The Jonathan M. Tisch College for Civic Life is launching Civic Life Lunches, a new event series in which distinguished speakers from fields including journalism, politics and the non-profit sector will host informal lunchtime discussions with students and faculty, according to Director of Policy, Planning and Strategy Jennifer McAndrew.
The initiative was born from the student roundtables included in the Tisch College Distinguished Speaker Series, according to Jessica Byrnes, special projects administrator at Tisch College.
“Part of the reason we launched this civic lunch series is [that] we got such great feedback from students about how valuable that roundtable was,” Byrnes said. “A lot of times when you have a high-profile speaker it’s great to hear them speak, but students don’t really get a chance to interact with the speaker and. . . hear their career path and how they ended up where they are, or to ask them about issues students are grappling with today.”
Speakers will include Douglas Alexander, Harry Boyte, Peter Flaherty, Joe Trippi, Joelle Gamble, David Axelrod, Nicolle Wallace and David Simas, according to a list Byrne provided to the Daily.
Dean of Tisch College Alan Solomont said the goal of the initiative is to provide a new way for students to engage in civic life.
“With the Civic Life Lunch series, we hope to provide more opportunities for students to interact with leaders from across the political and public policy spectrum -- in smaller, more informal settings,” Solomont told the Daily in an email.
The launch of this initiative coincides with the start of classes taught by David Gregory and Simon Rosenberg, called "Race for the White House in a Modern Media Environment" and “Changing America, Changing Politics” respectively, McAndrew said. Gregory and Rosenberg will both be having several high-profile guest speakers visiting their classes and Tisch College wanted to expand the number of students able to meet and interact with those guests, McAndrew added.
“Our goal is really to expand participation . . . for more students and for more speakers [and] different kinds of speakers,” McAndrew said. “We’ll have great opportunities -- everyone from Harry Boyte, who’s coming next week, to David Axelrod and Nicolle Wallace. Those are really great opportunities for students to interact with these folks and . . . really get their own questions answered.”
Both McAndrew and Byrnes stressed that Civic Life Lunches were in their beginning stages and that they would be looking for feedback from students on how to alter and improve the event in the future.
“We’re launching it this semester and we’re looking for a lot of participation and also a lot of feedback from students on who they want to see, how it’s going [and] ideas for the spring," McAndrew said.
The events will be open to all students, faculty and staff, according to Byrne.
“We’d love to have a wide cross-section of students attend, from undergraduates to Fletcher [students] and our other graduate partners as well,” McAndrew added.
The structure of the event will vary from speaker to speaker, according to Byrne. Some speakers will give lectures while others will be introduced and launch directly into a question and answer session, before opening up into an informal discussion, she said.
One of the goals of the Civic Life Lunches is to provide students with a more structured schedule for small speaker events by creating a branded and continuing series, booking speakers in advance and hosting the events during the open lunch block, Byrne said.
“Something that I’ve noticed, just inviting students to round tables the past two years, is that we try to give as much notice as we can, but it’s really hard for students to go by the speakers’ availability,” Byrne said. “A lot of them are really bummed to miss these speakers so I feel like part of the hope with [Civic Life Lunches] is [that] scheduling it during the lunch break . . . makes it easier for students.”
Byrne said she was enthusiastic about the variety of speakers booked for the events.
“I’m really looking forward to Peter Flaherty and Nicolle Wallace simply because it’s really hard to get a well-rounded variety of political ideologies and they’re more on the Republican side,” she said. “I think I’d love to see this spur the rebirth of Tufts Republicans and for there to be more of a conversation rather than for it to be so overwhelmingly Democratic. I think that conversation is really valuable."
