Former vice president Al Gore, who postponed a Sept. 14 speech Tufts, will visit the University later this academic year, though administrators have yet to negotiate a date with Gore's staffers.
Gore cancelled his initial visit on Sept. 12, the day after the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, DC. The shutdown of the nation's air transport system had stranded the former presidential candidate in Europe.
A related symposium on youth development scheduled for that weekend was also postponed.
Soon after Gore cancelled his visit, Managing Director of Applied Science Initiatives Deborah Bobek, the event's coordinator, wrote in an e-mail to President Larry Bacow that the event may take place in December. Bobek has since declined to speculate on a new date, except to say that Gore will visit sometime before May.
An estimated 150 undergraduates, who were nominated by academic departments, and faculty members, were invited to the original discussion on family-centered community building. The event at Tufts is one of several at college campuses around the nation planned for this year that are all part of the former vice president's project to develop a curriculum program in the subject.
Child development Professor Richard Lerner, who was a guest lecturer in Gore's classes at Fisk and Middle Tennessee State universities last year, arranged the event.
Bobek said the original invitations are still valid, and it is unlikely that any other students will be invited.
As in August, when Gore's visit was announced, some students are still upset that such a prominent figure will only address a limited audience.
Junior Heidi Tyson, an international relations and economics major, suggested that Gore speak before a larger audience in the Gantcher Center but somehow limit questions and discussion to the original invitees to maintain the conversational atmosphere.
"It would still be like a small discussion, but more people would be able to see it live," she said.
Britta Roden, a German student majoring in environmental biology and economics, said it is unfair that all students do not have an equal chance to see prominent figures on campus.
"All these great celebrities come to Tufts, such as Billy Joel and Al Gore, but they are never open to all people," she said. "It's always the person who clicks the fastest with their mouse, or privileged people in the department who get to go, but the average student almost never has a chance to go."
Roden suggested simulcasting the speech on a screen in Jackson Gym, which is the arrangement the University used when physicist Stephen Hawking spoke in 1999. "That way, even if you can't be present, you can still see it live," she said.
