KINGSTON, R.I. – April 19, 2011 – 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.
The lecture series is sponsored by the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation, with individual lectures supported by the URI College of Arts & Sciences, the Harrington School of Communication and Media, and Rhode Island Sea Grant. The series is coordinated by Professors Steven D’Hondt, Arthur Spivack and Judith Swift, and Sunshine Menezes, director of the Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting.
For more information about the lecture series, visit www.uri.edu/vetlesen or contact the URI Honors Center at 401-874-2381 or debg@uri.edu.