Barker as the symbol of rags to riches

Bitzer argues in The Rhetorical Situation that rhetoric is dependent on situation – situation meaning that there must be an audience concerned with the topic at hand that is able to do something about it, and that there must be some sort of a compelling reason for the rhetoric to begin with. He says that the best rhetoric springs up from necessity, such as the shooting of John F. Kennedy when America needed desperately to know why it had happened, and what would become of them. In a 2004 speech by President Barker to the Higher Education Subcommittee (www.clemson.edu/pres/speech/012104.htm) the audience is most definitely rhetorical, by Bitzer’s definition of the word – that is, the audience is comprised of people who currently fund some of the school’s programs. The president could not give this same speech to a group of English students and call it rhetorical, because whether or not we agreed with him, the issue at hand is nothing we can affect – we are not capable of funding school programs any more than our tuition already funds.

Barker introduces the speech with praise towards his audience for their support in the past – he is engaging them and trying to win them over to his side. He acknowledges the fact that there is not enough money to do everything everyone wants to do, therefore making their task “to ensure that every dollar the state spends is a good investment.” He thanks his audience for their support of Clemson’s research, but then he moves towards his real aim: to acquire more funding for the school by saying that “funding for basic academic programs continues to decline” despite increased research support. Building on this argument, Barker uses logical examples and actual statistics (such as the “unprecedented 41 percent cut for Clemson’s Public Service Activities”) to show that money needs to flow towards the undergraduate students who are suffering from rising tuition costs.

Finally, Barker uses himself as an example to win his audience over, an audience that obviously values higher education, when he says, “the Emerging Scholars Program is important…to me, personally…I am the first person in my extended family to go to college.” After thanking his audience for their past support, presenting the problems and how his audience could supply a solution, Barker uses himself as a symbol, so to speak, of the underprivileged American who can really be someone…if only they’re given the chance. He is the proof, then, for this audience, that what he is proposing is really a good idea.