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LAWRENCE -- As part of the U.S. Army's International Officer Information Program, future military leaders attending the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth will visit the University of Kansas Feb. 12. There they will explore the First Amendment and the role of a free media in a democracy.
The program at KU for 89 military officers from 79 countries will start at 8:45 a.m. at the Kansas Union. Faculty from KU's William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications will lay out for the officers the relationship of advertising to news and of a private media to government, according to Thomas Volek, associate professor of journalism and co-coordinator of the daylong program. Mock press conferences are part of the day's program.
"While attending CGSC, the international officers experience many facets of American life and culture including its people, political systems and academic institutions such as the University of Kansas," said Maj. Bill Dickey, public affairs officer at the Command and General Staff College. "The time they spend in the U.S. and visiting such places as Lawrence, Kansas, and the university will have a lasting impact upon on how they view and ultimately support U.S. foreign policy objectives."
The officers also will be briefed by two former military officers who work in the private sector. George Norton, a public relations consultant in Topeka, was the principal public affairs adviser for the U.S. Command, Berlin, and Allied Staff during the fall of the Berlin Wall and German unification. Dick Lipsey, an Associated Press reporter in Kansas City, Mo., was attached to the KU ROTC program at the end of his 20-year military career. Both have master's degrees from KU.
"The need for international exchange is not just for traditional students,ú said Anne Merydith-Wolf, communications director for KU's Graduate School and Office of International Programs, who coordinates the program with Volek. "The U.S. Army and the State Department recognize the value to national security of future leaders meeting and learning about each other. The majority of these officers will go on to become some of the top military officers or heads of state of their countries.
"We're quite honored that the Army chose KU to provide this briefing on the First Amendment and the interaction between military and a free media," Merydith-Wolf continued.
This is the sixth year for the First Amendment program at KU, which is coordinated by the Office of International Programs and presented by the journalism faculty.
The International Officer Information Program is designed to introduce the officers to varied aspects of American life during their yearlong stay in the United States. Visits include academic as well as government, business and military facilities. International officers have attended the Army Command and General Staff College, the Army's senior tactical school, since 1894.
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