David Letterman

Ball State alum, David Letterman and journalism Rachel Maddow came to Ball State to have a conversation as a part of David Letterman’s Distinguished Professional Lecture and Workshop Series on December 2^nd. Also joining the pair was BSU president JoAnn Gora. I thoroughly enjoyed the program because of its news dynamic and the simple fact they were not just lecturing to us, it was an honest conversation about events and issues in our world today. I thought it was very interesting Letterman brought Gora on stage, because Maddow and Letterman are these powerful, influential people and are nationally famous, but Gora is just locally known because she is our president. It was interesting to see them interact because they do come from such different backgrounds. The most interesting topic for me was the Sandusky conversation about the Penn State and Syracuse sex abuse scandals. Listening to Gora speak about the University side and what she would do was very interesting and listening to Maddow who is a profound journalist and has covered this for weeks now talk about the multiple sides of the story was interesting to hear and understand. Gora and Maddow really had the same opinion about the situation and how it is so upsetting and shocking when no one reported it. It was bad enough the event occurred, but shocking they kept it from the police. I like that Gora emphasized that a university isn’t about their football team, it really is academics and to know that Penn State hid this scandal for fear of a bad reputation, specifically towards the football team is upsetting to many.