The Speakers and Issues Series was born in 2001, thanks to the vision of co-founders Dr. Charles Olson
and Mr. John Hirschi and out of discussions between academicians and members of the community, all centered
on the idea of bringing, on a regular basis, informed and creative speakers to the community in a context that
would attract an audience from the academic and municipal communities. The range of topics was
conceived to encompass a broad spectrum of topics from the creative to the historical, the political, and the
scientific spheres. Speakers and Issues Series has brought to campus more than 20 speakers that have come
from all corners of the world of human knowledge.