An Afghan embassy spokesman said a University spokesman’s “lukewarm” response caused new Afghanistan leader Hamid Karzai to switch a speaking engagement to Georgetown University last week.
“GW was ideal in many cases; it just wasn’t very amenable,” Afghan embassy spokesman Tom Lauria said about GW’s response to hosting Karzai’s speech during his first official visit in the United States.
“I thought the rug was pulled out from under us,” said Vice President for Communication Mike Freedman, who had informed the embassy he would have to reschedule a women’s basketball game and pay at least $12,000 to set up the event if Karzai came the day he wanted, Jan. 27.
Lauria said the embassy notified GW, Georgetown and George Mason universities when they found out about a month before Karzai spoke that he would visit D.C.
“Georgetown acted quickly to extend an invite and even moved the Hoyas practice out of the gym,” Lauria said. “The two others were lukewarm; they weren’t very interested at the time.”
Freedman said the embassy contacted GW Jan. 17 about hosting the speech but did not mention officials were talking to other universities.
“We said, ‘absolutely yes,'” Freedman said. “We didn’t say we’ll get back with you.”
He said GW was ready to reschedule the basketball game and he let the embassy know the “real costs” involved.
“We told them ‘we want you here. Now let us tell you what hurdles are involved for us,'” Freedman said.
On Friday, the day after talks began, Freedman said GW made it clear to the embassy that President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg would pay the cost out of his budget. He was notified by the embassy over the weekend that Georgetown would host the speech.
“My heart sank into my stomach when I heard that,” Freedman said.
Trachtenberg said he was not especially disappointed about missing out on the event.
“I didn’t drop my teeth about it or anything. There’s a million things going on in the big city,” he said.
Trachtenberg got a chance to meet with Afghan Minister of Higher Education Sharif Faiz Jan. 29, two days after Karzai’s speech at Georgetown.
Trachtenberg said the two discussed the physical infrastructure problems facing the University of Kabul, Afghanistan’s largest university, at a meeting at the Blair House. He said GW hopes to share students and faculty with Afghanistan in the future, especially to give Afghan women opportunities for education.
“We agreed to continue talking,” Trachtenberg said.
