Last Thursday evening, the First-Year Experience (FYE) program sponsored the second “Students’ Forum” lecture with support from the very popular and successful Open VISIONS Forum at the University.  Fareed Zakaria, journalist and author, regular contributor to Newsweek magazine, editor of Newsweek International, and host of his own show on CNN, was the speaker.

Prior to the public lecture which drew approx. 650+ in the Quick Center’s Kelley Theatre, I had the pleasure of attending a private dinner for Mr. Zakaria.  About a dozen or so freshmen in Dr. Patton’s Intro. to Comparative Politics class were invited and came to the dinner.  They had read Mr. Zakaria’s latest book, The Post-American World, in class and were prepared (well, some more than others!) for a discussion on some of the themes.  Two juniors and a senior - who were selected to ask questions of Mr. Zakaria during a portion of the formal event - were also at the dinner.  I sat next to a junior who is an RA and also involved with the student newspaper.  He was doing the introduction of Mr. Zakaria.

What a great event!  Mr. Zakaria was engaging, open to any question the students wanted to ask, and asked a couple of questions back to the students.  I had read his book in the past couple of weeks and unlike some authors who tend to repeat points or phrases from their recent book they are promoting, Mr. Zakaria didn’t even mention his book that I can recall.  Instead, he talked about what the students were interested in.  After dinner, he sat for a brief interview by the student-run HAM television channel.

All in all, the “Students’ Forum” lived up to its billing.  It was designed for students, saw them involved in a variety of ways, and drew a large student crowd.  Given the historic presidential election taking place and the current world situation, what a special treat it was for Fairfield to welcome back (he spoke on campus in 2002 as well) a man of Mr. Zakaria’s stature, experience, perspective, and intellect.