04-19-06

Newt Gingrich to address Iowa State globalization course

AMES, Iowa -- Newt Gingrich -- speaker of the U.S. House from 1995 to 1999 and Time magazine's 1995 "Man of the Year" -- will address an Iowa State University globalization class.

Gingrich's lecture, "American Strategies for Success in Competing with China and India in a Globalized World Market," will be 10:45 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, April 28, in the Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium in Iowa State's Howe Hall.

The lecture is free and open to the public. An electronic audio and video recording of Gingrich's lecture will be available on the Internet through iTunes on the afternoon of April 28. Information and links are available at http://www.ede.iastate.edu/iTunes.asp.

Gingrich will address Iowa State's Technology, Globalization and Culture class taught by Jim Bernard, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor of Engineering, and Mark Rectanus, a Professor of German Studies in the Department of World Languages and Cultures.

The course for seniors and graduate students uses guest speakers to examine the present and future impacts of globalization and prepare students for leadership roles in diverse professional, social and cultural settings. This spring's speakers included Robert Reich, former secretary of labor in the Clinton Administration; Vance Coffman, retired chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corp.; Jim Duderstadt, president emeritus of the University of Michigan; and Pietra Rivoli, author of "The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy."

Bernard said Gingrich will provide the 140 students of the class with a political perspective on globalization.

"We want people in front of our students who have an influential and sophisticated world view, people with the experience and the profile to give our students as good an introduction as we can give them to globalization," Bernard said. "There are many points of view on these matters and we do our best to introduce our students to the important ones."

Gingrich led 1994's "Contract with America" policy agenda that helped the Republicans win control of the U.S. House for the first time since 1952. Since leaving Congress in 1999, Gingrich has been an author, public speaker, political analyst for the FOX News Channel and chairman of the Gingrich Group, a communications and consulting firm with offices in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

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