Planning for Veritas Forum Events at UCSF

Welcome to the Veritas planning portal! Veritas Forum is a national event-oriented organization focused on creating events on campuses addressing the tough questions regarding life and faith.

Our campus is uniquely positioned as a graduate health sciences campus to focus on the demanding scientific or philosophical questions that crop up regarding our faith. We as a student community have the opportunity to design a topic that we feel would engage the community, invite a speaker who could communicate the issues and its relevance to Jesus in our lives, and create an atmosphere for open and honest discussion with our friends and colleagues.

Scheduling

Target Date	Event
January 27, 2010	Dr. Ard Louis
January 26, 2010	Stanford Veritas Forum with Dr. Ard Louis
Late Nov/early Dec 2009	Veritas 2010 planning meeting to follow up on topics
November 5, 2009	Veritas 2010 planning meeting to discuss potential topics
May 6, 2009, HSW-303	Veritas Lunch Jonathan Lew, Western Regional Director of The Veritas Forum On what Veritas is all about and how you can be involved in planning future events.
May 5, 2009, 6pm, Cole Hall	Dr. Bill Newsome (Prof. and Chair of Neurobiology at Stanford): "Science and faith: the vantage point of one neuroscientist" "I am a practicing scientist and a practicing Christian—commitments that are inconsistent in the minds of many. While I encounter tension at times between my science and my faith, my overwhelming belief is that both science and faith contribute critically to a meaningful, fully-experienced human life. Giving up either would result in a regrettable loss of understanding, depth of experience, and simple joy in my life. I believe that much of the perceived incompatibility between science and religion is specious, although real tensions do exist. In this talk I will lay out the central issues from my point of view, hoping to dispel some of the false conflicts between science and faith while bringing into focus real choices that need to be made."
4/2009	Prepare publicity materials, establish co-sponsorship
3/12/2009, by email	Finish budget, vision, goals draft
2/27/2009, conference call	Touch base with Dan and Jonathan from Veritas
2/13/2009, by email	Spring event date vote deadline
2/11/2009, by email	Spring event roles interest deadline
1/12/2009, 5:30pm, Parnassus library, meet on main floor	Veritas Planning Meeting 0.04 (focused 1 h mtg)
12/12/2009, 11:30pm	Touch base on initial Spring 2009 event planning tasks
12/1/2008, 5:30pm, Parnassus library	Veritas Planning Meeting 0.03
8/25/2008, 7pm, David's place	Veritas Planning Meeting 0.02
7/14/2008, 7pm, David's place	Veritas Planning Meeting 0.01

Planning Pages

May 5, 2009 Planning Spreadsheet (including planner roles, forum checklist, etc) | Post-event checklist
Brainstorming Spreadsheet
Speaker Short List
Google group and message archive

Vision Statement

At UCSF Veritas Forum, we seek to explore the hard questions in relation to the intersection of science and one's personal faith. By doing so, we hope to gain a greater understanding of how our relationship with Jesus integrates with our profession as scientists.

Based on the subject matter presented, we strive to explain a reasonable approach to Jesus, from a firm scriptural and scientific foundation.

We value in providing a respectful context for hearing the rationale of faith & the sciences, in a personal but non-pressured environment: where students, faculty, and the public's opinions, shall be heard & responded to with diplomacy.

Keep Me Updated!

If you'd like to be updated or get involved, please let us know!
You can also email the planning team with any questions, comments, or suggestions.