The low student attendance at the Assembly Series so far this fall has caused administrators and students alike to question how well the weekly series is realizing its mission.
According to Professor Jim Wertsch, chair of the committee that chooses speakers, the Assembly Series serves as a forum for the entire university
community.
Barbara Rea, director of major events for the Office of Public Affairs and coordinator of the Assembly Series, emphasized that the Assembly Series is not entertainment but serves educational purposes.
“Our mission is to bring people who our students wouldn’t be exposed to otherwise. We’re not going to bring David Letterman’s guests. If the students are only looking to be entertained, they’re not going to go to lectures,” Rea said.
This idea has invited debate over what speakers to bring to campus. While big-name speakers like Dr. Ruth and Al Franken were most likely to draw large numbers, some faculty members believed that speakers should be more academic and related to the curriculum at Washington University.
“I got a lot of flack for bringing Dr. Ruth,” said Rea.
On the other hand, students are more likely to attend lectures where they can relate to the speaker.
Further compounding the problem is the issue of class scheduling. It is official university policy not to schedule classes during the Assembly Series time, but some classes such as chemistry, Latin, photography and the major art studios conflict with the rule out of necessity.
For those students who do not have classes, the time slot often provides a needed break from classes for lunch and socializing. As a result, some students and committee members would like to see the Assembly Series moved to another time.
“It’s not convenient to give up a break in a long day. Even though you want to want to go to Assembly, you really want to veg for a while between classes,” said senior Petra Jacobsen.
While some students suggested moving the lectures to an evening time, Rea recognized that this would conflict with students’ extracurricular activities. According to Wertsch, the committee rejected moving the time slot because of these problems.
Many students voiced concerns about whether there is enough publicity to inform the students about upcoming lectures. Some freshmen said they had not heard of the Assembly Series, and even upperclassmen agreed they would like to see more publicity of the events.
To help increase awareness of the lectures, the Office of Public Affairs instituted a number of changes to its advertisement. It changed its fliers to include a description of the speaker. It also placed banners on oak walk and plans to use tent cards at eating locations.
Defenders of the Assembly Series point out that other universities suffer similar problems and that WU’s series is significantly better than most.
“Some universities get bigger speakers once or twice a semester, but on a routine basis, WU has better turnouts. At many other universities, students don’t know there is a lecture unless it’s one of the rare big speakers,” said Wertsch.
Some people also pointed out that the Office of Public Affairs dealt with a very complicated budgeting system. For each speaker, they must find either a student group or an academic department to co-sponsor the lecture. They must also secure funds from Student Union. Sometimes, an outside organization has donated funds with a request that they be used for a specific type of speaker, further complicating the issue.
“It’s a difficult process getting speakers that interest students,” said Rea, “but we do our homework.We don’t bat 100, but we’re close.”
Contact Tomer Cohen at [email protected].