The Andrew R. Cecil Lecture Series resumes at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) this fall with talks on the at-times competing tensions between ethics and ethnicity and between medical progress and health care costs.

Ernesto Cortes, Jr., Southwest regional director of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), will kick off the fall series when he lectures about “Ethics and Ethnicity” on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 8 p.m. in UTD’s Conference Center Auditorium. Cortes’ talk will address the issues involved with developing a pluralist democratic society through politics and public conversation. There will be a reception immediately following the lecture.

IAF is a nonprofit organization founded in Chicago by the late Saul Alinsky. Its mission is to train people to organize themselves and their communities, to take responsibility for solving problems in those communities and to renew the interest of citizens in public life. The Southwest region of the IAF, which Cortes oversees, includes more than 23 community-based organizations, stretching from New Orleans to Los Angeles. A native of San Antonio, Cortes is a graduate of Texas A&M University, where he majored in English and economics.

For the second lecture, Dr. Daniel Callahan, director of international programs at The Hastings Center in Garrison, New York, will speak about “Medical Progress and Health Care Costs: A Clash of Values” on Monday, Nov. 12, at 8 p.m., also at UTD’s Conference Center Auditorium. Callahan’s lecture will raise fundamental ethical questions about the nature of medical progress and what is good for society. Callahan will be present at a reception immediately following the talk.

Callahan is co-founder of The Hastings Center, the oldest independent, nonpartisan, interdisciplinary research institute of its kind in the world. The Hastings Center addresses fundamental ethical issues in the areas of heath, medicine and the environment as they affect individuals, communities and societies.

Callahan currently serves as the center’s director of international programs. He previously served as the organization’s director and president from 1969 to 1996. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine within the National Academy of Sciences and is member of the Director’s Advisory Committee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he also is a member of its ethics committee. Most recently, Callahan served as an advisor to President George W. Bush on the topic of stem cell research. Dr. Callahan holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University and a B.A. from Yale University.

About the Andrew R. Cecil Lecture Series

In 1979, The University of Texas at Dallas established the lecture series in collaboration with Dr. Andrew R. Cecil, a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at UTD. Cecil delivered the first lecture in November 1979 and spoke in each subsequent series until his death in 1996.

The lectures are a reflection of the interests of Cecil, including his moral reasoning, philosophical principles, commitment to justice and freedom, love for education, search for political and religious reasoning and quest for a better understanding of universal ethical values.

In the 22 years since Cecil’s first lecture, UTD has invited to its campus scholars, business professionals, public officials and other notable individuals to share their ideas about themes related to those subjects with the academic community and the general public.

All Cecil Lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information, please call 972-883-2590.

About UTD

The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor, enrolls more than 7,000 undergraduate and 5,000 graduate students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s Web site at www.utdallas.edu.