Fourteenth Annual
Rocco C. and Marion S. Siciliano Forum:
Considerations on the Status of American Society

A Political Potpourri: 2010 Election Analysis and the Road to Political Reform

Robert M. Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, will discuss the November 2, 2010, elections and ideas about how to reform politics through campaign financing, redistricting, and the initiative process.  This lecture is the keynote address for the Fourteenth Annual Rocco C. and Marion S. Siciliano Forum, sponsored by the Hinckley Institute of Politics.

Thursday, November 4, 2010
12 p.m. - 1 p.m.
UMFA Dumke Auditorium - (view map)
Free and open to the public

Contact: Jayne Nelson, 801-581-8501
Parking: Attendees may park free of charge in the south end of the guest lot northeast of the UMFA. Spaces will be designated for the Siciliano Forum.
Click here for more information

ABOUT THE SICILIANO FORUM

“Unique” describes the Rocco C. Siciliano Forum: Considerations on the Status of the American Society at the University of Utah. In no other place has a program been designed to offer such an open, nonbiased forum for students, faculty, and the citizenry to focus their energies and attentions on the most important, current, long range public issues facing America today.

The ties that bind the forum’s founder Rocco C. Siciliano – public servant, business man, attorney, civic leader, and family man – to the University of Utah are strong indeed. It is no wonder, then, that he chose Utah’s flagship institution of higher learning as the home for the forum that bears his name and fosters thoughtful discourse on the many key issues facing America today. A Salt Lake City native, Mr. Siciliano graduated from the University of Utah in 1944 with an honors degree in political science and earned his law degree from Georgetown University in 1948.

The forum’s inspiration comes from Mr. Siciliano’s extensive involvement in both the public and the private sectors. He served in several presidentially appointed positions including assistant secretary of labor and then special assistant to President Eisenhower for personnel management in the White House and later the under secretary of commerce for President Nixon. He also was a member of President Nixon’s Federal Pay Board. He played a leadership role in corporate America as chairman of TICOR and chairman of the California Business Roundtable.

Leadership and public service have been the hallmarks of Mr. Siciliano’s distinguished career. He is chairman of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. This is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization that works to develop innovative ways to improve democratic self-government. He was president and then chairman of the Dwight D. Eisenhower World Affairs Institute, Washington, D.C.

After appointment by President Clinton, in April of 2001 he was elected chairman of the newly established national Eisenhower Memorial Commission. The Commission is charged with recommending a suitable enduring memorial for one of our great presidents.

Mr. Siciliano has served on many corporate boards and is a trustee emeritus of the Committee for Economic Development and the J. Paul Getty Trust. He has served as president and chairman of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and as a board member of the Museum for Contemporary Art.

As a young lieutenant during World War II, Mr. Siciliano led an infantry platoon of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division in Italy. He received the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor, and the Army Special Commendation Award.

The Siciliano Forum sponsors a lecture series as the main focus of its annual programs. Participants include nationally recognized commentators, public officials, educators, and others qualified to address a specific issue. Each presentation is both oral and written and deals with at least one of the most pressing, least tractable issues facing America.

The topic addressed by the annual forum lecturer is woven integrally in to the academic and research curricula of a number of courses of study within fields such as political science, business, economics, ethics, anthropology, education, psychology, environmental studies, sociology, geography, family and consumer studies, sciences, arts, and others when applicable. In this way, students have the opportunity to gain the most from the lecturer’s perspectives.

In addition to the annual lecture, the most high profile of its events, the forum sponsors allied presentations and discussions involving faculty and students with other local, regional, and national commentators, and public officials, and educators. The overall purpose of the Siciliano Forum is to ensure opportunities for the thoughtful deliberations of the public trust and related issues. The inquiry is based upon the total available facts, but also may include ethical or spiritual considerations.

In all, the Rocco C. Siciliano Forum: Considerations on the Status of the American Society offers an uncommon opportunity for informed discussion of the major challenges facing the nation. It makes a significant contribution to the intellectual life of the College of Social and Behavioral Science and the University of Utah; indeed, the community, state, and nation as well.

Ever present in Mr. Siciliano’s work and life for 60 years is the artist Marion Stiebel Siciliano who fled Hitler’s Germany. Mrs. Siciliano’s paintings have been featured nationally and internationally as well as at the University of Utah Museum of Fine Arts. In Spring 2000, the Sicilianos were awarded Honorary Doctoral degrees from Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania; hers in Fine Arts and his in Public Service. Earlier, he had received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Hebrew Union College. In 2001, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law degree from the University of Utah. The Sicilianos have five children: Loretta, Vincent, Fred, John, and Maria as well as six grandsons and one granddaughter.