2013 Florida’s Kids and Alcohol Town Hall Meeting at the Palladium

The Palladium Theater at St. Petersburg College will be the location for the 2013 Florida’s Kids & Alcohol Town Hall Meeting on March 21.

The event, hosted by LiveFree! and WEDU and in partnership with SPC, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Pinellas County Schools, Pinellas Park Police Department, Operation PAR and others, will feature discussion on issues such as underage alcohol use, synthetic marijuana use, prescription drug abuse and the peer pressure young people face regarding drugs and alcohol. This free forum, 2013 Florida’s Kids & Alcohol Partnerships for Success: The Power and Promise of Community, will be taped and broadcast on April 25 at 9 p.m. on WEDU-TV.

“LiveFree! and our partners are thrilled to bring the Town Hall meeting to The Palladium at St. Petersburg College and are hoping for our biggest turn out to date,” said Jackie Griffin, executive director of LiveFree!. “We are looking forward to a spirited and interactive discussion about one of the most important issues affecting kids and teens today.”

The Florida’s Kids and Alcohol series is the longest running, televised town hall meeting in the country, according to organizers.

This year’s moderator is Laura McElroy, who currently works for the Tampa Police Department. Panelists will include: high school students, Griffin, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, health educators and more.

The event starts at 6 p.m. Doors open at 4 p.m. A youth talent and coalition expo will be held earlier that day starting at 4 p.m.

People can send their discussion questions for the town hall meeting to livefree@operpar.org.

To attend and take part in the live taping, RSVP at wedu.org.

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Gov. Bob Graham kicks off Village Square

Gov. Bob Graham delivers the keynote address for the inaugural Village Square event Tuesday night. Check out our Facebook gallery of the event.

Gov. Bob Graham helped kick off the Village Square at St. Petersburg College Tuesday night in a keynote address to almost 200 people in the Seminole Campus Conference Center. The inaugural local event was hosted by the college’s Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions. See our Facebook gallery of the event.

The non-partisan Village Square was co-founded by SPC President Bill Law in Tallahassee as a public educational forum dedicated to maintaining factual accuracy in civic and political debate by fostering civil dialog on divisive issues. This is the second chapter to be formed.

Graham, who served two terms as governor and three terms in the United States Senate, is regarded as one of Florida’s and the nation’s senior statesmen, respected on both sides of the political aisle for his collaborative leadership style and for his 38-year career of public service.

He founded the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida, which helps train the next generation of public leaders by grounding students with a hands-on education in the American political system through internships, seminars, lectures and detailed case studies of public policy issues.

“The challenges for the Village Square and other entities is the state of citizenship,” said Graham, who is spearheading an effort to revive civics instruction in public education. “Citizenship is the only anecdote we have to a dysfunctional democracy.”

As a high school student in Miami in the early 50s, Graham said he took three full years of required civics classes. He said of his 11 grandchildren, only one of them has had more than one semester of civics, as is currently required.

The consequences of this sharp decline is a lack of citizenship, lack of tolerance and lack of a spirit of compromise.” Graham said. “Citizenship is not just a matter of voting, but all those things you do in your community, like getting involved.”

According to a recent civic health index, Florida ranks 46th in the nation in citizenship indicators.

“We’ve got a sick patient and I believe institutions like St. Petersburg College have the potential to be the cauldron for renewed citizenship. State colleges represent a bright star in restoring civic health.”

Public Policy and Administration student Jane Cerulli, one of about 40 students who attended courtesy of the Seminole Student Government Association and the institute, was impressed with the caliber of those in attedance – including local politicians, leaders and educators.

“It’s a great honor to be affiliated with the people in this room,” said Cerulli.

In answering Cerulli’s question about which organizations to get involved in, Graham said she’s already made the first step by enrolling at St. Petersburg College and getting an education.

“This one is very important. From there, find a subject you really care about and get deeply involved in an organization working on that issue,” Graham said. “That will demonstrate your seriousness, passion and commitment and help prepare you for later positions.”

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Public forum on ethics of global citizenship set for Feb. 29 at Seminole Campus

Benjamin Barber

We are all citizens of the world. What does that mean in terms of good citizenship? Are there obligations to our fellow global citizens – ethical behaviors that determine our citizen-worthiness on Planet Earth?

Those issues will be explored in depth by Dr. Benjamin R. Barber, internationally acclaimed scholar, political theorist and lecturer, at the second Ethics Speaker Series event at St. Petersburg College’s Seminole Campus on Feb. 29. The forum, entitled “The Ethics of Global Citizenship: Does It Affect You?”, is jointly sponsored by the SPC’s Applied Ethics Institute, College of Policy and Legal Studies, and Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions, in partnership with the Tampa Bay Times and WUSF Public Media. It is free to SPC students and the general public.

Dr. Barber is the ideal authority to address the issues of global citizenship. He is founder and president of CivWorld, a global interdependence initiative based in New York at Dēmos, a policy, research and advocacy center dedicated to generating new ideas and catalyzing social change to help everyone achieve the American dream. At CivWorld, Dr. Barber oversees projects aimed at raising awareness of the interdependence of global society and fostering transnational and interdependent solutions to global challenges.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he joined a group of intellectuals, political leaders and artists from a dozen nations who wrote a “Declaration of Interdependence” and founded Interdependence Day, observed each year on September 12 to seek alternatives to terrorism. The Declaration opens by stating, “We, the people of the world. . . do pledge ourselves citizens of one CivWorld, civic, civil and civilized,” . . . we recognize our responsibilities to the common goods and liberties of humankind as a whole.”

