MTV's president of network development, John Sykes, was scheduled to be feted tonight at Lubin House, the Syracuse University outpost in New York City that serves as a hostel-slash-events space for alumni, visiting professors, and editorial assistants still clinging to their "But I went to Newhouse!" rationales for why they should get jobs at 4 Times Square. (We, for one, gave that up exactly three months after graduation.)

Sykes, a Newhouse alum (which explains his picture here with Bill Clinton, at, yes, a Newhouse event), was to be honored for "his contributions to the media, Syracuse University, and the community," according to the official invite.

Too bad, because the event's been canceled for lack of interest from alumni, we're told. Likely scenario: Newhouse alums who are more successful than Sykes (hard to do) couldn't be bothered, and those less successful than Sykes are exhausted from kissing ass and handing out business cards at last night's Maxim 100.

Let's just hope Meredith Vieira doesn't have the same fate next month when she hosts the Newhouse school's first-ever Mirror Awards, honoring the "outstanding work of people and organizations that report on the media." Why we're not nominated for anything, we don't know.