Ending Indiana State University Speaker Series pitiful

 Readers’ Forum

Terre Haute Tribune Star, Sept. 24, 2025

Ending Speaker Series pitiful

The ending of Indiana State University’s Speaker Series is, in a word, pitiful.

ISU’s Board, administration, faculty, students and, I would add, the Vigo County public, should be wincing in embarrassment and pain at this self-inflicted act of irresponsible intellectual humiliation.

It’s not apples and oranges to compare the bloated, very poorly attended ISU intercollegiate athletic costs and attendance to the Speakers Series. Let’s hear Rex Kendall or some other responsible ISU official on this.

However, I agree that it would be mistaken to hold that the two serve a similar function. The sports budget is about spectator entertainment. The Speaker Series is about the deep mission of the university, the examination from myriad perspectives of the ideas, development and future prospects of the nation and world we live in.

This mission has been abandoned … again.

— Gary Daily Terre Haute