USD Magazine Fall 2006

Bidding farewell to the univer- sity this past August was Depart- ment of Art Chair David B. Smith, who also served as special assis- tant to the provost. Smith, who’s been a USD faculty member since 1997, will become the new presi- dent of Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. The school is described as “Canada’s premier university dedicated to advancing the visual arts.” The IPJ’s Joyce Neu will be taking a leave of absence from her post of executive director to be a senior fellow at the U.S. Insti- tute of Peace inWashington, D.C., an “independent, nonpartisan, national institution established and funded by Congress.”Among its goals are the prevention and resolution of violent international conflicts and increasing world- wide peacebuilding tools. In Neu’s absence —which will occur from Oct. 1, 2006 through July 31, 2007 — the IPJ’s deputy director, Dee Aker, will serve as interim director. Early riser turned CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric was on campus in mid-July as part of a cross-country “listening tour” that found the incoming CBS nightly news anchor conducting meetings in various towns, with an aim toward finding out what regular folks want from their network news programs. Around 125 San Diegans attend- ed the event, which was held at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice. Esteemed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spent the last weekend of August at the USD School of Law as a Distin- guished Jurist-in-Residence. Scalia took his seat on the Supreme Court in 1986, after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan. [ etc . ]

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ALL WE ARE SAYING Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice marks five years of striving for peace

P eace. It’s a feeling of tran- quility, a sense of calm that descends upon visitors from the first moment they walk through the doors of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice. The distinctive building has taken on a life of its own, bringing people and organizations with a common vision to the University of San Diego campus. Inside, a staff that’s grown from four to 15 has spent five years on groundbreaking work that aims to foster peace, cultivate justice and create a safer world, to paraphrase the IPJ’s mission statement. “This building seems to be a little bit of a mecca for people,” says Executive Director Joyce Neu. “I think for us to treat this space as special — and it is —means that when people come here, they feel special. That was part of Joan Kroc’s vision.” It was Kroc’s $25 million gift to the university in 1998 that laid the roots for the IPJ. But it was with the building’s dedication five years ago this fall — a conference that featured former President Jimmy Carter — that the institute itself began to take shape. Kroc wanted the institute not just to incite action, but to do so on a professional level. “One of her visions for our institute was that we provide young people with better tools, and that we actually do some- thing about the problems that existed,”Neu remembers. On the latter charge, the IPJ has worked to provide training, mediation and other services to promote peace in countries like Nepal, Uganda and Rwanda. Closer to home, education efforts target the USD community by Kelly Knufken

and beyond through the speak- ers, films and other events host- ed by the IPJ. The Women PeaceMakers effort has been one of the IPJ’s more visible programs, bringing in four women each year to reflect on the work they do in their own countries. The pro- gram’s third annual conference from Oct. 18-20 will delve into the role women can have in peacekeeping, government and other sectors. The Joan B. Kroc Distinguished Lecture Series provides another visible forum for weighty issues. This fall’s scheduled speaker, Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi of Iran, is an outspoken proponent of human rights. Indeed, Ebadi was threatened with arrest in Iran in recent months. The institute has developed affiliations with dozens of organiza- tions, including the United Nations Women PeaceMakers, through our work in Nepal and Uganda, USD has a presence in countries that normally it wouldn’t,”Neu says. USD students involved with IPJ learn about human rights, conflict assessment and mediation of international conflicts. “Exposure to this field is not easy to get,”Neu says. “I think the IPJ helps open doors for a lot of the USD community — students and our interns — in terms of their future careers.” At the tender age of five, the IPJ is already living up to Kroc’s vision, which she articulated during the building’s dedication: “This is a place not just to talk about peace, but to make peace.” Economic and Social Council. “Through our status at the United Nations, through the

RODNEY NAKAMOTO

“My sense of humor.” Then he pauses, and reconsiders. “Wait. If you put that in the magazine, people might meet me and say, ‘Hmph. He’s not as funny as he thinks he is’.”

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