The national conversation on immigration is stopped in its tracks by all the shouting and inflammatory rhetoric about the issue, Dr. M. Daniel Carroll Rodas told a Bluffton University audience March 19. But if people, particularly those of faith, start the conversation in a different place, the tone is different, too, he said.
The Bluffton University Art Department will feature the original artwork of two senior students, Sara Richer and Donelle Parker, in an exhibition opening March 29.
Free and open to the public, the exhibit will be on display until April 11 with the exception of April 2-5, when it will be closed for Easter break. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays and 1-5 p.m. weekends in the Sauder Visual Arts Center's Grace Albrecht Gallery.
Tickets go on sale April 1 for Bluffton University's May Day weekend production of "Little Women," a musical adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott novel.
Dr. Melissa Friesen, associate professor and chair of theatre and communication at Bluffton, will direct the show, being staged May 6-8 as part of the university's annual May Day celebration. Curtain time is 8 p.m. in Founders Hall. Tickets, $12 for reserved seats and $5 for bleacher seats, are available by contacting the box office at 419-358-3239 or [email protected].
"Building Peace Relations between Muslims and Christians: Lessons from Ethiopia and the Meserete Kristos Church" is the topic of Bluffton University's C. Henry Smith Forum, at 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 6, in Founders Hall. The event is free and open to the public.
People and their lives should become the focus of the ongoing debate about immigration, Bluffton University's 2009-10 Civic Engagement Scholar argued in a March 16 presentation to a campus audience.
Dr. Paul Neufeld Weaver, assistant professor of education, cited the case of Ad'an, a friend who applied for political asylum in the United States after fleeing Guatemala in 1985.
Twenty-five years later, the case is still unresolved, Weaver said, noting the need to find a compromise to fix "a system that's completely broken" and get people like Ad'an out of limbo.
Bluffton music ministry comes 'Shining Through' on spring-break tour
The 20 Bluffton University undergraduates who comprise Shining Through, a music ministry team, contributed to the Haiti earthquake relief effort during their spring break.
Among the stops on the team's 10-day tour through North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania was the Mennonite Central Committee Material Resource Center, an Akron, Pa., site where items are collected to send to people in need overseas.
