Eureka College event to discuss Gorbachev-Reagan relationship

march 16 - 7:30 PM - Cerf center

Eureka College will host a panel discussion about the relationship between former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan at 7:30 p.m. March 16 in the Cerf Center. A reception will follow.

The free event is designed to provide background information to the campus community and the public in advance of Gorbachev’s March 27 visit to central Illinois, according to Eureka College political science professor Wesley Phelan, who will moderate the discussion.

 “We will be exploring the interaction between Reagan and Gorbachev in the 1980s and how that interaction shaped world events,” Phelan said. Topics will include the leaders’ summits, internal political changes that took place in the USSR during the period leading up to its 1991 collapse and the concepts of perestroika and glasnost.

Panel participants are Illinois Central College social science professor Griffin Hathaway, Eureka College European history professor Richard Sanders and the executive director of the Peoria World Affairs Council, Angela Weck.

Questions will be taken from audience members following the discussion.

For more information, contact Phelan at 467-6409.

Gorbachev will hold a town hall-style meeting with the Eureka College campus community on March 27 followed by a dinner at the Peoria Civic Center, where he will help the college launch its Ronald Reagan Society to carry forward the Reagan legacy at the school. The dinner, which also will serve as the Creve Coeur Club of Peoria’s 111th George Washington Banquet, is open to the public. For more information, contact John Morris at 467-6477.   

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Contact:

Michele Lehman

Media Relations Coordinator

mlehman@eureka.edu

(309) 467-6318