TLU News

Texas Lutheran University Krost Symposium to address Income Inequality

October 28th, 2009

Barbara Ehrenreich

SEGUIN, TEXAS – Texas Lutheran University’s 30th annual Krost Symposium, which is free and open to the public, will feature presentations and discussion about the issue of working class poverty in the United States.  The symposium, “Two Americas – Income Inequality,” will be held Nov. 18-19 in Jackson Auditorium on the TLU campus.

Keynote speaker Barbara Ehrenreich will deliver the symposium’s Frank Giesber Lecture at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 18. Journalist, historian, and social critic, Ehrenreich has authored 14 books and will base her lecture on her New York Times bestseller Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.

Nickel and Dimed, a trenchant examination of working-class poverty that chronicles Ehrenreich's own attempt to live on minimum wage, is now required reading at more than 600 colleges and universities, including Texas Lutheran University’s freshmen experience class this fall.

A frequent contributor to Harper's and The Nation, Ehrenreich has been a columnist for the New York Times and Time magazine. In 2004, she received the Nation Institute/Puffin Foundation Prize for Creative Citizenship, given annually to an American who challenges the status quo "through distinctive, courageous, imaginative, socially responsible work of significance." Ehrenreich's latest book, This Land is Their Land, a collection of her published columns, was released in paperback in April 2009.  Ehrenreich lives near Washington, DC.

On Thursday, Nov. 19 at 9:30 a.m. in Jackson Auditorium, the Krost Symposium will continue with an open forum Q&A with Ehrenreich, encouraging student and audience interaction with the author.

Following, at 10:30 a.m., a panel discussion on income inequality issues will be moderated by Dr. Justin Dubas, TLU assistant professor of economics. Panel participants will be Hal Adams, Don Baylor, Susan Mika and Carolyn J. Newman.

Adams lives in Boerne and is employed by Valero Retail Holdings, a subsidiary of Valero Energy that owns and operates 1000 convenience stores in the Southwest. As vice president, retail merchandising, he is responsible for marketing consumer goods and services, advertising and public relations for the Corner Store brand, growing the Fresh Choices line of proprietary and fresh foods, and managing the company-owned distribution center.

Baylor is a senior policy analyst for economic opportunity at the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP) in Austin, where he focuses on workforce and economic development.  The CPPP has been a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization committed to improving public policies and private practices to better the economic and social conditions of low- and moderate-income Texans.

Mika works with the Socially Responsible Investment Coalition (SRIC), a non-profit religiously sponsored organization headquartered in San Antonio. Institutions and individuals belonging to SRIC work to balance their economic policies and practices with their fair and social concerns. Mika’s recent work includes fairness of CEO compensation compared to worker pay and working conditions.

Newman, CPA, CISA, brings more than 25 years of experience in public accounting, auditing and consulting to her role as president of Audimation Services, Houston. In 1992, Newman co-founded Audimation to provide professional support and training to IDEA users across the U.S. She is active in a number of professional organizations, including the Executive Advisory Council for the TLU business department.

In conjunction with the 2009 Krost Symposium, TLU will present a dramatic media production of Nickel and Dimed.  Joan Holden’s stage adaptation is a focused comic epic shadowed with tragedy. The play shows the life a third of working Americans now lead.  Performances will be in Jackson Auditorium at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 17 and Nov. 19, and at 3 p.m. on Nov. 20.

For more information about the Krost Symposium visit www.tlu.edu/krost.

Founded in 1891, Texas Lutheran is an exclusively undergraduate university of the liberal arts, sciences and professional studies located in Seguin.  For more information, visit the university’s Web site at www.tlu.edu.

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