Students fawn over 'cool' Cooper

From his "straightforward rhetoric" to his "piercing blue eyes," Anderson Cooper is giving the students who know him plenty of reasons to get excited about his upcoming speech.

CNN's Cooper, host of the nightly newsmagazine Anderson Cooper 360ø and the Social Planning and Event Committee's fall speaker, will appear at Irvine Auditorium on Oct. 4.

The choice of a media figure is a departure from recent speaker choices which have included Karl Rove, Whoopi Goldberg, Peyton Manning and Henry Kissinger. Most students are embracing the variety.

"I was extremely excited to hear that he was coming to Penn," said College sophomore Chiyel Hayle. "I think he's very intriguing and thought provoking - and his piercing blue eyes don't hurt either."

Freshmen are also excited to see their first famous figure at Penn.

"I think he is a prominent figure in the media and has a strong political aspect, and I think it's important to be involved with politics," said Wharton and College freshman Michael Vigilante.

Others appreciate his simplistic, straightforward rhetoric approach and commitment to telling less-publicized stories.

"He is not convoluted in his speech, and I actually understand what he says," said college freshman Alexandra Olsman.

College sophomore Richard Cappadona said he gained a lot of respect for Cooper after seeing him on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where he spoke about the importance of helping eradicate poverty in the U.S.

"He brings underrepresented stories to the mainstream," he added.

Although Wharton sophomore Lauren McDevitt didn't feel very strongly about Cooper, after reading about him she said she was interested by his "cool" life story and thought the fact that he came from a wealthy family - the Vanderbilts - made his character more "interesting."

But there are also students who do not know much about him or feel SPEC could have brought in a more notable figure.

"I'm relatively uninterested and will most likely not go to watch him. I don't know anything about him, and I don't know what interesting thing he could say," said Wharton sophomore Josh Wais.

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