Students, faculty invited to present at Speaker’s Corner

The topic of “Your Money, Your Vote” could be considered one of the most important topics to hold at a college campus since students are focused on their future and how their money will be spent.

A special segment hosted by CNBC now gives students an opportunity to voice their opinion on the topic and the responses by the Republican candidates for presidency.

Speaker’s Corner, a unique live video stream that gives ordinary people a microphone without having to adhere to an editor, will be on Oakland’s campus Wednesday night.

Anyone present at the Oakland Center on Wednesday starting at 6 p.m. will have the opportunity to step up to the podium and verbalize what is on his or her mind. Alex Crippen, producer of Speaker’s Corner, said there are no prerequisites or restrictions.

“We basically say ‘here’s the mic and there’s the camera,’” Crippen said.

The Speaker’s Corner will be available inside the Oakland Center before the debate at 6-8 p.m. and after starting at 10 p.m. Crippen said he hopes for a mix of faculty and students to step up.

The segment will provide three questions for participants to base their speech off of: Who are you, what is important to you and what do you want answers for?

Oakland is only the second stage for the Speaker’s Corner following the Occupy Wall Street.

Crippen, who will be organizing the segment at Oakland as well, said that OU is a natural extension of the experiment on Occupy Wall Street.

Crippen said results from Occupy Wall Street were promising, but Oakland provides a different environment. Participants for the live video stream in New York depended on the time of day and saw smaller numbers during low activity times, including meal times.

Since OU will be buzzing with the debate and the window is smaller, he hopes for a steadier stream of speakers.

Apart from allowing anyone to speak, results from the Speaker’s Corner provide CNBC with more rounded coverage of the events and help establish the reaction of the candidates from the general population.