Forbes, Beebe Stress Global Education at Inauguration
April 15, 2008
More than 530 people came to hear former presidential candidate Steve Forbes speak at a breakfast at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort celebrating the inauguration of Westmont’s eighth president, Gayle Beebe. Forbes spoke about “America’s Economy and the Global Imperative,” declaring that the world is in the midst of a Golden Age. The breakfast kicked off a day of events.
“Never before in human history have so many advanced financially,” Forbes says. “Despite the recent hits on the stock market, it’s still 60 percent higher than it was five years ago.”
Westmont’s annual Fringe Festival, a week-long gala of contemporary theater and dance, returns to campus Tuesday, April 15 through Saturday, April 19. Seventeen original productions by students and faculty fill four performance bills. The public is invited to nightly performances in and around Porter Theatre Tuesday through Friday at 7 and 9 p.m., and a marathon performance Saturday beginning at 4 p.m.
Theater student Zak Landrum presents an interactive performance, “Redemption History III: Ecclesia,” for his senior production Sunday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Westmont’s Murchison Gym. With over a dozen student and faculty actors, the Westmont Gospel Choir, live orchestral music, and video projections, the play tells the story of the Christian church from Pentecost to the Apocalypse.
Three quartets of Westmont string students perform an Instrumental Chamber Concert Friday, April 11, at 8 p.m. in Deane Chapel on lower campus. The free concert features new and rarely heard gems alongside traditional repertoire pieces.
Westmont inaugurates Gayle D. Beebe, its eighth president, Friday, April 11, with a day of events and lectures focusing on “The Global Imperative: Education and the Knowledge Society in the 21st Century.” With the exception of the afternoon panel discussions, all events are by invitation only and require a ticket.
Susan Penksa, Westmont associate professor of political science, will draw on her extensive consulting work with the U.S., NATO, EU and the U.N. in a free lecture, “International (In)security: U.S. and EU Approaches to Fighting Terrorism and Crime,” Thursday, April 10, at 5:30 p.m. at the University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara St. Penksa will highlight the security challenges confronting the United States and Europe and recommend ways to improve the success of rule of law and security reform efforts.