PATCHOGUE AND BROOKLYN, NY – September 12, 2007 – St. Joseph’s College is pleased to announce that it will hold its fourth annual Presidential Lecture Series on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. in the D’Ecclesiis Auditorium located in O’Connor Hall on the College’s Long Island Campus. 60 Minutes and CBS News correspondent Steve Kroft will serve as the featured speaker of the event and will deliver a lecture entitled: “Off the Record with Steve Kroft.” Kroft will also host a colloquium on the College’s Brooklyn Campus at 12:30 p.m. on the same day.
Steve Kroft was named a correspondent of 60 Minutes in May 1989 and delivered his first report that fall. The 2007-2008 season is his 19th on the broadcast and his 28th year as a CBS News correspondent. At the podium, Kroft gives audiences a “no-holds-barred” exploration of his experiences around the globe and the insight he’s gained while meeting some of the world’s most influential people. From surviving a plane crash to covering wars in five continents, Kroft’s experience as a reporter will leave a thought-provoking and profound impact. He also offers an inside look at how news is reported and the affects it has on today’s society.
Two of Kroft’s most significant reports have both been about Chernobyl, and after returning there in 1994, he became the first American reporter to actually enter the crippled reactor building. His 60 Minutes report on the eco-terrorist group, the Earth Liberation Front, was among the first to focus national attention on the secretive group that has destroyed millions of dollars in property across the U.S. in efforts to punish those they feel harm the environment. He also secured the first television interview with Jonathan Lebed, a teen stock manipulator who was the youngest person ever sued by the SEC.
A recipient of three George Foster Peabody Awards and eleven Emmy awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy for his body of work, Kroft earned the prestigious Renner Award for reporting on organized crime, and his 60 Minutes piece on the Immigration and Naturalization Service, entitled “I.N.S.” was cited as one of the reports for which CBS News won the 2003 Overall Excellence Award from the Radio/Television News Directors Association. His exclusive interview with then Governor Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, was reported on the front page of virtually every newspaper in the country and continues to be cited as a defining moment of that presidential election.
Born in 1945 in Kokomo, Indiana, Steve Kroft currently lives in New York with his journalist wife, Jennet Conant, and their son, John Conant Kroft.
Now in its fourth year, the annual Presidential Lecture Series was established to further the educational goals of the College and to support its mission: Esse non videri: “To be, not to seem.” Each year St. Joseph’s will host a distinguished member of public life with experience, knowledge and perspectives that will challenge the College as an academic community and the community at large as citizens in the 21st century. The annual series will reflect the liberal arts ideals of free and open inquiry.
For more information about the St. Joseph’s College Presidential Lecture Series, visit our Web site at www.sjcny.edu.
About St. Joseph's College
St. Joseph’s College has been dedicated to providing a diverse population of students in the New York metropolitan area with an affordable education rooted in the liberal arts tradition since 1916. Independent and coeducational, the College provides a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, aiming to prepare each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual and spiritual values, social responsibility, and service. With campuses located in the Clinton Hill area of Brooklyn and in Patchogue, Suffolk, Long Island, the College offers degrees in over 22 majors, special course offerings and certificates, affiliated and pre-professional programs through its School of Arts and Sciences and its School of Professional and Graduate Studies. |
