A lot of talking will be happening Friday at Wichita State, and everyone is invited to listen.

This semester’s “Shocker Speakout” is set for 11:30 a.m. Friday in the Campus Activity Center Theater. This activity provides public speaking students an opportunity to speak to a live audience about a policy persuasive topic of their choice. This is the 17th year for the event.

Rebecca Nordyke, instructor and research coordinator for the ICRI (Interdisciplinary Communication Research Institute) at WSU, said a wide-range of topics are scheduled.

For example, audiences can hear students speak about local issues, including how Kansas should allocate more funds to higher education, or national issues, like how the U.S. should lower the drinking age to 18.

“There’s also a lot of international issues that will be heard,” Nordyke said, “like how China should add stricter rules about school violence, or how the Nigerian government should protect the laws set for freedom of speech for women.”

Students are judged on the organization of their speech and the delivery.

Jacob Archer spoke last year about how the role of hydrogen-powered cars could benefit our society based on more effective cost and power.

“I really enjoy science and technology, and I would hear a lot of people talking about clean energy, but wouldn’t really inform themselves about it,” Archer said.

Archer said he understands WSU has a lot of engineers and wanted to give them something that they could potentially use.

“I wanted to talk about a topic that our students could use in their future to go out and make a difference,” he said.

Kyle Kopecky will speak Friday about why WSU should change its on-campus tobacco policy. He said that he chose this topic because it would benefit students’ health.

“I feel like it’s important for the student body to have clean air because everyone’s entitled to the clean air that they breathe in,” he said.

Kopecky said he has been doing a lot to prepare for his speech.

“My instructor … gave me some feedback, so I’m going to edit my speech a little bit and make it a little bit stronger, polish it up so that I’m ready to give a great speech,” he said.

Archer and Kopecky chose to speak on topics that have a personal meaning to them, much like a lot of the other speakers.

There will be four judges featured this year, including Kerry Jones, the director of the writing center in the English department, Pam O’Neal, who works in the Office of Adult Learning, Kathy Stewart, the assistant director of Disability Services, and Matthew Cecil, the director of the Elliott School.

Prizes this semester are provided by the public speaking textbook publisher, McGraw Hill, with the winner receiving $100, and each of the five runner-ups receiving $50.