The Kennedy Political Union, the on-campus organization that works to acquire prominent guest speakers for AU events, has dealt with two high-profile speaker cancellations this semester, which KPU Director Taylor Robinson said were due to circumstances out of KPU's control.
Robinson said the KPU director is responsible for selecting which KPU-endorsed speakers come to campus. In deciding who to bring, she said she consults with the Student Government department chairs, the Undergraduate Senate, the College Democrats, the College Republicans, faculty, administration and various other student organizations for names and topics that they would be interested in hearing about.
In the past year, Chris Matthews and more recently Valerie Plame were forced to cancel their scheduled lectures on campus due to extenuating circumstances.
Chris Matthews, host of the political commentary show "Hardball with Chris Matthews," withdrew from his scheduled appearance during Family Weekend "due to an overriding professional engagement," Robinson said.
Robinson said Family Weekend was near the end of October, and Matthews was called to work elsewhere to cover the November midterm election.
Valerie Plame canceled her scheduled appointment to speak on campus a few weeks ago. Plame is a former CIA operative who, according to The Washington Post, is "in the midst of a four year political battle due to the Bush administration's leak of her identity."
"The Valerie Plame cancelation was due to the advisement of the CIA and, in turn, Plame's lawyers, that she should not speak," Robinson said.
Robinson said Plame's AU cancellation was not the only speaking engagement she was forced to cancel at the request of her legal counsel.
Kent Harrel, a sophomore in the School of International Service, said he was disappointed by the cancellations. He said he was concerned about AU, which is well known for its political involvement, possibly losing some of its prestige because of the absence of notable guest speakers.
"Naturally, I felt that last year's lineup of speakers was better than this year," he said. "Speakers such as Jimmy Carter and Bob Dole set a pretty high standard."
He said KPU is not at fault for the cancellations, but this year's proposed speakers were interesting, and he would have liked to hear them speak.
When the Matthews and Plame speaking engagements fell through, the payments made to them in advance "were fully refunded and used for subsequent speakers," Robinson said.
These funds were used for the Family Weekend speaker and the end-of-the-year speakers, she said.
The amount each guest receives for speaking at AU varies. According to Robinson, "fees are often negotiable and dependent on the individual person. ... We can, do, have and will pay as little as $5 or $10,000 to $100,000, dependent on the speaker, venue and costs surrounding that particular event."
KPU's goal for more than 35 years has been to "bring diverse speakers to campus in hopes of spurring discussion among students and a true debate on the issues," Robinson said.
