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Universities Touch More Than Students

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By JOE O'NEILL Tribune correspondent

Published: March 12, 2008

Among the regional amenities that we can too easily take for granted are our colleges and universities - unless we are still attending one - or ponying up for the next generation's tuition bills.

We are reminded of their presence when a big grant is trumpeted or headlines warn of impending cutbacks. Or when the University of South Florida shocks the college football world or the University of Tampa wins another national baseball championship. Or the Committee of 100 churns out an economic-impact study.

But by its very nature, higher education is about being a wellspring of eclectic issues, intellectual energy and societal concerns - and that is hardly the exclusive dominion of students.

I was reminded of that recently when, along with about 800 others, I got up early enough to attend the annual University of Tampa Fellows Forum at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. It featured presentations by Peter Beck, managing director of The Beck Group, a prominent construction and development-services firm; Robert Fornaro, president and chief executive of AirTran Airways; and Tom James, chairman and chief executive, Raymond James Financial.

Their takes on the economy and their industries were candid and complimentary. A few days earlier I had spoken with "All The Shah's Men" author Stephen Kinzer, who was in town to lecture at USF Health against drum-beating for war against Iran.

Within that same time, movie director Spike Lee also spoke at USF and writer-activist Gloria Steinem appeared at Eckerd College. Yet this was not an atypical stretch. It's what you get when you're proximate to all that universities offer; when you're privy to the ultimate marketplace of ideas. When you're lucky enough to live here.

Some outtakes:

UT Fellows Forum

"We're in this economic downturn for a while. It's been a bubble primarily driven by greed." - Peter Beck

"The building industry has no choice but to be a leader in green technology." - Peter Beck

"If we have a recession, and some already think we're in one, it won't be very deep. Don't panic. The economy is amazingly resilient. The economy is still the biggest and best in the world." - Tom James

"Florida needs to face reality. Insurance rates still don't reflect hurricane risks to the coasts here. We're kidding ourselves and I fault the politicians who fault the insurance business." - Tom James

"Fuel is the lightning rod for change. Look for more mergers. ... We're a long way from biofuels. Conservation is critical. And that can be as simple as having your planes taxi on one jet engine rather than two." - Robert Fornaro

"Our planes are newer than most airlines' snacks." - AirTran marketing. Fornaro said AirTran's fleet of 139 planes are an average of 4 years old. A decade ago, those figures were 45 - and 28.

USF Health/Stephen Kinzer:

Consequences of an attack on Iran:

Kinzer cited an Iranian population that is largely "pro-American" and a "huge strategic asset" to the United States. "We would liquidate that in one hour of bombing," he said. "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is highly unpopular and likely to lose the next election. The only thing that could make him popular is to be attacked by the U.S. It would set back the cause of democracy in Iran by at least a generation."

Then we could expect retaliatory attacks against Israel and other allies, stressed Kinzer, as well as a "huge spike" in anti-American violence throughout the Muslim world and maybe in the United States. And the likely closing of the Straits of Hormuz and the "doubling or tripling" of world oil prices.

"If you are afraid today that Iran might share their nuclear knowledge with terrorists to make a dirty bomb, just bomb their house and kill their children," Kinzer warned. "The series of consequences would be devastating."

Kinzer's hopes lie with a radically revised, hands-on, diplomatic approach.

"Of course I'm troubled by a nuclear-armed Iran," Kinzer said. "But how do you get a country to make security concessions? To give up weapons projects? You only do it by making them feel safe."

And that means directly involving (nuclear-armed) Israel, Kinzer said.

"The way to get Iran to agree to curb nuclear ambitions is to make both Iran and Israel feel safe. Maybe it's shared access to nuclear fuel - shared arrangements to reduce the fear of each other. Then the door is open to concessions."

He pointed to last year's confrontation between England and Iran when British marines were captured and held prisoner. He said Prime Minister Tony Blair's approach was the only viable one and a guide for U.S. policy. When badgered at a news conference, Blair said that "negotiations have to work. There is no Plan B."

"Most Iranians want friendship with the U.S.," Kinzer said. "They want to reach out to us. They hope we will take their hand instead of chopping it off."

Film Festival Exchange

The last night of the five-day Gasparilla Film Festival featured the big-draw documentary "Man of Two Havanas" at Channelside Cinemas.

It's the heroic story of Max Lesnik, who went from idealistic insider in the Cuban Revolution against Fulgencio Batista to disillusioned ex-revolutionary to Miami exile trying, as a controversial journalist, to make the case for dialogue with Cuba. Dealing with South Florida death threats became an inevitable way of life for Lesnik, who was in attendance along with daughter Vivien Lesnik Weisman, the film's director/producer.

Among those impressed with the movie and its implications was Tampa city Councilwoman Mary Mulhern. She had read the eye-opening "Cuba Confidential" by Ann Louise Bardach and wanted to know more about the intrigues and politics that have saddled America with a Cold War Cuban policy for half a century.

"I was blown away by Lesnik - and the fact that he's still alive," Mulhern said. "And having the courage to do what he did."

Mulhern, who moved from Chicago 11 years ago, is bringing herself up to speed on Cuban-American politics, including the different attitudes among Cuba-Americans in Tampa and Miami.

"It's been a crazy policy that we've been stuck with for so long," Mulhern said. "And the people in Miami make it so difficult. And here we are with the closest port to Cuba. We need to be talking about trade now. We're trading with China. We in Tampa need to position ourselves for when Cuba opens up."

During the post-movie discussion, she was moved and motivated to turn around and tell the patron behind her, "We've got to get a copy of this to Obama."

The patron was Frank Sanchez, a key Latin American policy adviser to Barack Obama.

Joe O'Neill is a South Tampa writer who can be contacted at moesz@aol.com.

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