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8. Potential visiting speakers whom student groups desire to address contested ideas/controversial topics and/or who may be likely to advocate positions contrary to the College’s theological and moral convictions/identity can be welcome additions to campus programming; the development and evaluation of a thoroughly Christian perspective can be strengthened by critical interaction with differing points of view. Potential visiting speakers should strengthen participants’ commitment to the College’s mission to educate whole persons For Christ and His Kingdom.
Procedures
After reflecting on the above policy, the following procedures, outlined on the Visiting Speaker Request Form available in the Student Activities Office, must be completed by students from the sponsoring group(s).
1. State the name of the student group that desires to invite a visiting speaker and what department, program, school, or office recognizes the group.
2. State the mission of the student group and how the potential visiting speaker could advance this mission and the College mission.
3. Describe the desired outcome(s) for the potential visiting speaker.
4. Conduct research about the potential visiting speaker(s) (e.g., personal websites, books/articles written by/about them, social media platforms such as blogs, vlogs, podcasts, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc.). Include the search word “controversy” along with the potential visiting speaker’s name and note past controversies as well as the context surrounding such controversies.
5. Please review the Ethic of Care to Prevent Stereotyping in Student Programming, located in the Student Handbook, then test the potential impact of the potential speaker on the variety of Wheaton College community members.
6. Share all the results with the student group’s faculty or staff advisor in order to identify if any concerns rule out the person under consideration for not being able to advance the mission of the student group, accomplish the intended outcome, contribute to the College’s mission, and/or because the speaker will likely be insensitive to the Wheaton College context.
7. Potential visiting speakers, if approved by the student group’s faculty or staff advisor after the research step above are completed to her/his satisfaction, may be contacted to explore the potential speaker’s interest, availability, honorarium expectations and estimated expenses (i.e. travel, food), with no invitation extended by the student group. Determine the exact title of the potential visiting speaker’s lecture/presentation. If the potential visiting speaker already has a prepared title for her/his lecture/presentation, the group should discuss if the title is of interest and if it advances the mission of the student group or the intended outcome of the program, while contributing to the College’s mission with sensitivity to the Wheaton context.
8. Draft marketing content (e.g. poster, campus announcement text, etc.) must be designed
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