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.