Lecture series offers opportunity to students, community

Boise State’s Distinguished Lecture Series brings speakers to campus twice a year who have had an impact on social, scientific and other fields on a national and international level. The first of the series of lectures brought Terry Waite, a hostage negotiator captured and held in solitary confinement for five years, to a crowd of close to 1,300 people last spring. “We lean toward people who have made a major contribution to their field,” said Greg Raymond, Honors College director and chairman of the Lecture Series Committee. Raymond said the committee also looks for people who have won Nobel or Pulitzer prizes.”We’re looking for top-end speakers,” he said. The series is designed to bring world class speakers to the university and the greater community in the valley.

“These are people who we wouldn’t ordinarily get to hear from,” said Raymond. “We might read their work or hear of them, but this is a chance to actually hear them.” According to Raymond, there were a number of people across the campus who felt as though the university had reached a point in its development where the series was a natural progression. Raymond said the committee plans to invite speakers from the sciences, the literary world and eventually represent the whole spectrum of disciplines in the university. “Terry Waite was a hostage negotiator and from Great Britain, this speaker is from a different part of the world,” said Raymond. “Part of the idea is to bring a variety of people to speak.”

Raymond said the committee discovers many small, yet important details that need dealt with when a speaker arrives. Even the podium can be an issue. “Terry Waite is 6 foot 7, so we had to work on getting an appropriately sized podium,” said Raymond. “We also had to work out a system so that everyone else who spoke felt comfortable.” Raymond expects about 1,000 people at the Ramos-Horta lecture, though he said it is hard to estimate the number at this time. “Once the series becomes institutionalized, like the Frank Church Conference, people will begin to mentally mark the calendar for these events,” he said.

Matt Neznanski

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