STARKVILLE — After two years of halting its Global Lecture Series, Mississippi State University Student Association is restarting it Tuesday with former United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron as guest speaker.
Cameron will speak on Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. in the Bettersworth Auditorium in Lee Hall on the MSU campus.
The series addresses leadership in politics, economics, security, culture and more on a global scale. In the past, the series has brought in such figures as former U.S. Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell.
“We wanted a G-7 leader, which means someone from one of the seven largest developed economies of the most influential and powerful countries in the world,” Student Association president Kennedy Guest said. “Looking at it, we knew getting a living president was probably impossible due to the monetary aspect. So we said, ‘What is the country out of the U.S. that people here have the most connection to?’ We thought that was the United Kingdom. Of the living prime ministers, David Cameron was a name a lot of people knew.”
Cameron served as the U.K. prime minister from 2010-16 and is known for signing the same-sex marriage act, ensuring Scotland remained part of the U.K. and for arguing unsuccessfully against Britain leaving the European Union, also known as “Brexit.”
Guest told The Dispatch each year there is $40,000 set aside for the series, but because of COVID-19 keeping the school from hosting an in-person guest speaker since 2020, the Student Association had about $120,000 to put toward this year’s engagement.
“We want a global perspective,” Guest said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean an international perspective as we’ve chosen two secretaries of state. We want someone who is going to engage MSU students in a way that will show them there’s more than just Mississippi, more than just what’s in the Southeast. We try to bring in people who are either from another nation or perhaps have international experience through the highest level of government or business.”
After Cameron speaks, there will be a question and answer session moderated by Sid Salter, MSU’s chief communications officer.
The event is free, but tickets must be reserved online at msstate.universitytickets.com. Click “get tickets” for the “Global Lecture Series.” The tickets are first-come, first-served, and the auditorium seats about 1,000.
Guest said un-metered parking spaces around campus will be available for event attendees to park for free.
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