For the second time in a year, Syracuse University has been jilted by a high-profile speaker.

Producer Martin Scorsese has canceled his lecture at Syracuse University because he is too busy to travel, said Ellie Deegan, president of The Lecture Bureau, an agency that books speaking engagements.

Scorsese is the second university lecturer to cancel this year. Writer Molly Ivins canceled her Nov. 18 lecture because of health reasons.

‘He kept hoping and hoping that he would be able to clear enough off his project desk,’ Deegan said. His current film projects include a biopic of Howard Hughes and a documentary about Bob Dylan’s life.

University officials made the announcement after spending several months trying to set a date with Scorsese’s agency.

‘We have been going back and forth since he first agreed to come,’ said Esther Gray, a special assistant for academic affairs and the coordinator for University Lectures. ‘We got to the point that we needed an answer.’

Michael Flusche, associate vice chancellor of academic affairs and director of University Lectures, said it’s common for lecture candidates to have scheduling conflicts.

‘What we’ve discovered in this process is that all the people in these industries – if they aren’t absolutely free agents like a concert violinist or opera [singer] – they get tied in a schedule that they can’t control,’ he said.

Deegan schedules lectures for universities throughout the United States, and agrees that people in the entertainment business often have difficulty scheduling university lectures.

‘It’s a chronic show biz conundrum,’ Deegan said. ‘The needs of directors are diametrically opposed to needs of university schedulers.’

University officials expressed frustrations with Scorsese’s office since he agreed last spring to lecture at SU. Gray had a difficult time getting an official biography and photograph from his agency, even after it signed a contract to provide them.

‘This has been dragging on since last summer. From August on, I hadn’t heard anything from them,’ Gray said. ‘We tried and tried and tried and tried, but we just didn’t get any satisfaction out of it.’

The cancellation disappointed both officials and students. Sophomore Aaron Johnson, a vocal performance major, views the cancellation as a loss to both himself and the university in general. He was particularly interested in asking Scorsese what inspired him as a young professional.

‘As a musician, I want to know how you can put so much effort into something that isn’t nine-to-five,’ Johnson said.

Both the University Lecture Board and The College of Arts and Sciences Symposium Board pooled funds to have Scorsese speak on campus. The money will go back into the boards’ budgets for next year.

Deegan hopes that Scorsese’s schedule will free up enough for him to come to SU next year, but university officials, at this point, don’t plan to invite him back.

‘Obviously, the man is way too busy for the University Lecture board to pursue him,’ Gray said. ‘Even though the agent says he wants to come back again, I can’t help but imagine if those are her words or his.’

Published on January 27, 2004 at 12:00 pm