A major snow storm in Dallas kept Gen. Wesley Clark and his plane grounded there, forcing the cancellation of his planned speech Thursday, March 6, at Saint Louis University. The four-star general was scheduled to speak about national security in a speech titled “United States Security in the New Millennium.”

An e-mail announcing the cancellation was sent out by Student Government Association President Andrew Clifton around 6 p.m. Thursday night.

Clark wasn’t expected to land in St. Louis until 8 p.m., so the Great Issues Committee decided to cancel the event, rather than ask students to wait for up to two hours for his arrival.

GIC Chair Dan McGinnis said he is planning to participate in a conference call with Clark at 9 a.m. this morning to discuss rescheduling options. Because of Clark’s involvement with Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, it may be difficult to have Clark speak at SLU before the semester ends.

“I want to let the students know we are going to try our best to get Gen. Clark back to SLU before semester ends,” McGinnis said. “But if we don’t, the money won’t go to waste. We will be getting credit from the speaking agent’s company that we can use toward another speaker in the fall.”

The event was co-sponsored by College Democrats and the Center for International Studies. All three groups would have to agree on a new speaker.

Matt Favoino, College Democrats treasurer, said that while the group is disappointed that Clark won’t be speaking, he understood that waiting was not an option.

Favoino was optimistic about bringing Clark to SLU in the future.

“We definitely hope to reschedule with Clark,” Favoino said. “But if not, we would be interested in working with GIC and CIS and co-sponsoring a democratic speaker.”

An announcement regarding a speaker will be made by GIC in the upcoming days, McGinnis said.