The Issam M. Fares Lecture has been cancelled this year due to scheduling difficulties within the university, the Office of Public Relations reported.
The lecture, an annual event hosted by the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, brings renowned diplomats and foreign affairs experts to speak at Tufts.
This year marks the fourth time the lecture has been cancelled in its fourteen-year span. A lecturer was not scheduled for the 2005-06, 2003-04 and 1999-2000 academic years.
Both Leila Fawaz, a Fares Center professor, and Donald Button, the center administrator, declined to comment. They referred the Daily to the Office of Public Relations, who attributed the cancellation to issues in scheduling.
"The Issam M. Fares Lecture attracts high-profile speakers, which sometimes makes scheduling a challenge," Assistant Director of Public Relations Suzanne Miller said in an e-mail. "This academic year was no exception and we were unable to find a date that worked."
If anyone declined the invitation, Miller said she was unaware of this.
While no speaker is planned for this year, the lecture series is expected to continue attracting world figures in future years.
"It is important to keep in mind that there is no set schedule for the Fares lecture," Miller said in her e-mail. "While we try to have a Fares lecture each academic year, the timing of the lectures depends on speaker schedules and availability," she said.
Speakers are chosen based on recommendations from various Tufts administrators and Fares Center committees.
Michael Baenen, President Bacow's chief of staff, said in an e-mail that the goal of the lecture is to bring to Tufts "individuals who have had a truly significant impact in world affairs."
The lectures are meant to be an eye-opening educational experience for students.
"[The speakers] help draw students' attention to the big issues in the world today, and by bringing them 'home' to Tufts help promote active citizenship," Baenen said.
The Fares Center has been successful in prior years in bringing in prestigious public figures.
Last March, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke on "The Promise of Peace."
Current presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) spoke on "rekindling the peace process" in November 2004.
Other notable speakers have included George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, former U.S. Secretaries of State Colin Powell and James Baker, former Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine), former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing.
"The caliber of the Fares lecturers has been truly extraordinary, and I fully expect that tradition to be maintained," Baenen said.
The notoriety of the speakers generally draws a large student crowd.
"Any opportunity to hear from a big name ... someone with experience, knowledge in a certain area, is very well-attended," said Tufts Community Union President Neil DiBiase, a junior.
Although the Senate plays no role in the lecture series, DiBiase said he is usually one of the first students to hear of such university news. But he can only attribute his knowledge of the lack of speaker to an unconfirmed rumor, he said.
The Fares Center has yet to announce the lack of speaker this year on its Web site.
The series is one of several programs sponsored by an endowment from the Fares Foundation designed to promote Middle Eastern studies in the humanities, social sciences and arts at Tufts.
Issam M. Fares, a trustee emeritus of Tufts, served as Deputy Prime Minister of Lebanon from 2000 to 2005. He had previously served as an elected member of the Lebanese Parliament, and has been integral in efforts to advance Middle Eastern studies in the United States.
Tufts awarded him an honorary doctorate degree in 2000.
Issam Fares' son, Fares I. Fares (LA '92), envisaged the idea of the lecture series in 1991, in an attempt to advance the understanding of issues in the Middle East and provide a forum in which to articulate the diversity of viewpoints concerning the region.
According to its mission statement, the Fares Center encourages the consideration of policy issues from an international perspective "in the belief that this will serve as an effective means of conflict resolution."
