2-day culture and history symposium set for Sept. 15 Aug 25 2000 12:00AM By By DORI CLAYTOR Daily Star Staff Writer Hodding Carter III will speak Sept. 15 as part of a two-day culture and history symposium at the university his father helped open 75 years and one day earlier. Carter, president and chief executive officer of John S. and James I. Knight Foundation, was press secretary to President Jimmy Carter. His family has roots in Hammond where his father, Pultizer Prize-winning journalist Hodding Carter II, ran a daily newspaper in the early 1930s. Carter's speech titled "Reflections on a Rooted Life," the symposium and a Sept. 14 communitywide celebration party are part of Southeastern Louisiana University's 75th anniversary observance. The celebration party, which University President Sally Clausen described as a "cross between an Olympic opening ceremony and a high-paced Super Bowl half-time show" will be held Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. in the University Center. The event will include music and demonstrations. The symposium, "Louisiana's Florida Parishes: Continuity and Change, 1699-2000," will feature regional, national and international scholars, exhibits, folklife demonstrations and musical performances including the Piney Woods Opry Roadshow, which will begin that night at 6 p.m. "Despite a rich cultural heritage, only a few historians and academics have studied the region," said Sam Hyde, director of SLU's Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies, the symposium host. "This will be the first-ever gathering that focuses scholarly attention on southeastern Louisiana's curious and colorful history." When Southeastern opened its doors as a junior college Sept. 14, 1925, 40 students attended classes on the upper floor of Hammond High School. Now, more than 15,000 students are enrolled in classes on a growing a campus on the north side of the city.