The Department of Political Science will unveil a major academic initiative October 22 that is expected to attract national media attention to the university and the state.

Don Gordon, professor of political science, says details of the program will be released during a luncheon program in Timmons Arena. Robert W. Rubin, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, will serve as keynote speaker for the program, which is expected to draw many national and state political leaders.

"Our department has been working on this for 10 years and we are excited to see things come together," says Gordon. "This engaged learning project will be of national significance for Furman and South Carolina."

The luncheon will be preceded by an October 21 ceremony inducting Richard W. Riley, the Furman graduate who is the nation’s Secretary of Education, into the department’s Hall of Fame. The dinner, to be held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Greenville, will feature Inez Tenenbaum, the South Carolina Superintendent of Education, as the keynote speaker.

Riley, a 1954 Furman graduate, will join Ernest E. Harrill and the late Ernest J. Walters, former political science professors at Furman, in the Hall of Fame.