To illustrate the incorporation of liberal arts values into the speech communication curriculum, this paper presents a rationale for creating a public speaking course that emphasizes the analysis of current critical issues. The paper argues that by requiring students to speak on important issues, rather than on personal topics, they will need to research historic and contemporary perspectives on their topic. It also contends that students will be more likely to use the methods for speech preparation as they have been taught by their teachers and textbooks. Further, the paper asserts that students will benefit from the opportunity to delve deeply into one particular topic and give each assigned speech on that same topic, while pointing out that by assigning critical topics, teachers will be able to grade both the content and delivery of student speeches. The paper then describes a nominal group process exercise for determining issues that students perceive to be of current importance, and provides a sample list of those issues. Finally, the paper discusses the use of the nominal grouping technique in other types of speech courses, such as business and professional speaking. (SRT)