Issues and questions about free speech will be the topic of “Free Speech: A Community Conversation,” a panel scheduled for Tuesday, March 22, at noon in NDSU’s Memorial Union’s Room of Nations and via Zoom.
Howard A. Dahl of Amity Technology and Jack Zaleski, retired editorial page editor, will discuss what free speech is, what it contributes to a democratic society and some of the justifiable and unjustifiable limitations on it.
The public forum is part of the “Exploring Academic Freedom/Freedom of Speech” project of the Northern Plains Ethics Institute at NDSU, Tri-College University, Humanities ND, NDSU Student Government, and the NDSU College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
Dahl is president and CEO of Amity Technology LLC in Fargo. He earned degrees from the University of North Dakota and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and has done graduate work in philosophy at the University of Florida.
Dahl is a member of a number of boards, including the Russian American Institute’s board of regents, Trinity Forum’s board of trustees, Ethics and Public Policy Center’s board of directors and U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. Dahl also has served as director and audit chair for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and as a board member of the North Dakota Trade Office.
Among Dahl’s awards are Fargo-Moorhead Business of the Year, North Dakota Agricultural Person of the Year, North Dakota Innovator of the Year, North Dakota Exporter of the Year, Fargo-Moorhead Small Businessman of the Year and Amity Technology is the first North Dakota company to be the SBA Region VII Exporter of the Year.
Zaleski is an award-winning journalist who retired in 2017 after 30 years as editorial page editor of The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He is the author of 2020’s “Forum Communications Company: A Narrative History 1980-2018.”
A native of New Britain, Connecticut, Zaleski was educated in New Britain public schools and the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where he worked for a short time at the university’s Office of Public Information.
Zaleski is a member of the North Dakota Newspaper Association “50-Year Club,” and a former member of the National Conference of Editorial Writers and the NCEW Foundation’s board of directors.
His honors for editorials and opinion columns include two first place Herman Roe Editorial Writing Awards from the Minnesota Newspaper Association, and several top honors from the NDNA, the most recent in 2017 for opinion/commentary pages. He serves on the advisory board of the Northern Plains Ethics Institute at NDSU, an organization that publishes analyses and commentaries and sponsors public debates and discussions on the issues of the day.
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