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https://web.archive.org/web/20160330183951/http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/the-rupe-great-debate/
The Arthur N. Rupe Great Debate Series explores contemporary societal issues of national and international significance through the presentation of eminent figures who hold divergent viewpoints. “Let us bring the greatest minds of our time together at UCSB,” explains Arthur N. Rupe, “ and provide a forum to discuss and debate the nation’s and world’s vital questions. Let us seek out from around the globe eminent scholars in diverse fields, and challenge them and each other. Let us discuss relevant issues, grapple with the facts, and create inspiring dialogue.” The debate is structured as a roundtable discussion in which the moderator establishes a framework for the topic, poses questions to the panelists, and facilitates discussion among them. The moderator also invites members of the audience to ask questions of the panelists.
The Rupe Great Debate Series is presented by the UCSB College of Letters and Science. It is copresented by Arts and Lectures and the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
Past debates include:
2014-15: The Use of Genetically Modified Organisms in Food
Dr. Angelika Hilbeck, Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zurich
Dr. Pamela C. Ronald, Plant Pathology, UC-Davis
Moderator: Paul Voosen, The Chronicle of Higher Education
2012-2013: Drone Warfare: Prospects and Dangers
David Cole, Law, Georgetown University
Mary Ellen O’Connell, Law, University of Notre Dame
Avery Plaw, Political Science, Dartmouth University
Moderator: Jeff Greenfield
Click here to watch a video of this debate.
2010-2011: Academic Freedom in a Time of Crisis
Stanley Fish, Humanities and Law at Florida International University
Cary Nelson, Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois and President of the American Association of University Professors
Moderator: David Marshall, Dean of the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts
Click here to watch a video of this debate.
2007-2008: Torture and the Law: Can U.S. Officials Be Held Accountable?
Scott Horton, human rights law attorney
Stuart Taylor, contributing editor for Newsweek
Moderator: Lisa Hajjar Law & Society Program, UCSB
Click here to watch a video of this debate.
2006-2007: “Religion in American Politics – Too Much or Too Little?”
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun
Michael Novak, director of social and political studies, American Enterprise Institute
Click here to watch a video of this debate.
2005-2006: “The American News Media: Liberal or Conservative Bias?”
Eric Alterman, media critic
Tucker Carlson, journalist
Moderator: Ronald E. Rice, Communications, UCSB
Click here to watch a video of this debate.
2003-2004: Iraq and the War on Terror: Were We Wrong?
William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard
Joseph Wilson, Ambassador to Iraq
Click here to watch a video of this debate.
2002-2003: “Should the U.S. Ban Human Cloning and Genetic Engineering?”
Dr. Gregory Stock, Director of the Program on Medicine, Technology, and Society UCLA School of Public Health
George J. Annas, Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights and Chair of the Health Law Department at the School of Public Health, Boston
Moderator: James B. Cooper, Associate Dean, Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences at UCSB
Click here to watch a video of this debate.
2001-2002: “The Conflict of Civilizations?”
Senator George J. Mitchell, former Chairman of the Peace Negotiations in Northern Ireland
Samuel P. Huntington, Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor, Harvard University
Moderator: Benjamin Cohen, Louis G. Lancaster Professor of International Political Economy, UCSB
Click here to watch a video of this debate.
2001-2002: “National Security vs. Personal Liberty”
Judge William Webster, former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency
Nadine Strossen, President of the American Civil Liberties Union and Professor of Law, New York Law School
Moderator: Daniel Linz, Communication, the Law and Society Program, UCSB
2000-2001: “The Impact of the Media on American Life”
Jeff Greenfield, CNN senior analyst and Emmy Award-winner
William Safire, Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator
Richard Rodriguez, Peabody Award-winning broadcast essayist for The Newshour with Jim Lehrer
Moderator: Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, at the University of Pennsylvania
http://www.rupefoundation.org/
Arthur N. Rupe was born Arthur N. Goldberg on September 5, 1917 to a Jewish working-class family in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and grew up in nearby McKeesport—part of the Pittsburgh metro area. His father was a factory laborer and immigrant from the Austrian province of Galicia; his mother, a housewife, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from McKeesport High School in 1935, and attended Virginia Tech and Miami University (Ohio) before graduating from UCLA with a degree in Business Administration.
Several years prior to leaving for California, Rupe’s paternal grandfather had told him that Goldberg was the name he had adopted when disembarking at Ellis Island, and that Arthur’s true ancestral surname was Rupe. Thus, since 1939 when Rupe arrived in California, he has been known as Arthur N. Rupe.
During World War II, Rupe worked on an engineering crew at California Shipbuilding on Terminal Island, testing Liberty ships prior to acceptance by the U.S. Maritime Commission.
In March 1944, he invested $2,500 in Premier Records, a small company that recorded and marketed Nat King Cole and Frankie Laine records. Four months later his investment had shrunk to $600, and Rupe sold his interest.
Shortly thereafter, Rupe decided to accept the challenge of starting his own record company. A market survey he conducted of the numerous retail record shops in the Los Angeles area indicated that the major recording companies were not meeting buyers’ demands for “race records”—typically made by and for African-Americans. In late 1944, with Ben Siegert, who had recently been discharged by Premier Records, he formed Juke Box Records to cater to the market vacuum his research had perceived.
