Building on its momentum from the Fall Semester, Ball State University's Excellence in Leadership Program, with the help of several co-sponsors, has booked more high-profile speakers, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Associate director of student life Mitch Isaacs, said Jackson will be the series' first speaker this semester on Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. The venue is still under consideration.
Isaacs said Chris Hughs, co-founder of Facebook and online coordinator for President Obama's campaign, was the original target to be this semester's first speaker, but that didn't work out. The company he worked with mentioned Jackson as a potential replacement because he recently went back on the speaking circuit.
'This all came together pretty quickly,' he said. 'We didn't get it finalized until last week and we didn't know about him until mid December.'
Jackson will talk about civil rights and how the country is living up to the expectations set during the Civil Rights Movement.
Isaacs credited co-sponsorship with being able to bring Jackson and the other speakers to campus. The Black Student Association, the Office of Institutional Diversity, the Multicultural Center, Student Government Association, National Panhellenic Council and University Program Board pitched in.
'That's really how this has happened,' he said, 'getting departments to work together to do some big events.'
The Excellence in Leadership series will also bring Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes, to campus and will have a live video conference with Sarah Weddington who represented Norma McCorvey as 'Jane Roe' in Roe v. Wade.
The series brought several high-profile speakers to campus in the Fall Semester, including former presidential candidate Howard Dean, actor and diversity activist Edward James Olmos and Megan McCain, daughter of former presidential candidate John McCain.
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