If you turn on a television to any news channel or Comedy Central “news” program these days you are almost guaranteed to see a presidential candidate or political leader. Last week presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama spoke at North Carolina Central University in Durham Thursday and on Friday, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi spoke from Meredith College.

Noticeably absent from this higher education picture is N.C. State, the land grant institution of the state.

N.C. State has a variety of speaker series throughout the campus — from the College of Management’s Wachovia Executive Lecture Series to the Millennium Seminar and even the Shelton Leadership Forum.

With the upcoming presidential and gubernatorial elections, University leaders should pool resources to bring in a high caliber of well-known individuals to speak at our campus.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman did tour and speak on campus Oct. 23. While Bodman is an important individual, our University can do better. Having a current member of the Cabinet on campus is an accomplishment, but very few individuals know who the secretary of energy is.

We need to be the leader by bringing notable political speakers to campus, not following the lead of smaller institutions around the state. Last year we took a step toward being that leader by hosting Lindsey Graham, the senior Senator from South Carolina, and David Gergen, presidential adviser to multiple presidents — these guest have set the bar higher for this year.

But, we have not reached the bar that has been set. Instead, we have seen other schools go above and beyond our own bar. The University must do more to bring in diverse speakers from varying political ideologies.

Students need to become more politically aware, especially this and next year — it’s time to raise debate on our campus.

Hopefully, the next time you turn on your TV you will see NCSU as the backdrop for Senator John McCain, or former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Possibly our University could be the scenery for Senator Hillary Clinton or maybe former Senator John Edwards will decide to come back to his alma mater and speak.