Spring Break
MU hosts conference on homeless
Jim Trombley, For The Miami Student
Issue date: 11/16/04 Section: Campus
Miami University's Center of American and World Cultures (CAWC) hosted the "Homeless in the World: A Human Rights Perspective" conference last Friday and Saturday at the Shriver Center.The conference welcomed 68 organizations from all over the world whose mission is to combat homelessness, refugee problems, modern-day slavery and other human rights issues. The conference also featured eight guest speakers including Don Whitehead, director of the National Coalition for the Homeless; Steve Walker, from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services; and Katherine O'Donnell, professor and chair of the department of sociology at Hartwick College.Cynthia Bogard, associate professor of sociology at Hofstra University gave the plenary address."I originally planned to include the values in my lecture, but on a smaller scale," Bogard said. "But after seeing how the election was weighed on moral values I decided to put more emphasis on that part of my speech."Numerous students and faculty members showed up for Friday morning's lecture sessions and many stayed to explore the afternoon's information booths and film series, making the conference an overall success according to Mary Jane Berman, director of the CAWC."I was very pleased with the turnout," Berman said. "At a couple points during the lectures there wasn't an empty seat in the house."The second day of the conference included a field trip to Miami's Center for Community Engagement (CCE) in Over-the-Rhine Saturday morning. Students and faculty members observed how the CCE, a project developed by professor of architecture and interior design Thomas Dutton, functioned first hand with the help of Miami students and other community volunteers. After its conception in 2002 as a way for teaching students how to design, build and incorporate low income housing in urban neighborhoods, the CCE has since evolved into a center that intertwines urban issues, sociology, education and architecture into an interconnected, multi-faceted framework."After we started, the students pushed for greater engagement in the community," Dutton said. "Now we push for that deeper understanding of the community with a multi-disciplinary focus."Each individual who rode the bus made a $5 minimum contribution with much more coming over the course of the weekend, helping make the trip a great financial gain for the CCE in terms of donations."We are all responsible for each other," junior Joe Khalil said. "We often get caught up with what party we are going to go to instead of looking at people who don't even have basic essentials."
