When NY1 Anchor and Reporter Cheryl Wills stumbled upon the name Sandy Wills during a lazy Internet search, she discovered that her great-great-great-grandfather was a runaway slave who fought for the North in the Civil War and her reporter's instincts immediately kicked in. Less than a year later, Wills has written and published Die Free: A Heroic Family History which she presented through words, music and pictures to a rapt audience on Tuesday, November 9 at St. Francis College.

St. Francis College Professor of Fine Arts Suzanne Forsberg was honored by her alma mater, the University of Utah with the 2010 Merit of Honor for Distinguished Service, November 4 at a banquet hosted by the University of Utah Alumni Association and the Emeritus Alumni Board.

The St. Francis College Muslim Student Association hosted the discussion, Islam: Life Against Terror with Imam Mazen Mokhtar a member of the New Jersey Chapter of the Muslim American Society (MAS) on November 4 in Founders Hall.

St. Francis College, founded in 1859 by the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, is located in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. Since its founding, the College has pursued its Franciscan mission to provide an affordable, high-quality education to students from New York City’s five boroughs and beyond. ### St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201 www.sfc.edu

An equal mix of St. Francis College students, Manhattan Institute supporters and the larger community were on hand to hear how the Tea Party movement, which has gotten enormous attention in other parts of the country, is affecting New York politics. The debate, Are the Tea Parties Good for New York?, held October 28 at St. Francis, was co-sponsored by St. Francis College and the Manhattan Institute and featured Steve Malanga of the Manhattan Institute and Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of the Slate Group

United States District Judge Paul G. Gardephe gave a crowded room of students and members of the St. Francis College community a comprehensive talk on the importance of the American judicial system and the way the court system works on Monday, October 18 at the College.

A theater full of St. Francis College students watched clips of a forthcoming documentary then participated in a lively discussion afterwards on how popular culture teaches men and women to be misogynists and how that can stopped. The session, on October 14, was recorded for possible use in the final version of filmmaker Thomas Keith's new film, The Manual for Building Dysfunctional Men (and How to Make Repairs).

From buy outs for slave owners and colonization to the Emancipation Proclamation, Eric Foner, one of the nation's foremost historians, separated reality from myth and told a crowd at St. Francis College on Tuesday, October 12 about the evolution of Abraham Lincoln's views on slavery. The talk was based on Foner's just released book, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.

More than 100 professors, grad students, independent scholars, and museum professionals from across the country and as far away as Paris, Francs came to St. Francis College for the Association of Historians of American Art's (AHAA) first even independent symposium, "Current Research in American Art" from October 7 to 9.

Five Franciscan Brothers, all graduates of St. Francis College, celebrated their Jubilees Sunday, October 3 at The Immaculate Conception Center in Douglaston. Superior General of the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn Brother William Boslet, O.S.F. '70, another graduate, attended the Mass, which was celebrated by Most Reverend John C. Dunne, DD, Auxiliary Bishop of Rockville Centre.