UW to review lecture format

The university will establish a committee to create guidelines for groups sponsoring campus lectures, Chancellor David Ward says.

“I am asking students, academic staff and faculty to work together to formulate guidelines to help groups that use campus facilities design a forum that allows for a healthy and open exchange of ideas when a question-and- answer period is part of the programming,” Ward says. The chancellor said the committee will consist of students, staff and faculty, and members will be chosen in the next two weeks.

Ward’s announcement is prompted by concerns expressed over the ticket distribution, seating and question-and-answer arrangements of the Ward Connerly presentation Sept. 30. It comes after Ward met with students about the Connerly speech, which was not sponsored by the university.

“I continue to emphasize the need to guarantee free speech,” the chancellor says. “I also now better understand some of the frustrations felt by students of color and believe that this effort will help make more explicit the procedures for dialogue with speakers on this campus.”

Ward says the committee’s guidelines will be used to encourage groups using university facilities for public lectures to incorporate procedures that allow for audience participation. The Wisconsin Union Directorate, which sponsors the Distinguished Lecture Series, already has well-established procedures – a question-and-answer period with an open microphone follows the speaker’s presentation, and empty seats are made available to people without tickets 10 minutes before the presentation begins.

“These procedures will ensure that audiences can listen to, critically analyze and question speakers,” Ward said.