Student Union (SU) Treasury selected next year’s guest speakers for the 2019-2020 Trending Topics series on Sunday.

With a budget of $225,000, SU nominated an all-female ballot: singer and songwriter Janelle Monae; former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams; Olympic gymnast and advocate for survivors of sexual abuse Aly Raisman; environmental justice advocate Majora Carter and president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America Leana Wen.

Although Treasury selected five speakers for their final ballot, none of the speakers selected are guaranteed to appear on campus until their contracts are signed. The waitlist for speakers, in the case that others may not be able to appear, includes names such as actress Sandra Oh, former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, author Neil Gaiman and president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee David Miliband.

Graphic by Christine Watridge

SU representatives had to weigh the price of the speaker, the potential for student engagement, the insight and longevity of the conversation these speakers would bring to campus and the political environment of an election year to select a well-rounded roster of speakers.

“I’m pretty satisfied with how the final ballot looks,” Speaker of the Treasury junior Agneesh Dasgupta said. “Just in terms of the resources that we have, like a limited amount of money and this number of qualified speakers, I think Treasury really took their time and did their best to cover the best range of topics that we thought were trending and relevant to the student body on campus and representing our constituents’ interests.”

Janelle Monae, the most expensive of the proposed speakers, was suggested by Pride Alliance. Although Treasury members had a contentious debate over inviting Monae or two less expensive speakers Bharara and Miliband, Monae was eventually approved for the final ballot.

Treasury members selected Monae due to her name recognition and her ability to speak to intersectional identities as a black woman in the LGBTQIA* community. SU Activities Committee Chairs sophomore Alexa Jochims said Monae has the ability to “reach a variety of marginalized identities on campus.”

“I think this is a very tangible way to provide those students who don’t feel SU is representing them well a chance to feel represented on campus,” Jochims said.

Stacey Abrams was proposed jointly by College Democrats and Teaching Racial Understanding Through Honesty (T.R.U.T.H.). Abrams was the first black, female gubernatorial nominee for a major party, narrowly losing the Georgia governor’s mansion in 2016. She has since become a voting rights advocate and delivered the Democratic rebuttal to President Trump’s 2019 State of the Union.

College Democrats president sophomore Arik Wolk stressed that Abrams’ appearance would take place during an election year and said Abrams “would be able to talk about the importance of voting and the democratic process.”

T.R.U.T.H. member freshman Kirk Linam said with Abrams on campus, he could anticipate collaborations with campus entities, like the Gephardt Institute, centered around voter turnout.

Linam said that inviting Abrams to campus would be a valuable way for the student body to demonstrate its allyship with students of color and “have a conversation about social justice.”

“Recently there has been a lot of discourse about how we can best support marginalized groups,” Linam said. “I think this is the best way to do it.”

Majora Carter, who was proposed by the Student Environmental Council (SEC), was described by SEC president senior Sydney Welter as a “world-renowned urban revitalization strategist.” Carter spearheaded the push to convert Hunts Point Riverside Park from an illegal dumping ground to the South Bronx’s first waterfront in over 60 years.

SEC Chair senior Hannah Schanzer highlighted Carter’s “intersectional and interdisciplinary appeal.”

“She’s a woman of color in the environmental movement and urban planning movement, both of which have been white-male dominated for all of history,” Schanzer said.

Welter said Carter’s presence would stimulate discussions about environmental justice that “students have become more and more interested in having.”

“St. Louis faces a great degree of environmental injustice, and we need to get students on campus outside of our Wash. U. bubble and thinking about and engaging with our greater St. Louis community,” Welter said.

Welter said SEC is considering several green community events in conjunction with Carter’s speech, including volunteering at the urban farm EarthDance in Ferguson, or touring a rooftop farm in downtown St. Louis.

Aly Raisman was proposed by Leaders in Interpersonal Violence Education (L.I.V.E.). Raisman was the captain of the 2012 and 2016 women’s Olympic gymnastics teams, leading both to overall team gold medals. She has recently been celebrated for her role as an advocate for sexual assault survivors, having testified against former U.S. gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar in his 2018 trial.

L.I.V.E. member junior Olivia Emanuel says Raisman can kickstart much needed conversations about sexual assault-prevention on campus.

“As a survivor of sexual abuse, a prominent figure in both the #MeToo movement and the case against Larry Nassar and a three-time gold medalist, she will bring a fresh perspective to the campus conversation,” Emanuel said.

Raisman launched the “Flip the Switch” campaign in 2018, which focuses on training adults involved in athletics to recognize the signs of sexual abuse and intervene.

“Her position at the intersection of violence prevention work and athletics, combined with her success on the Olympic stage, has garnered attention from many student groups on campus,” Emanuel said.

Emanuel also read aloud a statement from the Sexual Assault and Rape Anonymous Hotline (S.A.R.A.H.).

“We think that hearing a firsthand survivor narrative will not only be empowering and impactful for survivors themselves, but also vital to create a campus culture of empathy… for survivors of sexual abuse,” the statement read.

Leana Wen was proposed jointly by MedX and the Chinese Students Association (CSA). Wen, an alumnus of Washington University Medical School, is the current president of Planned Parenthood. She was formerly the Baltimore Health Commissioner, where she was lauded for helping stymie the city’s opioid overdose epidemic.

The presenters highlighted her compelling life story as a draw for the event. Wen came from humble roots and grew up with a severe stutter, yet enrolled in college at the age of 13 and was awarded a Rhodes scholarship at 18.

CSA member sophomore Annie Zhou said Wen would be able to bridge the gap between students with differing views on abortion, while also starting a conversation about Planned Parenthood’s role in immigrant communities.

“Abortion rights and Planned Parenthood affect everyone, no matter who you are,” Zhou said. “So we really think by having her on campus, no matter what your stance is on the issue, she’ll be able to bring the conversation back into the limelight.”

Although SU was eventually able to agree to a final ballot proposal, VP of administration sophomore Nia Plump and Dasgupta intervened when the discussion got heated to set some discussion rules for the legislative session.

The guidelines included directives like “avoid[ing] ‘checkboxes’ in ballot discussion,” and acknowledging “nuance in speaker comparison” to combat language from some representatives that some topics had already been “covered” due to the racial and gender identities of the proposed speakers.

This intervention highlighted patterns in SU legislative sessions, like members objecting to votes in order to jump the line and speak before other members, and perceptions of tokenization when it comes to representation of different identities on campus.

“In the future, just having, evaluating, those processes again, getting more stakeholders’ voices in the room and outside of the room to get more feedback on how the process can be improved is that something that I definitely want to look at, look for the next year, for the next session,” Dasgupta said.

“We are not here for ourselves. We are not here for our egos. We are here to represent our constituents. This is not about us; this is about Wash. U. as a whole,” Plump said.