Following the conference, participants will have tickets to hear the Dalai Lama speak on the theme of fostering peace among young people at a public lecture slated Aug. 18. Plucker's main field of study is creativity, while Hill has interests in nonviolence and peace education. Through work with Students for Free Tibet in spring 1998, Hill had made contact with the India-based Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. One day, her contact at the foundation sent a letter suggesting a collaboration between IU and the Dalai Lama. That set their minds reeling with ways to bridge the Dalai Lama's participation with their interests in creativity, nonviolence and peace education.
Great minds think alike.
Around the same time, the foundation contact wrote a message hinting at the Dalai Lama's interest in a conference. A chain of supportive and cooperative people across campus have helped make the conference a reality. It took collaboration and a little kismet to put together a conference on peace building. In mid-August, a conference on peace education and violence prevention in schools and communities will culminate with an appearance by the Dalai Lama of Tibet, who just happens to be planning a trip to Bloomington to perform a Kalachakra Initiation at the Tibetan Cultural Center. Take Les Coyne, for example.