After classes, homework and extracurriculars, it can be tough to want to carve some more time out to see a lecture or a film screening, especially if attending said event is not a requirement for a class.

However, being college students means that we’re surrounded by brilliant minds and opportunities to see those minds at work. We are in a unique position in our lives in which we can simply get to campus and be able to see an international film, a reading by an award-winning author, or a lecture by an esteemed professor without having to spend any money or go very far.

Two such upcoming events revolve around Rita Dove, a Pulitzer prize-winning poet who also received the honor of being named Oregon State University’s 2016 Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement recipient.

According to the OSU website, “The biennial award is presented to a major American author who has created a body of critically acclaimed work and who has mentored young writers.” This description obviously does the poet credit, as the website also states that Dove has won a number of awards, including the esteemed Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1987, the National Humanities Medal in 1996, and the National Medal of Arts in 2011.

Dove will be holding a Q&A session in the Native American Longhouse April 14 at 11 a.m., and will be conducting a poetry reading the same day at the CH2M Alumni Center at 7:30 p.m.

If literature isn’t your cup of tea, why not grab your significant other or some friends, grab some snacks, and watch an eye-opening, educational documentary in order to cleanse yourself from your recent Netflix binge?

The OSU Student Sustainability Initiative is hosting a screening of the 2014 documentary “Just Eat It,” produced by and starring a Canadian couple who decide that for six months, they are only going to eat food that has been discarded, in order to expose America’s carelessness when it comes to waste and excess.

The event is part of a two-week celebration of sustainability called “Beyond Earth Day at OSU,” and the screening will take place on April 20 at 7 p.m. in the MU Horizon Room, according to the OSU Student Sustainability Initiative Facebook page.

Another event, one that will be very somber but also incredibly enriching and important, is a talk by Eva Mozes, entitled “The Triumph of the Human Spirit: From Auschwitz to Forgiveness.” Mozes, according to the Oregon State University website, was taken to the concentration camp at the age of ten, with her parents and two sisters. “She and her twin sister were spared, but only because they were used for experiments by Dr. Josef Mengele,” according to the website.

Today, Mozes uses her experiences to promote forgiveness and Holocaust education. Her lecture will mark the 30th anniversary of the OSU Holocaust Memorial Program put on by the School of History, Philosophy, and Religion. Mozes will be speaking at the Congregation Beth Israel in Portland on May 1 at 4 p.m., according to OSU, and on May 2 at 7 p.m. in the LaSells Stewart Center, according to the OSU Holocaust Memorial Program’s Facebook page.

Obviously, not everyone is going to want to go to all or even any of the events that I’ve touched on in this column, and that’s fine. This is just a sample of the free events that our university puts on. There’s always something interesting happening on campus in order to expand the minds of students like you and me. All it takes is a little digging, an open mind, and a willingness to participate.

The opinions expressed in Keating’s column do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Barometer staff.

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