Student Persuasive Speaking Topics
Speech Topics for Your Public Speaking Class about College Issues
Sep 25, 2007
Looking for a great persuasive speaking topic for your public speaking class? Why not choose one that relates directly to students and college life? After all, it's always a good idea to choose topics your audience finds relevant and interesting. Here's some tips on how to find topics that relate to student issues, and some suggested topics you might find useful.
1) Choose a current event that relates to students and college life. Current events make great speech topics because they're new, so they're not tired topics that everybody is sick of already. They're also topics that your audience is likely to find relevant. Finding current events to write about it easy--just pick up a newspaper, or browse one online. Many online newspapers have an education section that contains articles about education from the past few weeks or so, so that's a great place to look.
To help get you started, here are a few college related current event topics from the last few years. But keep in mind that potential new topics hit the news all the time, so don't limit yourself to these ideas!
- Was it wrong for Columbia University to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak on campus?
- Should the editor of the Colorado State University newspaper be fired for printing "F-- Bush" on the editorial page?
- Was it wrong for police at the University of Florida to taser a student at a John Kerry speech?
- Did Virginia Tech police respond appropriately to the campus shooter?
- Do college campuses need to do more to prevent tragedies like the Virginia Tech shootings?
- Should Don Imus have been fired for calling the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team "nappy-headed hos"?
- Was the Duke University lacrosse scandal handled appropriately?
- Should Professor Ward Churchill have been fired from the University of Colorado?
- Are the dorms at SUNY New Paltz toxic?
- Should colleges and universities consider race as a criteria for accepting applicants?
- Should Christmas trees and other secular symbols of Christmas be allowed at public universities?
- Are websites that sell essays to college students unethical?
- Do professors have a liberal bias, and should something be done about this?
- Should schools with a significant Muslim population provide foot baths that students can use before their prayers?
- Are websites that allow students to rate professors anonymously a good idea?
- Are college and university rankings useful?
- Is the University of Phoenix a good idea?
- Are online college classes a good idea?
2) Choose a topic that students on your campus are concerned with. What's going on at your campus? Is there an impending tuition hike? A political controversy? Pick up your school newspaper, or read some back issues online, and you'll find lots of relevant, local things to talk about. To get you started, here are some issues that often are of concern on college campuses.
- Is a tuition hike unethical?
- Is your state contributing enough funding to college education?
- Should the campus police make a strong effort to crack down on underage drinkers?
- Is the campus doing enough to prevent binge drinking?
- Is the campus doing enough to promote diversity?
- Should classes have a mandatory attendance policy?
- If a fraternity or sorority on campus has been shut down because of behavior problems, was this justified?
- Should the core curriculum at your school be modified?
- Does your campus do enough to prevent sexual violence?
- Should your campus be a more gay-friendly place?
- Is the campus parking situation for students fair?
- Should your campus make more of an effort to be ecofriendly?
- Is the campus newspaper too liberal (or conservative)?
- Are students on your campus too apathetic?
- Should cell phones be banned from the classroom?
- Should professors be banned from dating students?
- Should school close more often for inclement weather?
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