The organizational structure of the University Lecture Series shifted this fall as longtime employee and organizer of the speaker series, Esther Gray, announced her retirement.

Syracuse University Interim Vice Chancellor and Provost Liz Liddy created the University Lecture advisory committee this fall to take over Gray and her team’s responsibilities. Liddy asked every dean on campus to appoint a faculty representative to be on the committee, she said. The University Lecture Series hosts speakers that are prominent in their fields of work and study.

The committee is currently composed of 14 members, including one student representative. These members will select the lecturers and organize the series.

“I am pretty good at stepping away and letting good committees run. We have nominations, we have students on the committee, and we are getting nominations,” Liddy said. “If you think about it, we have a representative from every college on campus so I think for ‘16-’17, we will have a very good series.”

Liddy said the committee has taken advantage of the fact the Gray is still on campus and has been working closely with her to ensure a smooth transition into next semester and beyond.

Barbara Stripling, co-chair of the committee, said the team has met about every two weeks this semester in order to start booking speakers for next year and to coordinate next semester’s speakers. They are currently paring down the list of possible lecturers and have two tentative schedule drafts for next fall.

The committee wants to continue bringing speakers from diverse backgrounds and subject matters while gauging the interests of students and the local community, she said.

Stripling said one of the biggest challenges in the transition is learning all of the logistics and budgetary demands of bringing a speaker to campus.

“It’s a really balancing act. We can pick people that we think will be really phenomenal, but then we find out they cost $75,000. Well, we don’t have that kind of a budget,” Stripling said. “We have to balance cost with availability.”

In the past, six to eight speakers visit each year as part of the lecture series. The committee is exploring possibilities of scaling that number down based on the honorarium, or cost of the speaker, in order to host fewer speakers, but bigger names, Stripling said.

Gray shaped and ran the series since it was created in 2001, and said the organizational structure has changed in the past. When the lectures first began, it had an advisory team made up of members of the faculty, staff and Board of Trustees, including Gray. This lasted until around 2007, when responsibilities shifted to Associate Provost Kal Alston who oversaw Esther Gray and a team of about a dozen staff members.

“Esther Gray is absolutely magical, she’s just wonderful,” Stripling said. “Every one of us will feel the lack of Esther overseeing this. Not only for all of her contacts, logistical and love and care, but also her body of knowledge.”

Gray said she knows that the committee understands how important the lectures are for the SU community and has faith that they will continue to bring quality speakers to the event.

“I don’t know how they are going to do it. But it will be done well; the reps from the schools and colleges are good,” Gray said. “They don’t want to do anything to mess up the lectures, they realize how important it is.”

Published on December 9, 2015 at 10:36 pm

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