.
O'Neill responded by explaining that many countries such as Russia, India and China are fighting their own battles against terrorism.
There are two parts left in the series -- a terrorist crisis role-playing simulation on Oct. 29, followed by RAND Institute Senior Political Scientist Ian Lesser on Nov. 1.
