Q: Was Angela Braly, CEO of Wellpoint, an appropriate choice for the Business Leaders Forum luncheon’s keynote speaker?

Kirsten Jones, chair of College Democrats: “I thought it was a bad idea. I think it didn’t really represent the viewpoints Marquette tries to instill in its students like cura personalis, men and women for others.
“Wellpoint and Angela Braly are clearly not working for others. They’re working for profit.”
Alex Hansen, chair of College Republicans: “Well, I thought it was an acceptable choice and I understand how controversial it was.
“I mean, she’s one of the highest paid CEOs out there and she’s probably in one of the top 100 in terms of all CEOs.
“But if you look at her profession in a field dominated by males, she’s risen above and she has been a very successful woman.
“And going along with the theme this year at Marquette, the 100th anniversary of Marquette admitting women, it’s a pretty big stride.”
K: “I think there are plenty of other strong woman leaders in the community who could be highlighted by Marquette’s centennial.
“And the fact she’s the highly paid CEO of an insurance company has to be accounted for.
“Right now we’re having a huge health care debate and she needs to stand accountable for the insurance situation.
“The way she’s doing it is not very acceptable.
“I don’t think she was illustrating the ideals we want to instill into people right now.
“College of Business Administration students are trying to figure out how to operate in the business world and morals and ideologies obviously play a part in how you act in the business community.
“I think we could have a stronger moral leader.”
A: “Well, in response to that, I think it obviously looks bad when you have someone coming in with a high salary, a huge salary, as a CEO of a controversial field.
“But dating back, these are contracts that are written up two, three years ago and it’s an incentive for people to work hard.
“She really achieved a lot in her life and that’s something that has come with performance and leadership, two very important qualities I think she has, along with self-determination.
“I think its a sign of personal empowerment for business students, so that’s why I think she was a good fit for that forum.”
K: “Wellpoint insures one in nine Americans, according to the Web site, and in insuring that many people, they also have a lot of control as to who can be insured.
“They have so many preexisting conditions that enable them to exclude people from obtaining insurance and they can drop people’s insurance for not disclosing certain ailments.
“And obviously with 47 million uninsured people in America, they clearly impact the number of insured people by listing all these pre-existing conditions.”
A: “They really play a big role in the debate in terms of cost. By insuring or taking people to insure, they cause everyone else’s insurance rates to go up.
“And that’s not bad. Well let me say this, it needs to be fixed because they need to lower costs by allowing more people to participate in health insurance.
“There are certain legal reforms that need to be performed in terms of allowing companies to purchase and people to purchase health insurance across state lines.
“It highlights that it’s a controversial topic and needs to be reformed, but I think we shouldn’t lose focus of Braly’s leadership qualities. It’s an important thing to take out of this.”
K: “I think bringing her to campus raised the debate to a healthy level, so if anything, her visit allowed protest to occur, something students should be actively interested in.
“So there’s some merit, but I wouldn’t agree with the general practice of having her, because she opposed so many of Marquette’s values.”
A: “As long as the debate continues in a healthy way, and I think this instance on campus with the Wellpoint C.E.O. was one thing.
“I mean look, we’re here talking about this and I think that as long as we’re having a civil debate, you can’t get out of control and be obstructionist, but be able to talk about this.”

Jones and Hansen are both seniors in the College of Arts & Sciences.