In today’s political and social climate, it can often be difficult for people to find spaces in which to educate themselves about, and discuss, contemporary issues. Things that come to mind are gender and racial equality, the prevalence of minority deaths at the hands of police, and LGBTQ issues. Thankfully, there are places locally that have been created in order to educate people on issues such as these, while also allowing them to share their opinions. One such example is the Friday Forum lecture series hosted by the University YMCA.
The Friday Forum is a series of lectures that takes place at the University YMCA at noon during the spring and fall semesters of the University of Illinois. Typically, each semester focuses on a different topic. This semester’s Friday Forum series will focus on the 2016 presidential election as well as topics related to how elections are conducted and function more generally. Speakers will be on campus to discuss political correctness, immigration, the state campaign finance in today’s elections, and polarization in America, among other things. This semester’s “On the Issues: Analyzing the 2016 Elections” series captures the University YMCA’s ability to “continually adapting to the times while remaining committed to providing talks that address topics of relevance and urgency in our society.”
What is truly remarkable is that Friday Forum has been going on for over 80 years. Friday Forum began as Faculty Forum in 1927. Focusing nearly entirely on religious issues until the 1960s, Friday Forum held in the spring as a series of lectures led by various University of Illinois faculty members. The 1929 series was titled, “The Religion of an Educated Man,” and featured talks regarding religion’s role in higher education and how to reconcile being religious and scientific.
It was during the 1960s and 70s that the Faculty Forum’s series topics became much more reflective and conscious of the social realities taking place in the United States and around the world. Series during this time period included “Civil Rights: An American Crisis,” “Military Power: The Limits of Persuasion,” and “Impact of Mass Media.” This was also the period of time that the faculty members on the Forum’s planning committee began bringing in outside voices, such as other scholars, journalists, and activists, to speak in the series.
The name of the Forum wouldn’t be changed from Faculty Forum to Friday Forum until 1971 in acknowledgement that many students were attending these events, originally targeted toward faculty members. The new name was meant to be inclusive of all the people the series could serve, from students, to faculty, to the general public. All in all, the series today closely resembles and reflects the aims of the Faculty Forum when it began in the 1920s, as a way to inspire reflection, dialogue, and thought about local, national, and international issues.
The history and legacy of the Friday Forum series can be seen today. Kasey Umland, the Associated Director of the University YMCA and a UIUC graduate, attended the series religiously during her collegiate career at the University of Illinois. The Friday Forum series was a formative part of her experience as a student at the University as a way for her to engage with the YMCA and also learn about topics she cares about, such as human rights. Today, as someone closely involved in the planning of the series, Umland is able to carry that legacy forward, along with other UIUC alumni who attended the series during their tenure as students and are able to come back as speakers at Friday Forum.
Another important aspect about the lecture series is the commitment to providing thought provoking material and doing so in such a way that the information is interesting and accessible to a wide range of audiences. You don’t need to be seeking or already have a college degree to get something positive out of one of the lectures. Umland, and the University YMCA as a whole, encourage individuals from all backgrounds, perspectives, and opinion to attend the series in order to connect with others and engage and share discourse over a variety of relevant issues.
Today, the Friday Forum series takes place over more than one semester. Each semester typically has its own overarching topic, however, in the 2014-2015 academic year, both series covered race and racism. Other contemporary topics that have been covered in the Friday Forum series include economic security, United States military power in the 21st Century, the U.S. prison system, and the morals of technology. One of the great things about the series that can be seen across time is that they truly adapt to the world around them. This can even be seen in this election season. Previous Friday Forums on elections have focused on the issues and/or the candidates themselves. However, the planning committee and University YMCA felt that this election had a completely different feel than past elections. “There’s more tension,” Umland told me. Umland and Nancy Dietrich, the Chair of the Friday Forum Committee really wanted this semester’s series to reflect and address that tension, from covering how elections are actually run in modern U.S. politics to what the outcome of the election means for the Supreme Court.
If you would like to further engage with these topics, the fall semester’s Friday Forum series will kick off on September 9 with a talk titled, “The Myth of Political Correctness.” The series is open to the public. Umland and Dietrich encourage all community member to attend the lectures, bringing together the University community and the community of Champaign-Urbana at large.
All of the Friday Forum lectures take place at the University YMCA at noon and continue until November 11, concluding with a final lecture following the election, on the future of the United States post-election results.
For more information on the other lectures in the series you can visit the University YMCA website.
For specific questions regarding Friday Forum, Kasey Umland can be reached via email at kasey@universityymca.org.
Previous Friday Forums can be viewed at the University YMCA’s YouTube channel.