State Department officials' visit to cover rebuilding Iraq

State Department officials' visit to cover rebuilding Iraq (9/22/2003)

Officials from the U.S. Department of State will conduct a two-day foreign policy program Sept. 29 and 30 in Muncie culminating with a national town meeting focusing on rebuilding Iraq.

The highlights of the visit include:

Sept. 29: 9 a.m. assembly with high school students at Muncie Central Auditorium. Stephen Buck, retired foreign service officer, will meet with students from Burris Laboratory School, Muncie Central and Muncie Southside high schools. The assembly will be broadcast to high schools around the country.
Sept. 30: Noon town briefing with Philip Reeker, State Department deputy spokesman, at Muncie's Radisson Hotel Roberts.
Sept. 30: 4 p.m. national town meeting with Kamal Beyoghlow, professor and State Department research scholar, at Ball State's Emens Auditorium. Open to the public and will be broadcast to universities across the country.

The speakers, including Buck, will be available to the media from 2 to 3 p.m. Sept. 30 at the Radisson Hotel Roberts and again at 5:30 to 6 p.m. at Emens Auditorium.

The State Department's visit will include a series of panel discussions covering issues related to the Middle East. A complete agenda of events can be found at www.bsu.edu/international/gap-iaw. Engaging students on many topics was one of the goals of the event, said Cyrus Reed, Ball State's assistant provost for international education.

"Students will gain firsthand knowledge on how the United States interacts with the rest of the world," Reed said. "They'll be able to have open discussions with the Department of State regarding the rebuilding and or occupation of Iraq and many other important issues."

Guest speaker biography briefs:

Beyoghlow is a seasoned foreign policy speaker and the resident scholar in the public liaison office. Beyoghlow, who is fluent in Arabic, is an expert is U.S. policy toward the Middle East and lectures on political violence and terrorism at George Mason University.
Reeker began his foreign service career in 1992 as an assistant information officer in Budapest, Hungary. Fluent in Hungarian, Macedonian and German, Reeker now oversees the office of press relations, regional media outreach and the foreign press centers.
Buck has extensive knowledge in trade promotion from his experience overseeing multiple diplomatic posts in the Arab world. He received the Presidential Performance award for overseeing the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad through Irangate revelations, weekly Iranian missile attacks, the Iraqi attack on the USS Stark, and negotiations ending the Iran/Iraq war.

Ball State is hosting the State Department as part of the Global Access Project (GAP), a foreign policy program sponsored by the Department of State and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).

(Note to Editors: For more information, contact Reed at (765) 285-2160 or cyrusreed@bsu.edu.)

By Layne Cameron, Media Relations Manager