Speakers Board needs students

Student fees fund Portland State’s Educational Activities Speakers Board, a committee of six representatives from across campus that helps student groups and academic departments bring speakers to campus. However, the board is currently suffering from understaffing and a lack of visibility.

The Speakers Board consists of three students, chosen by the ASPSU president, and three faculty members, chosen by the Faculty Senate, according to Shannon Timm, the future adviser to the Speakers Board and a current adviser for Student Activities and Leadership Programs.

This year, however, only two students have remained on the board, according to Timm.

“The last couple of years, [the board has] struggled,” she said.

When a new ASPSU president takes office, they often make appointing students to the Speakers Board a low priority because they already have so much to learn, Timm said. In addition, appointees are not always fully prepared for the commitment. 

In order to curb this problem, SALP hopes to recruit student members for the Speaker’s Board, according to Timm.

“Interested people should contact student government,” she said.

According to Timm, next year big changes are in the works for the Speakers Board.

“I anticipate that a year from now [the board] is going to look really different,” she said. “It’s just been a little neglected.”

To date, the Speakers Board has worked almost entirely behind the scenes. However, beginning next year, Timm said she hopes to work on “leadership development with the students” on the board.

Timm said she also plans to update its website–which is currently a link to a PDF file–and create “some branding” to increase the visibility of the board and the speakers it brings to campus.

With a yearly budget of approximately $35,000, the Speakers Board typically helps student groups and departments bring 10 to 15 speakers to campus each year, according to its website.

Though the board provides anywhere from $100 to $2,000 for a given event, individual student groups and departments have a cap of $3,000 per year, Timm said.

However, because of the planning required to not only bring a speaker to campus, but also to prepare a proposal to request funding from the Speakers Board, student groups sometimes struggle to make use of these funds.

Timm said she blames the quarter system because the fast pace and tight scheduling make it difficult to plan an event so far in advance.

Though the importance of some aspects of proposals depends on the year, “Things that are always important are completed details of when and where the events are going to be,” Timm said.

In addition, the Speakers Board gives preference to the proposals that do not charge a fee to PSU students, according to its website.

Proposals must also demonstrate that a wide range of people are interested in the speaker. It supports only those events that “benefit the entire campus,” Timm said.

There are also university rules regarding what the board can pay. For instance, it cannot reimburse a company that has paid a speaker to come to PSU, she said. The board can pay the speaker an honorarium, or for his or her travel, but they cannot pay for both expenses.

Despite some problems of maintaining board members and planning ahead, the Speakers Board helped bring Dr. Hunter “Patch” Adams to PSU in February of 2009.

Adam’s honorarium was $14,000, which was well over the $2,000 cap for an individual event. As a result, those who arranged the visit combined a number of sources, in addition to the funds allocated by the Speakers Board.

Though student groups must submit a proposal at least one month before the event for which they are requesting funds, Timm said student groups should plan far ahead with their SALP advisers to ensure that the board will help fund it.

“There is really not very much that you can’t do if you think far enough in advance,” she said. “Over the summer be thinking about who you want to come in the winter.”

For more information about the Speakers Board, visit its website at www.web.pdx.edu/~salp/pdf/SpeakersBoardGuidelines&Application.pdf.