Welcome to our exhibit!
This website serves as our final project for our Digital Culture and Information Course at Washington and Lee University. It is the beginning of a digital collection working to understand better W&L’s Contact Committee, its role in promoting free speech, and controversies surrounding freedom of expression on campus.
We invite you to explore our digital archive, which delves into the primary and secondary sources that tell the storied history of free speech at the ninth-oldest college in the United States. Through our various pages, you will find an overview of the Contact Committee, its controversies, a timeline of events, and incidents beyond Contact. We hope you will enjoy our hard work and maybe even learn a thing or two!
About the Contact Committee
Established in 1965 by the Washington and Lee student body and initially funded by the Interfraternity Council, the Contact Committee’s mission is to bring a variety of speakers to campus, promoting varied opinions and current events. These speakers are chosen by the student-run committee with assistance from faculty advisors, which allows it to serve as the primary catalyst for free speech on campus, absent of influence by the administration, alumni, or broader community.
According to their LinkedIn page, “The Contact Committee’s mission is to enhance the education received by all students at Washington and Lee University by providing opportunities for students to interact with the most prolific persons of contemporary times. Contact Committee will seek to bring a minimum of three high-profile guest speakers to Washington and Lee University over the course of each academic year.”
These prolific speakers bring a wide array of experiences from entrepreneurs such as Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream), celebrities like talk show host Seth Myers, and politicians such as Andrew Yang and Jeb Bush. However, bringing a diversity of viewpoints to campus is a task that has yet to escape controversy, as seen throughout the documents displayed in our exhibit. Despite this, the Contact Committee continues to stay true to its mission to promote freedom of expression at W&L.
