Consider departments that might not normally get into student programming. I have my degree in Speech with an emphasis in Theatre Arts. I have offered in the past and have done sessions with students in those departments on topics such as using a Speech degree to establish a career and also for Theatre students on different performance options, such as professional speaking and stand-up comedy, since that is my current and former professions. While they might not have a specific budget to bring in speakers, they may be able to find funds for an “honorarium” that can be contributed towards the cost of bringing me to campus.

I would even suggest looking into corporate partners. A couple of years ago, I spoke at a community college in Texas and did several presentations spread throughout the day. In the afternoon, however, they brought in the executives and managers of the local branch of Sitel Corporation for a program on motivation, delegation, and time management. The school and the company split my fee!

One last partnership that I have seen was when I presented at a community college in southeast California. I did leadership training in the afternoon for the students and then delivered a motivational program on pursuing your dreams and achieving your goals in the evening. The evening program was open to the general public. Part of the fee was paid by the Office of Community Relations. One way they promoted the program was to use the fact that I am a Kiwanis member. They publicized the program to the local Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions, and other civic groups and I dedicated part of my talk to the value of serving in the community. I then asked the various groups to stand and invited the attendees to seek them out for more information.

Just the other week a University put on a campus-wide student leadership conference and I was brought in to do the opening and closing keynotes and a couple educational sessions. One half of my fee was paid by the Student Leadership Center and the other half was paid by the Student Government Association.

If you want to create an amazing event and you don’t have the budget, it can’t hurt to ask other organizations to get involved. Other groups that you might contact could include; student activities, Greek, athletes, student life, student affairs, individual campus organizations [ie- Phi Theta Kappa]…and the list goes on. The worse thing they could say is no.

You could even get many different organizations or departments involved for a small amount each and in the end you might create a surprisingly large budget.

Thus, we had student nurses checking blood pressures, the respiratory technicians administering lung capacity screenings, dental hygiene students had various educational materials on promoting healthy teeth and gums and faculty nurses did some overall health counseling.

Their involvement proved a definite “win win” for all involved. Students received free health screenings, the student practitioners received hands on experience and exposure, and the faculty interacted with the student body as a whole and relayed valuable information. And it basically cost nothing except the cost of gas for volunteers who drove themselves to our campus.

Thus, if you are looking at having free or cheaper programs, take Jon’s advice and tap resources at your college that can provide meaningful experiences for your students. They may be sitting there “right under your noses.” Dr. Earl Paul