COLA to select 2006 MSE chairs

The Committee on Leadership Appointments (COLA) is currently receiving applications to chair next year's Milton S. Eisenhower (MSE) Symposium.

When elected, the chairmen are responsible for raising funds, one issue this years chairs faced.

COLA will be considering various criteria in their selection, such as leadership experience and the strength of the candidates' proposals, especially their plans for fundraising and for getting their proposed speakers to campus as well as publicizing the events.

COLA member junior Neil Shenai said, "Since fundraising is the lifeblood of any good symposium, a clearly delineated plan for funding the symposium, both through the appropriated Student Council grant and outside donations is important."

"Anybody can take a group of famous, intelligent people and put their names on a piece of paper," he added.

The current co-chairs will also provide their input in the selection process. Co-chair senior William Ares said, "We will be sitting in on the interviews with the candidates and will offer our opinions of their proposals but will not have a vote in the process -- that is the job of COLA."

The new chairs will also be faced with the task of raising funds to supplement the nearly $40,000 in seed money from COLA.

Ares said, "I would advise people applying for the MSE chairs to come to the table with fresh fundraising ideas, as the opportunities that were enjoyed by chairs before us are no longer an option. I would venture to say that fundraising and new fundraising strategies will be the tipping point as to which team becomes the chairs."

 This year, the MSE symposium was short of funds compared to last year's series due in part to a change in the SAC's guidelines on co-sponsorship which now only allow one group, the MSE Symposium, to apply for SAC funds for the event.

In the past, student groups such as the College Democrats and the ACLU have helped cover various costs for a speaker, but this is prohibited under the new guidelines.

Ares said, "All things considered, this new policy cuts back on MSE funding by about $1,000 per event (which would have been $6,000 this year)." 

Funding is important since it may dictate the caliber of speakers the symposium is able to present, which then determine the audience and the successfulness of the series.

Shenai said, "COLA has found that the popularity of an event tends to be inelastic to the amount of publicity it receives, and wholly dependent on the notoriety of the speaker."

This year's symposium has been criticized for a lack of celebrity speakers as compared to past years, but which co-chair Emilie Adams believes did not detract from the quality of the series.

Adams explained, "While fundraising was a weakness, it was not due to a lack of effort. Also, the News-Letter at one point presented our speaker choices as a consequence of fundraising weaknesses -- that is, implying that these speakers were chosen due to a lack of funds. This is definitely not true, and peering through our original proposal from last fall reveals we were faithful to many of our original picks."

Although leadership and fundraising are most important, political ideology of the speakers also plays a role in the symposium.

"I believe that one thing we did well this year that other teams should strive to do as well was to put on an ideologically balanced symposium," Adams said, "with speakers from both sides of the political aisle as well a speakers who were not particularly political but engaged the audience on topics never before covered, such as Neal Baer's lecture on Medicine and Hollywood which enjoyed a sizable crowd who thoroughly enjoyed the presentation."

Above all, Shenai said COLA is "looking for raw qualifications to run the symposium, first and foremost.  Political ideology, 'connections,' and any other nebulous measures of performance are all secondary to the ability of each potential co-chair."

Applications for the position are due on Dec. 5, and the interview process will begin Dec. 12.