Today, Sue Johanson will be speaking in Lab Sciences 300. And it is going to be packed. The demand to see the Canadian sex educator is expected to be so high, in fact, that a remote broadcast is also planned just to make sure that everybody who wants to see her will have that opportunity. Clearly, being able to get Johanson to come to campus is a coup for Campus Programming Council and for the Student Health Advisory Committee. One has to wonder, however: for a University with the resources of Wash. U., why are such coups so irregular?
This is especially true in the context of the Assembly Series. For years, there has been extensive discussion on whether or not the Assembly Series is in trouble, and if so, how to save it. In a Nov. 15, 2004 staff editorial, the Student Life editorial board advocated cutting funding for the Assembly Series, while stating, “It would be wholly appropriate, for example, to fund speakers that will draw large numbers of students, like Mo Rocca or William Kristol, or speakers specifically invited by student groups.” Fortunately, this appears to be the direction that organizers of the Assembly Series have taken, and to make the Assembly Series relevant, this should continue.
Since that staff editorial was written, there have been big name speakers that have captured students’ attentions. Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, and Bill Nye the Science Guy have spoken at the Assembly Series to full houses. And the Nov. 14, 2006 issue of Student Life reported that Student Union Treasury approved funding for four student groups to bring speakers to the Assembly Series. However, when this semester’s Assembly Series line-up was rolled out, there were no Bill Nyes. The biggest names announced thus far, with two speakers yet to be announced, are Christopher Buckley, the writer of “Thank You For Smoking” and Paul Rusesabagina, the Rwandan humanitarian whose actions were the basis for the movie Hotel Rwanda. Buckley’s speech could be as funny as his book, and Rusesabagina could give one of the most inspiring addresses that the Assembly Series has seen. Those speeches will likely only garner just a small fraction of the attendance that Sue Johanson will have.
For the Assembly Series to be successful, it needs to be an all or nothing affair when it comes to attracting speakers other than those brought by specific campus groups. On Wednesday, Naruddin Farah gave a speech as part of the Assembly Series entitled “Political Islam and Clan in Present-day Somalia.” Given the recent conflicts in Somalia, this was an incredibly timely speech that would have been beneficial for members of the campus community to hear. There was barely a mention of this speech among the student body, however. The money spent bringing Farah and other unknown speakers to campus is wasted if their lectures, however enlightening they might be, fall on deaf ears. Sexy speakers, like what MacFarlane and Nye were to the Assembly Series and what Johanson will be on Friday, are needed to make the Assembly Series a valuable asset to Washington University students.