House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Governor of Tennessee and former Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander will speak at the College later this month as part of the April 15 to 25 Senior Symposium events.
Former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson may speak at the symposium's closing event, but he has not yet confirmed. Regardless of whether Jackson can come or not, "these speakers will make for a great symposium," said Arvidas Remeza '98, one of the symposium coordinators.
Gingrich will speak on April 15 about one of his books and Alexander will speak on April 20 about education reform in a speech titled "Education: We Know What to Do."
Gingrich was invited to the Senior Symposium in 1996, themed "They Said It Couldn't Be Done," but declined the offer.
In addition, a number of professors and other guests have been invited to the symposium events. All will speak on topics related to this year's theme, "Challenging the Status Quo: Modern Day Revolutionaries."
The chairs of the 1998 Class Council committee which organizes the symposium are Kevin Arista '98, Anne Kanyusik '98 and Remeza.
Kanyusik said the group selected the theme because it covers a wide variety of interesting topics and speakers and relates to "the senior class and the community." The theme relates to students' entering the job world after Commencement.
Past symposium themes have included "What is American Culture?" and "Making Love Out of Nothing At All."
The Indigo Girls' concert on April 24 in Leede Arena, organized in conjunction with the Programming Board, is another symposium event.
In addition, the senior class will select the three professors they think are the "most inspiring" to speak at a week-long lunch series in the Collis Center Common Ground. The professors will speak on some revolutionary aspect of their field of study.
Remeza said he hopes faculty members from the art history, studio art or women's studies departments will be selected because those departments are least represented at the symposium.
Kanyusik said the lunch series with members of the faculty will show attendees that qualified speakers are present within the Dartmouth community.
"I'm excited about the pack of speakers in general. I'm very interested to see what they have to say," said Kanyusik, another symposium organizer.
Planning for this year's symposium began early last spring. The symposium planning committee sent invitations to over 100 guest speakers. Among the invited were Vice President Al Gore, poet Maya Angelou, actress Ellen DeGeneres, author Tom Wolfe and baseball pitcher Jim Abbott.
The schedule of events and list of speakers will be solidified later this week.
In the past, speakers for the Senior Symposium have been chosen from outside of the Hanover community.
The Class of 1978 began the Senior Symposium as an intellectual gift of the senior class to the College.
The events are open to the Dartmouth and Upper Valley communities.
