Christine Whitman will help Catt center mark 10 years

by Kevin Brown
Christine Todd Whitman, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will help the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics celebrate its 10th anniversary this month. The celebration will include a campus reception, benefit dinner, theater performance and auction.

Whitman will present a free public lecture at 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. She will discuss the importance and impact of women on politics and public policy and answer questions.

Prior to becoming EPA administrator, Whitman served two years as governor of New Jersey. Whitman currently holds the Mary Louise Smith Chair, a department of political science position that brings a variety of experts on women and politics to Iowa State's campus.

Whitman also will speak at a Des Moines reception for women political leaders in Iowa from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Embassy Club at Capitol Square. The reception is free and open to the public.

In addition to her public presentations, Whitman will speak at a luncheon hosted by the Iowa State University Foundation's Women and Philanthropy Program and the Catt center, and meet with students affiliated with the center at a private reception.

Other Catt center 10th anniversary events include:

• An anniversary reception, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 23 -- the date in 1992 the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, approved an ISU request to establish the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics. The reception in 302 Catt Hall is free and open to the public, and will include a light luncheon. A 12:30 p.m. program will feature Sharon Rodine of Norman, Okla., an ISU political science alumna who helped establish the center.
  
  
• A silent auction of women's political memorabilia and services, including autographed books; paintings and other items from national and state lawmakers and officers; works by well-known Iowa artists; a dinner prepared by Kathy Geoffroy and hosted by her and Iowa State President Gregory Geoffroy; season tickets to ISU football and women's basketball games; and gift certificates to restaurants, clothing stores and salons. Bids for silent auction items, listed on the center's Web site at http://www.iastate.edu/~cccatt/10-year.html, will be accepted by mail or in person at anniversary events. Bidding ends Sept. 25.
  
  
• A benefit dinner and theater performance of The Yellow Rose of Suffrage on Wednesday, Sept. 25, in the Scheman Building, Iowa State Center. The program will begin with dinner at 6 p.m., followed by a performance by ISU theater professor Jane Cox of her one-woman play about Carrie Chapman Catt. Tickets for the dinner are $45 per person. For more information, contact the Catt center, 4-3181, or e-mail cattcntr@iastate.edu. At 8 p.m., students are invited to fill available seats for the theater performance for free.
  
  The Catt center also is engaged in a 10th anniversary fund-raising campaign to establish a $250,000 endowment to support programs and activities in student leadership development, research and outreach. Gifts will be announced throughout the anniversary celebration events.