The Campus Activities Board’s Speaker Committee hopes to attract large crowds to two upcoming free events.

The year’s events begin at 11 a.m. Sept. 10 at the Holmes Student Center’s Duke Ellington Ballroom with guest speaker Richard Picciotto. Picciotto, a New York fire chief, is the highest-ranking firefighter who survived the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

He will speak personally about the events of Sept. 11 and how his life has changed.

“I think it will be an amazing event for NIU,” said Brooke Beyers, speaker’s coordinator. “I think it will have a big impact on everyone, and I don’t think that having the event in the middle of the day will affect the turnout.”

Next in line for NIU from CAB will be Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.

Greenfield’s presentation, “A Night of Social Responsibility, Radical Business Philosophy and Free Ice Cream,” will begin at 7 p.m. Sept. 17 at the HSC’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium. He will discuss entrepreneurial businesses while spoonfuls of his ice cream are handed out to the audience.

“CAB’s mission this year is really all about getting our name out,” Beyers said. “We want to get students involved and tell us what they want us to do and bring to campus. I think our bad rep [for not bringing any big events] is not fair.

“I don’t understand, because last year we held a forum for the students to tell us what to do, and no one came.”

CAB’s basis for choosing the different acts primarily focuses on diversity and providing acts that will appeal to a variety of students on campus, Beyers said.

The committee also helps in the decision process; the group only had a mere handful of students last year, and Beyers hopes that will change this semester.

Other events the committee will sponsor include Anessa from MTV’s “Real World: Chicago” on Nov. 12, and Jasmine Guy from the late-1980s TV show, “A Different World,” on March 25, 2003.

Jenny Martinez, CAB’s vice president of programming and activities, said all of CAB’s committees work hard to bring as many diverse acts as the Speaker’s Committee does, but have not yet finalized their plans.

“Both the Coffeehouse and Fine Arts committees have events planned that should have great turnouts,” Martinez said. “Basically, we really are working on getting our name out there for people to join CAB as well as go to the events. As soon as we have the set schedules, we’ll let [students] know.”