Rushdie
Only one week after the Speaker Series set author Salman Rushdie's visit to CMU, he rescheduled.
And the new date is not only one day or one week later - it is a full semester later.
The intention of the Speaker Series' budget was to provide a speaker for the spring 2008 semester. This objective no longer is met.
If the committee is not contractually bound to paying Rushdie, it should cancel his appearance and renew its search for a speaker for this semester.
The tour for Rushdie's newest book, "The Enchantress of Florence," originally was scheduled to begin in May, but was pushed forward one month.
The Speaker Series should be frustrated with the blatant disregard from Rushdie and his publisher. His CMU visit was a commitment, and seems to not have been treated as such.
Of course Rushdie wishes to promote his book, and that is important. But in no way does an instantaneous decision to move the tour justify dropping all prior plans.
Rushdie's publisher, which decided to put him on a European tour that has caused him to cancel all his April events, should have better consulted with Rushdie's calendar.
People were expecting him, including CMU students and the Speaker Series, which nearly doubled its budget to bring him here.
His publisher, of course, was not ignorant of his plans. But it should have taken them more seriously - considered them as commitments rather than as tentative visits that may or may not be rescheduled depending on whether it may seem more prudent to do something else.
Rushdie and his publisher have shrugged off their plans with CMU, negating a key purpose of the Speaker Series' budget.
And the Speaker Series would be acting appropriately by shrugging him off, if possible, in return.
