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"Diversity in the Next Millennium: Have We Truly Made Progress? Where Are, or Where Should We Be, Going?" will be the topic of a panel discussion set for Jan. 25 at UNLV as part of the Barrick Lecture Series.

Participating in the discussion will be Linda Chavez, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Equal Opportunity; William Gray III, a former congressman who now is chief executive officer of The College Fund/UNCF; and author and historian David Halberstam. ABC news senior correspondent Carole Simpson will serve as moderator.

The event is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall. It is free, but tickets are required. Tickets may be picked up at the Performing Arts Center box office at Ham Concert Hall beginning Dec. 19. For ticket information, call 895-3801.

"The topic of discussion certainly is timely," said Velicia McMillian, UNLV's director of multicultural student affairs. "With the approach of a new century it seems an ideal time to assess exactly where we are in terms of diversity so that we can chart our course for the future. It will be interesting to learn what insights these panelists can give us on this issue."

Ann Casados-Mueller, director of diversity initiatives at UNLV, said, "I'm sure this will be a lively and informative evening given the panel members' divergent viewpoints.

"This presentation certainly fits in with UNLV President Carol Harter's strong commitment to diversity, and I think the Barrick Lecture Series has demonstrated a real sense of social responsibility in providing an opportunity for us to learn more about one of the most pivotal issues of our time," she said.

"There's no doubt that we stand on the threshold of change, with today's classrooms and workplaces filled with a greater diversity than any other time in our nation's history," Casados-Mueller said. "For example, who could have predicted an 87 percent growth in the local Hispanic population between 1990 and 1997? And the way we handle cultural diversity in the 21st century will determine America's success in a global economy. That's a challenge of central importance to our social, political, and economic vitality."

The New York Times has described Chavez as "an influential voice on civil rights policy. The Washington Post says she is one of "a new generation of intellectuals (seeking) to question the orthodoxies of the civil rights establishment."

A syndicated newspaper columnist, Chavez is the author of the book Out of the Barrio: Toward New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation. The Center for Equal Opportunity that she heads is a private, non-profit research institution founded in 1995.

Gray has served as president and chief executive officer of The College Fund/UNCF since 1991. Under Gray's leadership, the nation's oldest and most successful black higher education assistance organization has set new records for fund raising while at the same time cutting costs and expanding programs and services.

Prior to heading The College Fund, Gray was a congressman. His stints as chairman of the Democratic Caucus and later as majority whip made him the highest ranking African-American ever to serve in Congress.

Halberstam, who at 30 was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Vietnam, has been described by Harper's Magazine as "a legend in American journalism" and by The Washington Post as "the journalist as samurai."

He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as one of a small handful of American reporters who refused to accept the official optimism about Vietnam and who reported that the war was being lost. The path that the Kennedy and Johnson administrations used to take America to war was the subject of one of this best-known books, The Best and the Brightest.

Other highly regarded Halberstam books include The Powers That Be, about the dramatic and sudden rise of the power of the modern media, and The Reckoning, about the ascent of Japan as a rival economic superpower. Halberstam's other books have covered such diverse topics as the 1950s (The Fifties) and a look at a baseball pennant race (Summer of '49).

Carole Simpson has been a television broadcaster for more than 20 years. Today she anchors ABC's World News Sunday and substitutes for Peter Jennings on World News Tonight.

In 1990 she was a member of the Nightline team in South Africa. She helped anchor ABC's live coverage of the release of Nelson Mandela from his 27-year imprisonment. While reporting on a victory celebration in Johannesburg, she was injured during a melee between blacks and the South African police.

Simpson also has anchored live broadcasts of many breaking news stories such as the Persian Gulf War, the Tiananmen massacre, the fall of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, and the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings.

The Barrick Lecture Series, funded through a grant from philanthropist Marjorie Barrick, presents nationally and internationally known speakers from a variety of fields each year at UNLV. The presentations are free and open to the public.

For additional information, call 895-3801.