DISCUSSION ON GENDER-NEUTRAL MILITARY KICKS OFF SPRING LECTURE SERIES TONIGHT

The military's sex-integration efforts and the problems they may have caused will be the topic of discussion by journalist and author Stephanie M. Gutmann for the opening of Old Dominion University's spring 2001 President's Lecture Series Jan. 18. The free lecture will be held at 8 p.m. in the Mills Godwin Jr. Life Sciences Building auditorium.

The author of "The Kinder, Gentler Military: Can America's Gender-Neutral Fighting Force Still Win Wars?", Gutmann blends reporting and analysis to discuss the problems in the new military, many of which resulted from the Gulf War.

Gutmann has worked as a reporter for The New York Post and served as assistant editor for The Los Angeles Daily Journal. Her military-based articles have been published in Newsday, The New Republic and The New York Times. Working as a freelance writer from 1990-93 and 1994-98, she wrote articles featured in The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy Magazine and Manhattan Institute's City Journal. She has also appeared on "BBC World Service" and "CBS This Morning," as well as a number of other television news shows.

Gutmann earned her master's degree in journalism with an emphasis in investigative and business reporting from Columbia University's School of Journalism in 1990.

The spring 2001 President's Lecture Series will also feature Daniel J. Kelves, "Beyond Eugenics: Justice, Property, and the Human Genome," Feb. 1; Jon Entine and Kenneth L. Shropshire, "Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About it," Feb. 15; Mark Mazower, "City of Ghosts: Salonica Before and After the Holocaust," Feb. 22; Sarah Weddington, "Some Leaders Are Born Women," March 15; and The Capitol Steps, a musical group composed of current and former congressional staffers, "The Lighter Side of Politics," April 5.

For more information call 683-3114.