Students will have the opportunity to learn outside the classroom today at a program called "What Can Conflict Teach Us?" The event is one of the activities scheduled as part of the Undergraduate Student Government's Unity Week.

The program is open to all students and will meet at noon on Old Main lawn. It is part of a longer-running series of outdoor education called "Classroom Without Walls", which began last year. Today's lecture will focus on conflict, its causes, how it affects people and ways to resolve it, said Sam Richards, a Penn State sociology professor and one of the organizers of today's event.

Three professors from the university and two speakers from the community will discuss subjects from Mahatma Ghandi to "the positive consequences of protest," according to the event's program.

"The goal is to respond to new questions," Richards said, "questions you don't ask because you don't think to."

This is the fifth "Classroom Without Walls" since it was started during last fall semester. Previous programs discussed the environment, democracy and education.

"It's an opportunity to learn without the confines of the classroom," Richards added.