The University will commemorate the lives lost in the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami in south Asia with a campus observance at 4 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 10) in 101 Olscamp Hall.

The event, which is open to the public, will include reflections by two BGSU graduate students and a post-doctoral faculty fellow, all from India, and by local spiritual leaders from the Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu and Christian faiths. Afterward, the World Student Association will accept donations for the American Red Cross for tsunami relief.

The BGSU Collegiate Chorale will perform three numbers during the observance, which will open and close with the striking of the Kusuma Sari, a bronze gong from the University’s gamelan (a group of instruments made together).

Dr. David Harnish, ethnomusicology, will strike the gong 11 times to symbolize the 11 countries directly affected by the tsunami. The Kusuma Sari, or Inner Flower, was forged in Bali, Indonesia—one of the nations hardest hit—and is the same kind of gong found in Sumatra, Indonesia, where Aceh and North Sumatra provinces were among the areas most tragically affected.

Each representing the BGSU Department of Biological Sciences, the three speakers from India include Arup Chakraborty, who is also president of the University’s World Student Association and will discuss the global impact of the tsunami; Dr. Ravindra Kolhe, a medical doctor who will relate his experiences as part of the relief effort, and Dr. Vincent Theraisnathan, a post-doctoral faculty fellow who will look to the future of the impacted area.

Providing spiritual reflections will be Dr. Achahn Chuen Pangcham, from the Midwest Buddhist Meditation Center in Warren, Mich.; Imam Farooq Aboelzahab, from the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo; Temple Priest Anant Dixit, from the Hindu Temple of Toledo, and the Rev. Ken Morman and Sister Mary Kuhlman, both from St. Thomas More University Parish in Bowling Green.

Directed by Dr. Mark Munson, music education, the Collegiate Chorale will perform “Motherless Child,” an African-American spiritual arranged by Adolphus Hailstork and featuring soloists Chris Watkins and Renée Schwarz; “Fürchte dich nicht (Fear Not),” by Bach, and “Set Me As a Seal,” by René Clausen.

Dr. William Balzer, associate vice president and dean of Continuing and Extended Education, will give introductory remarks. A moment of silence will also be observed, directed by program hosts Alex Wright, president of Undergraduate Student Government (USG), and Luke Nichter, president of Graduate Student Senate (GSS).

USG, GSS and the World Student Association are sponsoring the program along with the Center for International Programs, the Office of Campus Involvement and the College of Musical Arts.