By Francesca Merwin, staff writer

Esther Gray has seen it all. Or heard it all, rather. She’s heard about politics and photographs, people and places. She’s met the famous and the eccentric, the neurotic and the unique. For an everyday Syracusian, she’s maintained quite the social circle. As the main coordinator for the University Lectures, this woman has helped to bring more than 100 visiting lecturers to Syracuse over the past 11 years. That means that she has rubbed elbows with Al Gore, shared moments with Seamus Heaney, and hugged (!!) Annie Leibovitz.

“I spend a day, at minimum, with each speaker and I get to know them,” she explains. “I get to find out about their families and kids and grandparents. I get the opportunity to meet them under different circumstances.”

All in a day’s work. The University Lectures series presents a worldwide assemblage of speakers from every discipline to present educational lectures at Syracuse University. The lectures are completely free, open to the public and occur regularly at Hendricks Chapel. In the month of March alone, the lecture series will feature Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections and Freedom; Zadie Smith, contemporary novelist and author of White Teeth, and Terry Tempest Williams, an environmentalist and author of Finding Beauty in a Broken World.

And while March’s entertainment will appeal mainly to the literati, the organization tends to focus more on bringing in diverse lecturers. “For our next season, we’ll have a photographer, a Broadway playwright and a nonprofit founder,” Gray notes. “Everyone will be different, which we like.”

A diverse pool of lecturers is essential to the goal of The University Lectures series. Speakers are not invited to simply discuss their work: They must also discuss relevant academic issues and be concerned with educating their audience. The lectures are frequented by students, community members and even children, so lecturers must be able to communicate well with their various audiences. Gray specifically recalls when Jim Balog come to the university last year, and in the course of one 24 hour visit, he met with 1,000 middle schoolers, spoke with SU students, introduced himself to faculty and performed a lecture- each with a different tone. “He did a magnificent job,” Gray says.

When Senator George McGovern spoke in 2002, Gray was approached by an elderly man from Pennsylvania. He wanted to travel to Syracuse from his home in Pennsylvania to meet McGovern. His daughter drove him because he was confined to a wheelchair. It turned out that the man had been in the same fighter-bomber squadron in World War II as McGovern, and he just wanted to shake his hand and say hello. With help, he managed to stand up to salute McGovern. “Those are the kind of things that are so worth it,” Gray says. “And not just that. I have so many pictures in my head of students sitting one on one with speakers and hearing their stories.” Gray recalls seeing archeologist Richard Leaky, a man who never seemed to smile, laugh and speak Swahili with students in a student breakfast on campus. “It was such a moment. You couldn’t believe it.”

Gray encourages students who are interested in meeting a speaker to reach out to her. Many times she can find an opportunity that offers them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet extraordinary people and build connections. Often, Gray is able to convince speakers to add additional events that allow for community participation. For example, the day after her lecture on campus, Terry Tempest Williams will go to Eagle Road Middle School to speak to about 400 middle school students about environmentalism and last fall, geophysicist Dr. Carol Finn spoke to about 900 students from several area middle schools.

The combination of educational wisdom and community focus is what has kept this lecture series going strong for 11 years. “There is such a community following for these lectures,” Gray adds. “I can’t tell you how many people thank me for making these free and available.”

Jonathan Franzen will speak on Tuesday, March 6; Zadie Smith will speak on Tuesday, March 20 and Terry Tempest Williams will speak on Thursday, March 29. All lectures take place at 7:30 p.m. at Hendricks Chapel, just steps off the Connective Corridor- a FREE bus service. For more information, and a complete list of lectures, please visit the University Lectures’ website.