Anyone who attended the ULSU’s March 26th Last Lecture event knows that you don’t need to bring in a big name with a big book deal in order to get students excited for an on-campus lecture. I attended several talks last year by world-renowned authors at which I was able to count the number of undergraduates in the audience on my two hands. The audience for the Last Lecture, on the other hand, was well beyond capacity. On a campus known for student apathy and a general lack of interest in academic life, Students Union volunteers were turning people away at the door! The rows were packed, seating was exhausted, and the edges of the classroom were lined with eager listeners.
“Why so much hype?,” you might ask. Was it because the event promoted like mad? Did everyone happen to have the same night off work? Was there some sort of nefarious conspiracy by the speakers to blackmail those students who would otherwise be drinking their faces off at a neighbourhood pub?
While I have no definite answer, I suspect that no one of the suggestions above was a deciding factor in the overwhelming popularity of the event. I suspect, rather, that students were genuinely excited to hear from their very own U of L profs. The fact is, the success of the event is not particularly closely related to the prominence of the speaker. Of course, I will go nuts over a talk by Thomas Homer-Dixon, or Jeffrey Simpson, or whomever, as will a small group of my friends, but we are a small group indeed. There are few authors or academics whose names alone will draw a crowd. Those whose names will draw a crowd are those who are known to the students, and those who are most often known to the students are those brilliant men and women who make up our own faculty.
For many students, a good professor is one of the people they look up to most. Everyone at this school has a few favourite professors who they’d love to see at an evening lecture, unrestrained by the narrow confines of course material. I know I can think of a few. It’s evident that each of the three professors who spoke at the last lecture has such a following.
What I’d like from you, dear readers, is your own list of suggestions as to which on-campus stars the ULSU should approach as speakers (or alternately, performers) at student events. I’m not talking strictly about the Last Lecture. Ever since witnessing the outstanding success of the last lecture, I’ve been pondering the huge amount of potential that the ULSU has missed out on by failing to focus more strongly on faculty-centred events. Of course, these don’t have to be faculty, per se; if you know of any grad students or staff who would put on a brilliant student event, please include them in your suggestions.
Please send your suggestions to su.academic@uleth.ca. You can also visit me (SU 180) or phone me (329-2770) during business hours.
