Free Speeches
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Northwestern University history major Conor O’Neil, who grew up in the heady company of his stepfather’s colleagues at the New School for Social Research and the University of Chicago and loves nothing more than the thrill of intellectual discourse, had a brainstorm over Christmas break. He’d create his own, ongoing version of the Chicago Humanities Festival, bringing great speakers to the Northwestern campus every week to engage the public–students or not–in the major issues of our time. And it would all be free! Since O’Neil is a man of action–plus heir to a family fortune he’d rather not identify and stepson to D. Carroll Joynes, who heads up the Cultural Policy Center at the U. of C.–this turned out to be more than wishful thinking. By January, he and a few friends had the Clio Society’s Web site up and running and a venue lined up for most of its events: the auditorium of Northwestern’s new McCormick Tribune Center. An appearance last week by New Republic senior editor John Judis, ostensibly to talk about the “Bush Push” for war (what he actually talked about was his new book, The Emerging Democratic Majority), was the third in a series that O’Neil has booked through the end of the school year. Besides the Clio crew of a half dozen, it attracted an audience of eight.
Bank One Grabs the Lion’s Share
