Tom Beckman, a retired lieutenant colonel taking courses at the U, was privy to lots of secret information.
“I had the absolute highest clearance you could get,” he said. “[But] it doesn’t make a difference how high your clearance is — if you don’t have a need to know, you don’t get it.”
The U, however, wants you to know. Next week is “Secrecy Week,” with a series of lectures and films surrounding government secrecy and surveillance in the U.S.
There will be a showing of “Citizenfour,” a movie about famed NSA leaker Edward Snowden, on Monday at 7 p.m. in the Marriott Library’s Gould Auditorium. Glenn Greenwald, a journalist who wrote on the information leaked by Snowden, will also speak on campus Tuesday at the UMFA at 7 p.m. This event is sold out, but the public can watch a live-streaming at www.utah.edu/live.
Wednesday’s lecture, “The Modern Surveillance State: Two Views from the 18th Century” on historical surveillance, will be on BYU’s campus. As part of the week-long event, there will also be a secrecy exhibit on the fourth floor of the Marriott Library and another lecture on Thursday.
Brandon Nemelka, a senior in philosophy, is skeptical about the purpose of Secrecy Week.
“Secrecy’s a problem, but it’s a strange thing to focus on,” he said.
Secrecy Week runs April 6 to 9. A complete listing of events and speakers can be found at humanities.utah.edu/secrecy-week.
@SeymourSkimmer