For Immediate Release

Date:  February 2, 2006

BLOOMSBURG— A legal studies professor at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania will provide an introduction to the law of affirmative action for the first lecture in the spring semester’s High Noon Talk Series. Associate professor Laura Davis will present “Affirmative Action: A Primer” Thursday, Feb. 16, at noon in the Columbia Hall Fireside Lounge. The program is open to the public free of charge.

The High Noon Talk Series is sponsored by BU’s Commission on the Status of Women. Davis will discuss the history of affirmative action and recent Supreme Court decisions addressing the topic. She will also review affirmative action policies from different industries and areas, including Bloomsburg University’s policy. Affirmative action is a much-debated set of policies designed to improve the employment and educational opportunities of minorities and women.

Davis, an assistant professor of legal studies at Bloomsburg since 1997, was selected for the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award in May 2005. Davis teaches upper-level legal studies courses and is the adviser to the Legal Studies Association, a pre-law group. Davis served as assistant attorney general in Illinois from 1988 to 1996, where she represented state agencies, boards and employees in civil and criminal cases. 

Bloomsburg University is one of 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The university serves approximately 8,000 students and offers 65 bachelor’s, 17 master’s and one doctoral degree.

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