Lafayette College re-themed the annual “Senior Speaker” event for its bicentennial Founders’ Week. Immediate sell-out “Founder’s Day’s Speaker” scientist Bill Nye led college staff and students to move the event’s location on Thursday, from Colton Chapel to Kirby Sports Center.
According to Lafayette Activities Forum President Elizabeth Miller ‘26, the annual speaker event was “more expanded” because of bicentennial financial support from the college.
Miller said this helped the college find a popular speaker, like Nye, speak on campus. The past few years saw Kate Flannery, Lauren Graham and Josh Peck as senior speakers.
Nye was chosen from multiple options selected by Lafayette Activities Forum and the administration.
“We really pushed for Bill Nye, because I think he’s awesome,” Miller said.
“The naming of the Senior Speaker sometimes makes people feel like it’s just for seniors, but in reality, it’s open to everyone on campus,” she said.
Prior to the location switch on Wednesday, 651 students, faculty and staff were registered for the March 30 event on the college’s website, with an additional 533 on the waitlist. As of Thursday night, nearly 1,300 had registered for the event.
Head of bicentennial planning Nicole Eramo, in an email sent to The Lafayette on Wednesday, wrote that the college worked with Lafayette Activities Forum and other groups to eye a new venue. At the time of her email, she was hoping for a new venue imminently.
Eramo wrote that the administration was “excited and a bit surprised by the enormous enthusiasm among our students.”
“I’m glad they opened it up to everybody, but at the same time, that means fewer seniors get to see it,” said Christina Kouyoumdji ‘26, who was able to register for Nye’s talk before the event relocated.
Jaden Wurm ‘26 was unable to register for Nye’s talk prior to the location switch-up, and said he was surprised about the event rebrand. He noted that students talked to him about how much they enjoyed hearing the previous senior speaker’s talk.
Exhausted • Mar 6, 2026 at 9:44 am
Incredible – why couldn’t he have been the commencement speaker? Or Lin-Manuel? How’d they go with someone probably more expensive with far fewer interesting things to say?