The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the School of Public Health and the School of Engineering present 'First Response to the Hurricane Katrina Disaster.' A panel will review what happened in the Gulf and why it has resulted in the largest natural disaster in U.S. history. Coming to Ann Arbor to participate in this event is Professor Louise Comfort, a member of the faculty of public and urban affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. She is widely recognized for her work in organizational theory, studying disaster response management.

Senator Carl Levin, (D-Mich.) will discuss 'New Directions in National Security' at the 2005-06 Josh Rosenthal Education Fund Lecture. Sen. Levin, who has represented Michigan since 1979, is the Ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee, and the Select Intelligence Committee. The lecture commemorates the life and work of Josh Rosenthal, a 1979 University of Michigan graduate who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Joseph White will talk about the politics of cost containment in the U.S. health care system. Joe is famous for his insightful and sharply expressed views on health care and other social policy issues, as well as on budget politics. His writings include 'False Alarm: Why the Greatest Threat to Social Security and Medicare is the Campaign to Save Them' (Johns Hopkins University Press 2001), and 'Competing Solutions: American Health Care Proposals and International Experience' (Brookings, 1995).

The Charge to the Class will be delivered by Former Slovak Republic Ambassador Ronald N. Weiser. More than 80 graduates will receive a masters degree in Public Policy or Public Administration; seven graduates will receive joint degrees in areas such as law and business; and, an additional four graduates will receive a PhD degree. Ambassador Weiser founded McKinley Associates Inc., a national real estate investment company, in 1968 and served as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until 2001.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault was the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Georgia in 1962. She is one of television's premier journalists and correspondents and a two-time Emmy winner. Hunter-Gault received the Peabody Award for her work on Apartheid's People, a NewsHour series on South Africa, Hunter-Gault is best known for her 20-year position (1977-1997) with the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. The Peabody award recognizes distinguished service in broadcast journalism.

Sir Tony Atkinson Warden, Nuffield College, Oxford. Sir Tony Atkinson is internationally known for his work on inequality and income distribution He has been the Warden of Nuffield College, University of Oxford since 1994, and has been involved as an advisor to the European Union on social policy issues. This lecture was the keynote address for the conference, 'Changing Social Policies for Low-Income Families and Less-Skilled Workers in the EU and the U.S.,' jointly sponsored by the

Washington Post Columnist E. J. Dionne writes about the strengths and weaknesses of competing political philosophies. His analysis of American politics and trends of public sentiment is recognized by the public and private sectors as among the most reliable in the business. His writing reflects a belief that America is about to enter a new progressive era, encompassing a period of government reform and renewed civic and community activism. www.postwritersgroup.com/dionne.htm

For years John K. Cooley has been a staff correspondent successively for the Christian Science Monitor and ABC News, and has written widely on the Middle East and North Africa. Cooley's most recent book, An Alliance Against Babylon: The US, Israel and Iraq, which was just released last month, explores the roots of Israel's longstanding enmity with Iraq and its role in the war between the U.S. and Iraq.

Jim Garrison is a policy entrepreneur who has written widely about culture, politics, and social change. He is founder and President of State of the World Forum, a group that Jimmy Carter convenes, to establish a global network of leaders, citizens and institutions dedicated to action on key global problems. The Forum engages the most diverse group of individuals possible from Nobel Laureates to grassroots activists to spiritual leaders in addressing the full spectrum of human concerns.

Professor of Economics at Columbia University and Nobel Laureate for Economics in 2001, Joseph Stiglitz is internationally recognized as one of the leading economic educators of our time. Stiglitz is credited in creating a new branch of economics, 'The Economics of Information,' and his work has dealt extensively with growth and development in the Third World. His book, Globalization and Its Discontents (W.W.