2011 Vetlesen Lectures in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the University
of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography:
The State of Our Oceans
Steering a Course Toward National Ocean Policy - April 26.
The University of Rhode Island’s Vetlesen Lecture Series on the “State of the Oceans” concludes on Tuesday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m. with a presentation by U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse entitled “Steering a Course Toward National Ocean Policy.”
The senator’s presentation, in Edward’s Auditorium on the URI Kingston campus, is presented in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Graduate School of Oceanography. The event is free and open to the public.
Whitehouse’s lecture will explain and analyze the newly enacted National Ocean Policy to ensure the protection, maintenance, and restoration of the ocean, coastal ecosystems, and resources. The policy includes a set of overarching guiding principles for management decisions and actions toward achieving the vision of “an America whose stewardship ensures that the ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes are healthy and resilient, safe and productive, and understood and treasured so as to promote the well-being, prosperity, and security of present and future generations.”
A graduate of Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, Whitehouse served as a policy advisor and counsel to the governor of Rhode Island and as the state’s director of business regulation before being nominated by President Bill Clinton to be Rhode Island's U.S. attorney in 1994. He was elected state attorney general in 1998 and senator in 2006, where he is a member of the Budget Committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and the Special Committee on Aging.
To view this lecture online, click here. (Available shortly following the event.)
Major Sponsors:
The G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation
The URI Graduate School of Oceanography
Co-Sponsors:
URI Coastal Institute
URI Honors Program
Special Sponsors:
URI College of Arts & Sciences
URI Harrington School of Communication and Media
Rhode Island Sea Grant
Colloquium Coordinators:
Professor Steven D'Hondt, Graduate School of Oceanography;
Dr. Sunshine Menezes, Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting, Graduate School of Oceanography;
Professor Arthur Spivack, Graduate School of Oceanography;
Professor Judith Swift, Coastal Institute / Communication Studies.
