In the past, the UT Issues Committee has put on events that have packed the house to see the likes of former U.S. presidential candidate Howard Dean, author Christopher Hitchens or Noam Chomsky, and the committee seeks the same kind of attendance for its events this upcoming fall semester.

In fact, it was events in the past like seeing Dean and Hitchens that got Issues Committee Vice Chair Eric Dixon first interested in joining.

"I was attracted to the Issues Committee just because my freshman year I'd been interested in all the events they hosted," Dixon said. "I just thought the people who must be making these decisions must be a great group of students."

Dixon said the Issues Committee as a group works well together because, even though they frequently disagree, they are all open-minded and with varied interests.

"What's great is we can work through it and find what's best," he said. "So we're fortunate that not all our members are alike."

First and foremost, he said the committee wanted to be responsible with the students' money.

Phillip Smith, assistant director in the Office of Student Activities and Issues Committee adviser, said the events are funded through the student activities fee that each UT student pays.

The Issues Committee is one of seven committees that get a portion of the student activities fee money from the Central Programming Council, Smith said.

So, Dixon said, the committee is trying to be fiscally responsible by looking not just at great speakers but great speakers at great pricetags.

Smith said the Issues Committee also factors in comment cards gathered from attendees who come to the events, and the committee presents ideas at a planning retreat.

The Issues Committee focuses on events that either speak to issues UT students are talking about or issues that are not talked about on campus enough in the committee members' eyes.

One example of the latter is this year's first speaker, Alia Malek, who will talk on Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. at the UC Auditorium.

"She's going to be talking about American society through the perspective of Arab-Americans, and we don't think that maybe the idea of Islam or Muslim-Americans are considered or talked about enough," Dixon said.

An example of the former is the gay marriage rights debate, which will take place on Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. at the UC Auditorium.

"We've seen small pockets of some LGBT programming on campus," Dixon said. "But we haven't seen any real large-scale events that target campus-wide attention."

Maggie Gallagher, chairman and co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage, and John Corvino, philosophy professor at Wayne State University, will do the debating.

Another of the year's events grew out of remembering the 10-year anniversary of a tragedy, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

New York Fire Department Deputy Chief Jay Jonas will speak the day after the anniversary, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. at the UC Auditorium.

Other events include C.L. Lindsay talking on Sept. 22 at the UC Auditorium about people's rights on the Internet and Jim Keady speaking on Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. at the UC Auditorium about sweat shops and their connections to shoe manufacturers.

But the event Dixon is most looking forward to is an evening with Bobby Seale, the co-founder of the Black Panthers, on Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. at the UC Auditorium.

"His name might not be as known widely as other civil rights and black rights leaders, but he is such an important figure in American history and the Civil Rights Movement," Dixon said.

Smith said Seale's inclusion also plays into the university's year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of African-American integration at UT.

For those that have never been to an Issues Committee event, Smith said it is a great way to learn new things and engage with people with similar ideas.

"It helps keep students here on campus in a higher learning environment," Smith said. "And it'll challenge people because there are so many wide varieties of topics that can be discussed."