Planning for Past Year's Assembly Topics Discussed

For many years, Phillips Exeter Academy has been renowned for its assembly program, which brings award-winning artists, scientists, activists, educators and everyone in between to campus. These speakers give speeches to students in the Assembly Hall, and typically stay for a luncheon in the Latin Study, as well as attending several classes. The assembly speakers’ program changes each year, depending on the relevance of certain topics as decided by the faculty, as well as by students in the Assembly Committee. With a mere eight weeks left, the 2016-17 program has run most of its course, with both highs and lows; students from all grades expressed strong opinions about individual speakers, overarching themes and the program in general.

Every spring term, the Assembly Committee gathers to choose the topics for the coming year’s assemblies. Oftentimes, the topics are linked to events that happened in the previous school year, and many are even recycled and repeated from year to year. For the 2016-17 program, Head of the Assembly Committee Kathleen Brownback revealed a list which included the presidential election, the Middle East, Cuba, mental health and sexuality. Talks on Syria were intended to be follow-ups to last year’s Syria Week, which generated healthy discussions among students. National Public radio foreign correspondent Tom Gjelten’s presentation about Cuba’s history was incorporated to prepare students for the newly-created Spring Break trip to this socialist country. Typically, one speaker represents each of the chosen topics every term, although pressing issues like sexuality have earned multiple mentions this year.

Once topics are created, the Committee begins to welcome speaker suggestions from faculty members and student organizations across campus. According to lower Mark Blekherman, a member of the Committee, four proposals on average are submitted every term from different clubs to be reviewed. “We introduce and debate proposals,” he said, “and also give feedback on assemblies.” Most slots were filled by the end of last November, so the Committee had to consider proposals very carefully. Bleckerman said that proposals should be “as specific as possible,” with clear statements showing why the speakers had “a story to tell [..] that can engage with Exonians.”  Sometimes, speakers who did not fit into any pre-planned categories were also approved, as the Committee felt they had something valuable to offer. “We try to diversify our program as much as possible,” said senior Ellena Joo, another member of the Committee. Departments also came together frequently to co-invite speakers; the rest came from alumni or alumnae connections.

The next step in the chain is to contact prospective speakers and arrange logistical matters with them. Most speakers have to be flown in from places across the country or even abroad. Other compensations also weigh into the equation, such as accommodation at the Inn and media requests. The ultimate goal is to ensure that speakers engage with students as much as possible, through post-assembly events and activities. According to Brownback, funding for the program draws from school endowments, including both specified and unspecified gifts. “The total for the year is about $80,000,” she said, when asked about the approximate budget. The entire process “involves a lot of communication, [...] the threads for each speaker run to many pages.”

Student contribution in the assembly-planning process is always valuable, and clubs have had much success with inviting speakers this year. All assemblies initiated by student organizations, including Active Minds’ Hakeem Rahim, EASA’s William Hirsch and SGAE’s Saria Samakie, have been met with standing ovations and resounding praise. According to Upper Alyssa Kuwana, co-head of Active Minds, the club chose Rahim because his story “was not too distant from Exonians’.” The idea of contacting Rahim had first been brought up by Director of Counseling and Psychological Services Jeanne Stern, the club’s advisor, who had previously watched one of Rahim’s talks. Kuwana believed the assembly was successful in broadcasting the club’s message: that mental health problems should not be stigmatized as a disease. Many students attended the Latin Study lunch, eager to talk about the problems they and their friends were going through. Similarly, EASA board member and upper Jacqui Byrne felt that the club’s effort to reach out to parent William Hirsch paid off, as his talk and film trailer deeply touched assembly-goers. “The majority of people have been more interested in the topic and have reached out to EASA, asking about when we meet and what they can do to join,”said Byrne.

In light of the program’s recent success, Brownback stated that she would continue to “encourage students and clubs to suggest themes and speakers.” Byrne cited the increased involvement of student organizations as the biggest improvement of this year’s assembly program compared to previous ones.

The 2016-17 assembly program has also been special for students because of its heavy emphasis on sexuality and the hookup culture. According to Brownback, the Committee identified this as an important topic last spring, and its urgency was only intensified over the summer. Like many of her peers, prep Katya Davis appreciated the school’s decision to use assembly to address these problems on campus, in response to “the recent Boston Globe publications [...] and the diversity in sexuality and gender expression on our campus.” Echoing these sentiments, senior Autumn Herness said that “[healthy sexuality] is an important topic regardless of what’s going on on campus.” In her opinion, the most important aim of these assemblies is to generate more conversations surrounding “sex, sexual assault and hookup culture,” and to affect a cultural shift on campus.

Many believe that this objective has largely been achieved through the assembly programming. “Effectiveness depends on how open individuals are to considering the message,” said faculty member Townley Chisholm, before going on to note that “repeated exposure should have some effect.” According to lower Katrina Schmitt, this explains the repetitiveness of recent assemblies. “In order to change everyone’s perspective these ideas have to be repeated over and over,” she said. Science Instructor Erik Janicki agreed that these assemblies have been effective, insofar that they create “good discussion amongst some groups of students.” Not everyone, however, thinks the same way—prep Nick Schwartz, when interviewed, said that the school should have invited one speaker for this topic and “move[d] on.” On the most recent talk by Peggy Orenstein, he said, “None of it applied to many students at Exeter.”

In spite of this, the general reaction to this year’s assembly program among students has been positive. “I am very satisfied with this year’s assembly program,” said upper Emilio Karakey, who appreciated the creative use of media and film by speakers like William Hirsch. Lower Isadora Kron thought that this year's assemblies had been highly interesting, with engaging and knowledgeable speakers. “Most of the speakers were able to contextualize their messages in current events in order to help us better understand them and the broader implications of their topics,” she said. Herness positively compared it to the programs of previous years, saying that, though she did not agree with all of the speakers’ viewpoints, she would “never forget” the speeches they made.

Favorites this year include Peggy Orenstein’s assembly about “Girls and Sex,” which, according to Davis, contained “powerful and relatable stories and statistics.” Meanwhile, Schmitt was inspired by Ben Schaefner, the lawyer from Equal Justice Initiative, and his talk about mass incarceration and the death penalty. For Byrne, it was the founder of Man up and Open Up, Eric Barthold, who struck her as an impressive storyteller. “I think it was great that the speaker, as a male athlete, was willing to question how people were raised and all the assumptions regarding masculine behavior,” she said. 

However, moving forward to the next school year, there is certainly room for improvements in the assembly program, according to many students. Davis, Schmitt, Byrne and Kuwana all agree that more interaction between students and assembly speakers would be helpful. “I liked the panel where students were interviewing Peggy Orenstein,” said Schmitt, while Davis believed that simply having more time for questions would solve the problem. For Blekherman, it is the lack of diversity that is the issue. “Most assemblies are from speakers with a liberal background [...] and address sex, rape and social injustices.” he said.

Others would like to see changes not in the way assemblies themselves are held but the way students interact with these assemblies. Chisholm thinks the value of assemblies lies in them being “the only thing we regularly do as a whole community,” which offer chances for a shared experience. “I believe advisees should sit with their advisors at all assemblies to check attendance and to encourage courtesy and respect,” said he. DeGuere also shared that she would like to see fewer complaints about assemblies that focused on gender equality and social justice. “People try to blow it off by saying ‘Oh we've already talked about this,’” she said, “but these are still issues on campus that need to be talked about.”