NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER OPENS LECTURE SERIES TONIGHT

Former president of Costa Rica Oscar Arias will deliver the Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian Lecture, "The Struggle for Peace in the New Millennium," at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, in the Mills Godwin Jr. Building auditorium. The lecture kicks off the President's Lecture Series for 2000-01.

Arias has waged his own battles for peace since the mid-1980s. Winner of the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize, he holds international stature as a spokesman for the Third World, championing such issues as human development, democracy and demilitarization. He has traveled the globe spreading a message of peace and applying the lessons learned from the Central American peace process.

Arias was elected president of Costa Rica in 1986, a time of great regional discord in Central America. In 1987, he drafted a peace plan aimed at putting an end to the crisis. The plan was ratified by all the Central American presidents in 1987.

In 1997, Arias joined fellow Peace Prize winners to establish The International Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers, which would obligate governments to uphold internationally recognized standards of democracy, human rights and peaceful international relations.

The Wallenberg Lecture is sponsored by the Marc and Connie Jacobson Philanthropic Foundation. For more information, call 683-3116.