Growing up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in McKeesport, Rupe had developed an interest in rhythm ‘n’ blues and gospel music. However, in order to educate himself in the technical and commercial attributes of production, Rupe invested $200 in representative records of this genre, a record player, a metronome, and a stop watch. He methodically analyzed all aspects of these records, including the musical and lyrical structure and titles. Rupe then produced his first record “Boogie #1” on a low budget with only three musicians. The record sold over 70,000 copies, a regional hit at the time. In order to expand, his small company enlisted other partners, but after a year, Rupe broke with them. In September 1946, he started a new company, Specialty Records.
Over the next fifteen years, Specialty Records became one of the most prominent independent record companies enjoying worldwide distribution of its records, which included artists Rupe developed like Roy Milton, Percy Mayfield, Joe and Jimmy Liggins, Lloyd Price, Larry Williams, Little Richard, and Sam Cooke, among many others. Specialty Records’ music publishing subsidiary, Venice Music, was equally successful in having its music copyrights recorded by many prominent artists such as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and others. By 1990 Specialty Records and Venice Music had been sold, and Rupe left the music industry.
In 1952, Rupe had begun to invest in oil and gas production. Several years later, he started his own company, Artex Oil Company, with offices in Wichita Falls and later in Abilene, Texas. In 1992, Rupe moved his oil and gas interests to Marietta, Ohio, and entered into a partnership with Jerry James and Gene Huck.
Rupe’s success in the energy business has enabled him to found and endow the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation in Santa Barbara, California, a proactive, entrepreneurial 501(c)(3) grantmaking philanthropy in which he, along with a dedicated staff, devotes most of his time and interest.
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The Arthur N. Rupe Foundation exists because it wishes to bring about an improvement in society, to be a positive influence on American life. In the founder’s words, the foundation “aims to improve education at all levels, support authentic debate where all aspects of issues are revealed in a balanced exploration of the facts, and support research and scholarly studies that can achieve broad public dissemination.” Currently the foundation fulfills its mission through grantmaking in the following areas:
Caregiving
Inspired by the founder’s experience providing at-home care for a loved one with dementia, the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation supports efforts to train and relieve family caregivers, who provide most of the long-term care in the U.S. To increase the number of professional caregivers in the workforce, the foundation also provides support to nursing assistant programs at California Community Colleges.
Debate
The Arthur N. Rupe Foundation also supports numerous projects that advance civil and reasoned public debate at the high school, university and civic level. ANRF sponsored debates are non-partisan and accessible to a general audience, with the intention of educating and exposing audiences to all sides of a particular social issue. It is the foundation’s hope to increase the number of Americans actively involved in debate, as it forms the cornerstone of an informed electorate in a free society.
Public Policy
The foundation supports various national and state-based think tanks, as well as other freedom-oriented organizations whose scholars produce vital research that will affect public policy and reach a broad and influential audience. In addition, ANRF provides support to public interest law firms that defend core Constitutional principles and adjudicate societal issues consistent with its mission.
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ebate forms the core of a healthy American democracy. Over the years, the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation has provided grants to support an array of debate programs. The foundation is committed to advancing civil and structured debate as a means of discussing the vital issues of our time.
National Speech and Debate Association
The Rupe Foundation supports the National Speech and Debate Association in order to promote public forum debate in our nation’s high schools. The Arthur N. Rupe Foundation grant provides scholarships to more students and in higher amounts at the NSDA Speech & Debate National Tournament. Also, through the Rupe Scholars website, Public Forum students and coaches have the opportunity to obtain exclusive interviews, research, and resources from leading professionals. At the district level, local media and public policy professionals highlight the accomplishments of the public forum debaters.
Pi Kappa Delta
Founded over a century ago, Pi Kappa Delta is an honorary society created to provide a venue for the ethical practice of speech and debate at the collegiate level. Funding provided to PKD will be used to encourage the growth of audience-centered public forum debate at the collegiate level. Additionally, the grant will provide support for the public forum debate event at PKD’s biennial tournament.
The Madison Cup
The James Madison Day Commemorative Debate and Citizenship Forum (aka The Madison Cup) will celebrate its fifteenth anniversary in 2015. The Madison Cup is the premiere public debate event in the country and the only competition which brings together individuals from all of the major intercollegiate debate organizations to discuss issues of importance to American democracy. The Arthur N. Rupe Foundation is the primary sponsor of this debate competition.
Benjamin Rush Institute
The Benjamin Rush Institute is a membership organization with student chapters on nearly two dozen medical school campuses across the country. The centerpiece of its activities is a series of Oxford-style debates in which physicians and other leading health care experts from both sides of the aisle argue their positions in a civil and spirited atmosphere. A grant from the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation will fund several of these debates during the 2014-15 academic year.
The Arthur N. Rupe Great Debate Series at UC Santa Barbara
The Arthur N. Rupe Foundation has made a major grant to establish a series of debates that brings great minds from a variety of fields and disciplines to UCSB and the Santa Barbara community. The Arthur N. Rupe Great Debate Series explores contemporary societal issues of national and international significance through the presentation of eminent figures who hold divergent viewpoints.
“Let us bring the greatest minds of our time together at UCSB,” explains Arthur N. Rupe, “and provide a forum to discuss and debate the nation’s and world’s vital questions. Let us seek out from around the globe eminent scholars in diverse fields, and challenge them and each other. Let us discuss relevant issues, grapple with the facts, and create inspiring dialogue.”
Cicero’s Podium at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute
“What is the Role of Government in a Free Society?” is a debate series conducted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute with the generous support of the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation at select colleges and universities across America. Each debate addresses a different aspect of the theme in the light of a current policy, cultural, economic, or social issue.