FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 30, 1999
CONTACT: Lisa Lacher
FORMER SEN. PAUL SIMON TO GIVE BUCKSBAUM LECTURE
Former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois will share his vision of higher education in the new millennium when he gives the Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lecture at Drake University on Thursday, Oct. 7.
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled "Changing Places: Higher Education's Changing Responsibilities at the Turn of the Millennium." The event will start at 8 p.m. in Sheslow Auditorium in Old Main, 26th Street and University Avenue. Following the lecture, there will be a reception and book-signing in Levitt Hall in Old Main
Simon is a professor at Southern Illinois University, where he teaches classes in political science and journalism. He also is director of SIU's Public Policy Institute, which he founded in 1997 to "find new ways of solving some very old problems."
Illinois' former senior U.S. senator has enjoyed a long and distinguished political career. Elected to both the state's House and Senate, he also served a term as lieutenant governor. He spent 10 years in the U.S. House before his 1984 Senate election. His wide-ranging policy interests span such diverse topics as the budget, education, disability policy, foreign affairs, labor as well as television violence.
The leading champion of the new direct college loan program enacted in 1991, Simon also wrote enacted education and job-training laws such as the National Literacy Act and School-to-Work Opportunities Act. He retired from the U.S. Senate when his final term expired Jan. 3, 1997.
Simon became the nation's youngest newspaper editor-publisher at age 19 and went on to build a chain of 13 newspapers in southern and central Illinois. He has written 18 books, three with co-authors, including "P.S.: The Autobiography of Paul Simon (Senator)" and "Tapped Out: The Coming World Crisis in Water and What We Can Do About It," both published in 1998. His many honors include more than 52 honorary degrees.
The Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lecture Series, established at Drake in 1996, is made possible by a gift from Melva and the late Martin Bucksbaum, former chairman and president of General Growth Corp. and a long-time member of Drake's governing board. For more information about Simon's lecture, call (515) 271-3119.