Alternate Thursdays • 10:00 a.m. - noon • Mackey Auditorium
Coordinator: Dick Blake
Open to the Public
The Pasco Report
June 5
Speaker: Jean Pasco, Director of the Orange County Archives and former political writer for the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register
Jean has become a popular speaker at OLLI. We are so pleased to have her speak every semester. Her new title should be Orange County’s First Lady of Politics. Don’t miss her.
Putin’s Russia: Old Wine in New Bottles?
June 19
Speaker: Bob Feldman, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Russian History, CSUFP
It is a great treat to have Dr. Feldman back at OLLI after several years absence. For 25 years, Dr. Feldman was the Director of the Russian and Eastern European Area Studies program at CSUF. The following is a description of his lecture that is truly timely. It takes someone of Dr. Feldman’s background to tell it as it is.
On December 31, 1999 Yeltsin turned power over to Vladimir Putin who two years earlier was an obscure lieutenant colonel in the former KGB.
• What was Putin’s background and why did Yeltsin select him to become the new interim Russian president?
• How, over Putin’s eight years in office, was he able to recentralize authority in the Russian state?
• What role did the war in Chechnya play in Putin’s policies?
• Why is Russia’s economy doing so well?
• Why after two terms in office is Putin’s popularity in all Russian polls over 70 percent?
• How was Putin able to create a new political party a few months before the December 2007 election that won so large a vote and now controls enough seats to amend the constitution?
• What will Putin’s role be in the new government now that he has announced his selection for the next Russian President, his Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev?
• How does Russia’s reemergence on the world political stage impact Russian-American relations?
• Why are there dangerous growing tensions between Russia and the United States?
Can a Woman Be Elected President?
July 3
Speaker: Sandra Sutphen, Professor of Political Science Emerita, CSUF
In mid-March, when this description of her presentation was written, Professor Sutphen believed there was a 50-50 chance that Hillary Rodham Clinton would become the Democratic nominee for president. Professor Sutphen will discuss the current campaign and provide some historical and political context to the questions surrounding women in politics. Truly an important, hot button issue. Be there!
Assimilation and the Challenge to American Institutions
July 17
Speaker: Gerald P. Rosen, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, CSUF
America may be the most pluralistic society in history. Yet, we have been able to avoid some of the most extreme consequences of these divisions and have even managed to derive substantial benefits. From its birth America has had a difficult and complex set of challenges presented by a variety of ethnic, racial and religious groups. An understanding of the power of the assimilation process and how it is facilitated by our political, economic, social and cultural institutions will allow us to explore some of the most important and basic characteristics of our society.
Terrorism – A World in Shadows
July 31
Speaker: Robert Kline, teacher at USC and Chapman University of Political Conflict and Terrorism
Robert Kline will present an overview of the threat and fight against terrorism. This is a return engagement for Robert Kline who presented a program on film on July 24.