The Department of Humanities is proud to announce the annual M.M. Neely Persuasive Speaking Contest to be held at the Ruth Ann Musik Library in Multimedia A on Sunday, October 27 at 3pm. The event is free and open to the public.
Fairmont State University students will present a 4 to 7-minute persuasive problem analysis based upon extensive research. The participants will be judged on the quality of their argument and the delivery of their presentation. The winners will receive monetary awards from the Fairmont State University Foundation.
The contest was started in the 1930s at Fairmont State and Salem College by the former U.S. senator and governor of West Virginia, Mathew Mansfield Neely. As a politician, he fought for cancer research, child labor regulation, and other similar reforms. A most celebrated and controversial politician, Neely, who was also quite adept at public speaking, saw the contest as a way to encourage students to speak up for their beliefs as he had in support of his deeply held convictions.
Neely’s heirs, specifically his daughter, Corrine Neely Pettit, endowed the contest in perpetuity. In addition to this contest, the Neely family has shown its commitment to communication education at Fairmont State University by providing monies for numerous scholarships to students who major or minor in Communication Arts.