Robert M. Gates, U.S. secretary of defense from 2006-2011 and former director of the CIA, will kick off Wichita State University's inaugural Craig W. Barton Speaker Series this spring.
Gates, who grew up in Wichita, will be the featured speaker in the moderated discussion at 6 p.m. April 27, in WSU's Wiedemann Hall.
The event is free and open to campus and the public. The new speaker series was created as another opportunity to encourage free expression, critical thinking, and the engaging in discourse of various perspectives.
Individuals can reserve their free seat and learn more about the Craig W. Barton Series at wichita.edu/BartonSeries.
The new speaker series picks up where the WSU Forum Board Lecture Series left off.
Originally established in 1937 and discontinued in 2002, the series brought in over that time more than 500 national and internally known speakers, from poets to politicians.
