8/22/01

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Vicki Grimes, Convocation Committee chair, (319) 273-2761

Note to editors/news directors: A 200 dpi image of Dees is available on the Web at

http://www.uni.edu/pubrel/newsroom/photos/dees.jpeg

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Morris Dees, chief trial counsel and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, will be the keynote speaker for the University of Northern Iowa’s 2001 Convocation, Wednesday, Aug. 29, in the UNI-Dome.

Dees will deliver a speech titled "Responding to Hate: Voices of Hope and Tolerance," at the 3:30 p.m. convocation. The Southern Poverty Law Center is a non-profit group that specializes in lawsuits involving civil rights violations and racially motivated crimes.

While part of the university's formal year-opening activities, the convocation is also open to the public free of charge. Due to security considerations, those coming to the Dome may be subject to random security checks and only the southeast entrance to the Dome will be open for entry by the audience. Parking will be available in the north and south Dome lots.

Dees is a champion of justice, and has devoted his career to the teaching of tolerance, the value of understanding, and the beauty in acceptance, according to Vicki Grimes, chair of the UNI Convocation Committee.

The convocation was resurrected last year, following nearly three decades of absence from the campus, to stress the importance of the beginning of the higher education process and to welcome new and returning students and faculty. "We believe Dees will continue the tradition of bringing a message focused on student responsibility and success," Grimes said. Other convocation speakers will include UNI President Robert Koob and Northern Iowa Student Government President Adam Briddell of West Des Moines.

 Dees, a graduate of the University of Alabama Law School, was the driving force behind the Civil Rights Memorial, which was erected in Montgomery, Ala., in 1989, in memory of 40 men, women and children who lost their lives during the civil rights movement.

Dees has championed many landmark civil rights lawsuits that have bankrupted the Ku Klux Klan, imprisoned perpetrators of hate crimes and increased awareness of radical militias. Some of Dees' cases have included the 1981 historic lawsuit in which he and the Southern Poverty Law Center sued the Ku Klux Klan for inciting violence that led to Klan members lynching an African American man in Mobile, Ala. He and the Center won a precedent-setting $7 million judgment. A 1998 case against the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan that accused the group of burning the Macedonia Baptist Church in South Carolina, yielded a $37.8 million award, the largest civil award ever won for damages in a verdict.

Dees has written several books. In his 1996 expose, "Gathering Storm: America's Militia Threat," Dees explored the dangers that he said America's radical militia movements represent. Dees also penned his autobiography, "A Season for Justice," and "Hate on Trial: The Case Against America's Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi."

For more information on the Convocation, call UNI's Office of University Marketing and Public Relations (319) 273-2761.

8/22/01

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Martha Ochoa, physician, University Student Health Clinic, (319) 273-2009

Gwenne Culpepper, University Marketing and Public Relations, (319) 273-2761

Note to editors/news directors: A 200 dpi JPEG image of Martha Ochoa is available on the Web at: http://www.uni.edu/pubrel/newsroom/photos/ochoa.jpeg

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Dr. Martha Ochoa will join the staff at the University of Northern Iowa's Student Health Clinic as a physician.

Ochoa holds a B.S in biology/chemistry from Valparaiso University, and an M.D. from USH/Chicago Medical School. She completed her residency at Northeast Iowa Family Practice in 1995, and was most recently a staff physician with John Deere Medical Group of Waterloo. Certified by the American Board of Family Practice, Ochoa also is a member of the Iowa Medical Society and the Black Hawk County Medical Society.

###