In addition to his international work, Dr. Barber is a professor of Political Science Emeritus at Rutgers University and former Kekst Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland. He is a frequent commentator in the news media, is the author of 17 books, and has written for several TV series, including the 10-part PBS/BBC series “The Struggle for Democracy.”

The Feb. 29th forum is from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Digitorium at the SPC Seminole Campus, 9200 113th Street N. Advance registration is encouraged to ensure adequate seating. Please register online if you are interested in attending.

For more information, call 727-394-6942.

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Forum on costs, benefits and alternatives of nuclear energy set for Jan. 11

Along with food, water and shelter, energy is among the most essential elements of human life in the modern world. It lights and heats homes, powers transportation, and is essential to commerce. Yet in the post-recession, post-tsunami world of 2012, energy faces a very uncertain future.

A distinguished group of experts will explore that future in a series of free public forums at St. Petersburg College. The first forum in the series, focusing on the future of nuclear energy, will be held from 6-8 p.m. Jan. 11 in the Digitorium of the SPC Seminole Campus, 9200 113^th Street North. Titled Our Energy Future: Are Nukes Still Viable, and Do Lawmakers Get It on Energy?, the forum is presented by SPC’s Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions and co-sponsored by the St. Petersburg Times and WUSF Public Media.

Is there a future for nuclear energy? Nukes have been the focus of heated debate over safety, cost, waste and siting concerns since their inception. That debate got much hotter after the March tsunami in Japan caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Plant. Since then, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and Italy have announced plans to phase out nuclear plants.

Not in Florida. The state’s two largest utilities are seeking permits to add nuclear capacity even as the debate rages over cost and need factors and the perennial concern for safety and waste. Consumer advocates take issue with a state law that allows utilities to charge customers in advance for plants that are years down the road. They also question the need for new plants with per capita energy use declining and argue there are less expensive and less risky ways to meet energy demand. The industry defends its safety record, efficiency factor, and non-polluting benefits.

Debating these and other issues at the forum will be:

• Ellen Vancko, Nuclear Energy and Climate Change Project Manager, Union of Concerned Scientists
• J. R. Kelly, Office of Public Counsel, State of Florida
• Jerry Paul, nuclear engineer and former member of the Florida Legislature, U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee
• Ivan Penn, Staff Writer for the St. Petersburg Times, who has written extensively about nuclear energy issues facing Tampa Bay.

In March, the second forum in the series, will focus on renewable energy and conservation efforts. The third, in April, will assess energy policy from the 2012 session of the Florida Legislature.

The program is free, but advance registration is requested. To register, please visit the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions website. For more information: 727-394-6942.

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Seminole Campus to host Ethics Speaker Series

Is there more to being a good citizen than voting and paying taxes? The Ethics Department of St. Petersburg College will explore that issue in the first of its Ethics Speaker Series at a public forum from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 9 in the Digitorium of the Seminole Campus of SPC, 9200 113^th St. N., Seminole.

The forum, jointly sponsored by the SPC Applied Ethics Institute, School of Public Policy and Administration, and the college’s new Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions, will focus on the ethics of citizenship from local, state and national perspectives. Speakers providing those perspectives will be Pinellas County Tax Collector Diane Nelson, former State Representative Keith Fitzgerald of Sarasota, and former Congressman Mike Bilirakis of Tarpon Springs. Following presentations by the speakers, students and the general public will have a chance to pose questions in a free-ranging question-and-answer session.

The forum seeks to spark introspection about citizenship at a time when many Americans seem to have lost interest in civic affairs, either because of the hectic pace of modern life or else disgust with the current state of political engagement. Among the issues that will be addressed are:

• Federal benefits such as Social Security and Medicare: Are they “entitlements” that weaken the national spirit or contribute to the strength of its social fabric?
• Personal responsibility: Where does individual choice end and the greater public good begin?
• Do citizens have an ethical obligation to vote and pay taxes?
• Should citizens hold their public officials to a higher standard in their personal and professional conduct – including putting the public good ahead of partisan politics?

“In an age where many people seem to have lost interest in even knowing how their own elected officials are voting on legislation that will directly impact them, it is vital to open a dialogue with leaders and the public,” said Dr. Laurie King of the SPC Ethics Faculty, who will be a moderator of the forum. “Democracy is a form of government run by the people. It they are not participating, then who is really running our country?”

The program is free and open to all students as well as the general public. Advance registration is encouraged to ensure adequate seating. Please RSVP to: policysolutionsinstitute@spcollege.edu. For more information, phone Dr. King at 727-394-6035, or Krista Fusari at 727-394-6942.

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Health care plan forum at Seminole Campus May 25

The Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions at St. Petersburg College will host the final in a series of three forums discussing the truths and myths of the federal Health Care Plan on Wednesday, May 25.

The event, which focuses on quality improvement and patient safety, includes two 30-minute presentations by professionals in the health care field. The presentations will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

Speakers include Steve Mason, president and CEO of BayCare, a community-based health care system in the Tampa Bay area with more than 18,500 employees; and Martha DeCastro, Vice President for Nursing with the Florida Hospital Association (FHA), a state association that represents more than 165 hospitals and healthcare systems, as well as 1,750 professional members.

The free event is open to the public and will be from 6-8 p.m. at the Seminole Campus, 9200 113^th Street, N., in the Digitorium (UP Bldg, Room 160).

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