CSU bringing Ken Buck, Jane Fonda, Donna Brazile to campus for Year of Democracy events

Congressman Ken Buck, actress and activist Jane Fonda and national political strategist Donna Brazile will be speaking at Colorado State University during the spring semester as part of the school’s Thematic Year of Democracy.

Buck, a Republican who has represented Colorado’s 4th Congressional District since 2015 and a former state chairman of his party, will join CSU students and faculty on stage from 11 a.m. to noon Jan. 26 for a discussion on the state of democracy in Colorado and the nation at the Lory Student Center’s University Ballroom. Buck is currently serving his fifth term in the House of Representatives but announced Nov. 1 that he will not seek reelection when his term expires at the end of this year.

There is no admission charge, but tickets are required and must be reserved in advance online through CSU’s ticket office. The event will also be livestreamed on YouTube. A link is available through a calendar of Thematic Year of Democracy events on the CSU website.

Fonda is scheduled to sit down with CSU President Amy Parsons for a public conversation from noon to 1 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Lory Student Center Theatre. Fonda is an Academy Award and seven-time Golden Globe winning actress who has been a vocal advocate for women’s rights, Native Americans, climate concerns and the environment. Capacity for Fonda’s talk has already been reached, CSU officials said, but a livestream will be available on YouTube.

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Brazile will be the keynote speaker for the fourth annual Gather – Conversations to Inspire event, presented by Women and Philanthropy, from 4-6 p.m. April 30 at the Lory Student Center’s Main Ballroom. The focus is an exploration of the Thematic Year of Democracy through the female lens. Brazile is a New York Times bestselling author, chair of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship board of directors and an Emmy- and Peabody-award winning media contributor to ABC News, USA Today and others. She was the first African American woman to serve as manager of a major-party presidential campaign when she ran former Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 campaign. Following Brazil’s keynote address, Parsons will moderate a panel discussion of CSU leaders on the role of higher education in promoting democracy.

There is no admission charge, but tickets are required and must be reserved in advance online. The event will also be livestreamed on YouTube. A link is available through a calendar of Thematic Year of Democracy events on the CSU website.

CSU’s Democracy Summit will feature a variety of events from April 8-12, including a screening of the documentary “Join or Die,” followed by a lecture from Jeremy Suri, author of the book “Civil War by Other Means” from 5-9 p.m. April 11 at The Lyric, 1209 N. College Ave. Harvard professor Robert Putnam, the subject of “Join or Die,” will provide the summit’s closing keynote address from 11 a.m. to noon April 12 at the Lory Student Center.

Another highlighted event of the Thematic Year of Democracy is a presidential conversation between Parsons and Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels from 11 a.m. to noon April 18 in Lory Student Center’s Never No Summer Room. Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins since 2009, has authored several books, including one in 2021 titled “What Universities Owe Democracy.”

There are several other events on campus each month connected to the Thematic Year of Democracy. A calendar is available online at thematicyear.colostate.edu.

(Note: This story was updated Jan. 18 to include a link to the reservation page for Donna Brazile's keynote speech April 30. That page was not yet active when this story was first published.)

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Jane Fonda, Donna Brazile coming to CSU for Year of Democracy events