Guest lectures and brown bag events are common on Colgate University’s campus. Each week, different departments host these speakers for presentations and conversations between students and faculty. Not only are the lectures a great way to learn about current events, detailed research and new career interests, but they also connect students and professors outside of the classroom uniquely. Both Colgate students and professors attend to learn, ask questions and engage in thoughtful conversations. I believe that these events should receive more support from the school — not that the school needs to support more guest speakers or host more events, but that it should instead improve outreach and information to the student body. Colgate does a wonderful job of inviting a wide variety of professionals, including alumni, visiting professors and researchers, with detailed presentations to share their stories. However, attending a guest speaker event outside of one’s major or hearing about any guest speaker for students without declared majors requires more than a quick Google search. 

In an age of quick consumption of media and digital dopamine, Colgate needs a new system to clearly promote and advertise their speaker events. The Colgate Events Calendar is an all-inclusive guide to virtually every publicized event on campus, but one must scroll through many events, meetings and activities to find speeches. The calendar does contain a filter tab that allows users to select event formats to search for lectures, colloquia, seminars and many other options, but the calendar still does not include every guest and requires a level of effort that not every student is willing to exert. Though some students feels that the time spent looking for future guests is not a problem, it ultimately hinders the value of the events. The events calendar counts as publicity, but it doesn’t feel like true advertising. Personally, I am much more likely to add a guest lecture to my Google Calendar if I don’t have to search for it online. 

Colgate departments generally do a good job of advertising relevant speakers and events to students in their area of study, but they lack a way to easily communicate with more students. The unique student-professor connection during these events is certainly more prominent when study interests are aligned and familiar faces fill the seats around you, but it doesn’t encourage as many new subjects and experiences as possible. Colgate’s strong liberal arts values and interdisciplinary Core Curriculum provide every student with a well-rounded and unique academic experience. In my opinion, guest events are an incredible way to boost — and boast — the valuable knowledge that Colgate can provide. 

As a political science major, I look out for notifications from the department about upcoming guests and events that may interest me. I also intermittently check the events calendar for events outside of my direct academic focus. However, I often go about my week and miss events I wish I knew about earlier or could have been advertised in a mass email. I believe that a newsletter sign-up for different fields of study and disciplines could help solve this problem if it more efficiently notified interested students of relevant events. While this system of advertising would certainly require more effort from professors and staff who already attract incredible speakers and a wide variety of event types, it has the potential to increase student participation and attendance greatly. A Google Form sent to students with a variety of talks from various disciplines to sign up for could do exactly that. 

It is important to note that Colgate professors do a great job of advertising such events in their classes and even providing occasional extra credit for attendance-related assignments. While required or rewarded attendance at certain events is one great way to expose students to new topics, it still doesn’t reach beyond the specific discipline or major. A political science-related event may have great attendance but a low diversity of student interests. While part of this makes perfect sense, and no one expects attendance from those with no interest in the subject, I believe a new advertisement system would increase exposure and diversity of interests among attendees.