Sophomores Jon Bernhardt and Nora Kritinsky, along with junior Jon Collins, have been selected to co-chair the 2007 MSE Symposium, the theme of which will be "Renewing American Culture: The Perspectives that Shape Our World."
The Committee On Leadership Appointments (COLA) and Student Council recently approved the co-chairs after a lengthy and complex selection process.
Three groups of three students applied, according to COLA member Jason Imbrogno, a senior. "Each group writes a proposal, usually in the area of 35 to 40 pages, that discusses potential themes and speakers for their symposium. The proposal also lays out any new ideas for the symposium that the group might have."
Krinitsky and Collins, who were on the symposium staff in 2006, applied for the co-chair positions as a group.
"Writing a proposal for the symposium is an intense process, as COLA requests information on basically every aspect of organizing the symposium and how you plan to do it," Krinitsky said. "They require things like your fundraising plan, potential speakers and ideas about what you will change and improve."
Next came group interviews
with each potential team.
"They try to get to know the applicants, as well as ask questions that were brought up while discussing the proposal, as well as offer thoughts and suggestions on making the Symposium more appropriate for the school," Collins said.
Imbrogno said that the interviews are a chance to gauge their commitment to the Symposium.
Junior Scott Montejunas, who is currently studying abroad, led COLA during the first semester, along with Imbrogno sophomore Chetan Malella, and freshman Alieu Kanu. Prior to winter break, the organization gave a unanimous vote of support for the group, followed by Student Council approving the selection.
Each co-chair is given a title based on their role in the planning of the Symposium. According to Imbrogno, traditionally the programming chair is most responsible for finding speakers and figuring out their logistics, while financing and publicity took their obvious roles.
However, Bernhardt, the programming chair, says the group plans to favor a more cohesive approach.
"If you don't have cooperation, things fall apart. We made the decision to make things more unified," Bernhardt said.
"Our goal is to work collaboratively throughout the year as the workload for each job fluctuates," said Collins.
As publicity chair, Collins's responsibilities include, creating and developing our program, posters, website, and other advertisements for the Symposium.
"My biggest responsibilities will come in the spring and over the summer, as we raise the neccesary funds to finance the Symposium," said Krinitsky, the fundraising chair. She plans to garner funds from grant applications, advertisement sales and individual donations.
"We'll continue to sell season tickets to those who wish to reserve a guaranteed seat at each event," she added.
The issue of funding is an important one for the Symposium.
"As speakers raise their fees, it becomes harder and harder to match them," said Collins.
"We need these resources to produce a successful Symposium," said Krinitsky. "In order to be sure that our fundraising is successful, planning and organization are essential."
She credited the 2006 co-chairs for their successful fundraising, adding that she did not feel there would be a need "to radically change our fundraising strategies. We will publicize the availability of season tickets more, which should also help with the publicity of the Symposium as well."
Krinitsky declined to state how much money they planned to raise or what sources will provide funding at this point in the process.
The next step for the co-chairs will be selecting and securing speakers for the Symposium. Although, Imbrogno said, "last year's group nailed down [2006 speaker] Newt Gingrich very early in the process," speakers have not currently been secured because staffing of the Symposium is still ongoing.
"We have an idea of who we want to bring, and as soon as we have a staff set up, we can get the ball rolling on that," said Bernhardt. He feels that the issue of what kinds of speakers to bring to campus is a complex one.
"We've been doing a better job identifying speakers that are not only interesting, but that students want to see. We want a diverse line up of speakers who are intriguing, but who also have mainstream appeal and name recognition."
"We try to reach out to variety of speakers, as well as cater to different audiences," said Collins. "We believe that it is important to find the speakers that many people will want to come see that will also deliver a speech to inspire significant intellectual discourse. In order to keep the audience engaged, we will try to keep a strong connection between our speakers and our theme."
"Attendance is always a problem. It seems like each event is isolated," said Bernhardt, who noted that interesting, but small-name, speakers have not been as successful. Without a big name, he noted, "students here are so focused on academics that it's hard to get them to come out to events."
The co-chairs have other plans to boost attendance besides securing high profile speakers. Bernhardt hoped to boost turnout by including a lecture during orientation for freshmen to get them interested.
Collins's plans include "recruiting a large staff to advertise around the city, which helped improve event turnout this year."
"Heck, it's a free speech with free food," he added.
