Students curious to see who won the campus vote for 2010’s distinguished lecture will continue to be left in the dark.

Results of the online poll cannot be released until the university establishes contact with the list of suitable speakers, Valerie Wetzel, faculty adviser to Campus Programming and Relations, said.

The results of the vote will be figured in to the selection of the speaker, but other considerations are taken into account by Improvement of Learning Committee when they make their decision this week. The committee is made up of 13 faculty members and five student appointees of Student Senate. The ILC bases its selection the following criteria:

• Is the selection an effective speaker?
• Will he or she speak about a relevant and timely topic?
• Will the speaker create an environment of debate and discussion throughout campus?
• Does the speaker have experience or education on which to base his or her point of view?

Last year, former Milwaukee Brave Hank Aaron was the most popular choice by voters but refused to lower his asking price.  The school then contacted the second most popular selection, Deanna Favre, on the day that she and her husband Brett were moving to New York.  After their move out of state, the school could not afford Favre’s new asking price.  The school was able to secure 9/11 veteran firefighter Ricard Piccioto as the 2009 Distinguished Lecturer.

Wetzel said that two choices from each category this year garnered a large majority of votes. Wetzel estimated total voter turnout of 800 people. The 2010 Distinguished Lecturer will come to UW-P on Wednesday, March 24.