Political candidates, entertainment icons in series lineup
Though the end of his reign is quickly approaching with the advent of the February Student Government elections, Student Body President Joe Wright is excited about the months ahead.
Since late October, Wright and his colleagues in Student Government have been organizing a speaker series that will span from January to March and include political pundits, entertainment icons and even a New York Times journalist.
The first visitor comes to campus Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the form of presidential candidate, former Utah governor and U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, who will host a town hall meeting at 3 p.m. in the Darla Moore School’s Business Hall of Fame on the eighth floor of the Close/Hipp Building. Huntsman’s visit is the first of what Wright hopes will be USC stops for all of the presidential campaigns, both Republicans and incumbent President Barack Obama.
Wright has invited all of the candidates to campus to spread their messages on Tuesday, Jan. 17, and said while not all are confirmed, he expects contingencies from all campaigns, if not all the candidates themselves, to make appearances at the Greene Street event. He said if candidates confirm their appearances, he will look into reserving the Russell House Ballroom or Theater.
“I want to encourage students to get more informed on current events on campus, whether it be political or news-related,” Wright said. “With the South Carolina primary coming up, a lot of it hinges on that. My goal is to get students more engaged in the community and what’s going on because, obviously, national politics impact state and local politics. And it’s a great way for people to get hyped up about politics and whatever they’re interested in.”
But the series won’t end with the South Carolina Republican presidential primary on Jan. 21; SG has also locked down South Carolina State Treasurer Curtis Loftis to speak the following Monday, Jan. 23, in the Gambrell auditorium.
A week later, New York Times media reporter Jeremy Peters will come to Carolina, thanks to SG’s sponsorship of the paper’s readership program on campus. Peters will speak to students in the Capstone Conference room.
“I wanted another way to engage students about current events and initiatives,” Wright said. “It’s relevant that Jeremy Peters covers most of the primary stuff and he’s also a very good journalist. It’s a good way to engage the student body and encourage them. But also just to help some journalism students and people who are interested in political science to see what the everyday life of a journalist is like.”
After January, the schedule gets a little uncertain. Wright has contacted former Gov. Mark Sanford and MTV’s “The Buried Life” cast about coming to campus, but no dates have been finalized. He expects to meet with Gov. Nikki Haley soon, and intends to invite her to visit as well. A Coca-Cola executive might speak in February.
And aside from hotel and travel arrangements for Sanford and the semesterly $6,300 that funds the New York Times Readership program, Wright expects the whole series to be free of cost to the university — even “The Buried Life,” which cost Carolina Productions $25,000 of the organization’s student activity fee-based budget, when the cast visited last year.
“Especially in today’s economy, it’s important to engage the student body in ways that are financially sound, because our operating budget is based off their fees,” Wright said. “I want to make sure we’re using their activity fees as responsibly as possible. And that’s why I launched the speaker series — to see who we could get for the lowest price but also of the highest quality, too. It’s just worked out that we’ve had some really great people come through for a very reasonable price, or hardly anything. I think the speaker series overall shows you can do a whole lot if you get a little creative with your resources.”