Long hours, hard work--
"and the chance to be part of history"

By Julie Kennedy

Long days and hard work at Washington University are paying off in a successful and well-orchestrated presidential debate and, for the staff across campus who have thrown themselves into the effort, the opportunity to be part of a historic event.

Behind the scenes, staff members are helping out in many ways--assisting with security, arranging parking and transportation, transforming the field house, documenting the event for posterity, printing banners and signs, organizing the student volunteers and meeting the needs of the major networks and other media.

Among those pitching in to put on the last presidential debate of the 2000 campaign is Marilyn Pollack, director of financial planning and management of student services, and Gary Sparks had the daunting task of organizing parking and transportation.

"The experience of organizing and providing a service for the debates gives one a great appreciation for the team work that is required and the complexity that is involved in producing such an event," Pollack said of the logistic parking and shuttle challenges she faced. Pollack's only debate responsibilities in 1992 (when the university hosted a debate among George Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot) were paying the bills. "Oh, how I long for those days," she said with a laugh.

Last minute Secret Service requests were the trickiest needs to meet. Each campaign brought many vehicles for press, VIPs and staff, ranging from sedans to 50 passenger buses. Accomodating convenient parking and access was often a challenge, said Pollack.

On the day of the debate, getting media, staff, students and guests where they need to be requires about 20 shuttles running almost continuously. The fniversity had all of its shuttles in service on Tuesday and contracted with Bi-State and Huntleigh to fill out the fleet. Three shuttles are running from the upper Muny parking lot in Forest Park to transport media between 4 a.m. Tuesday and 3 a.m. Wednesday, and two shuttles are running from the lower Muny lot to transport faculty and staff from 7 a.m. to midnight Tuesday. Another four shuttles are transporting guests of the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Pollack had high praise for the transportation department and shuttle services, which have effectively met needs as they arise, she said.

Alisa Schnieder, Career Center manager, organized the student volunteers. By the Sept. 15 deadline, she had received about 600 applications, which she prescreened. A selection committee made up of students, faculty and staff read the applications and then tried to match students with jobs in their areas of interest.

Then came the hard part. "I was responsible for contacting and placing them based on their schedules," Schneider said. As of Oct. 13 she had placed about 220 students, but new needs were arising daily. Like many staff members helping out on the debate, she's had to focus most of her time over the last two weeks on debate matters.

University Police Chief Don Strom and his department also have spent countless hours preparing. Providing security for an event of national and international significance is a demanding task. He's helped to coordinate the efforts of police departments in St. Louis County, St. Louis City, University City and Clayton, as well as the Secret Service. "It's a real partnership between all law enforcement," he said last week. "We're pooling resources to provide safety for the area and for the campus community."

The debate has focused a national spotlight on the campus as staff work with the media and the candidates' teams. T.J. Shelton, assistant athletic director, and Cherie Moore, accounting manager, are fielding phone calls and e-mails from networks and affiliates ordering tables, chairs, copiers, fax machines and even refrigerators.

Moore said neither campaign had requested anything more extravagant than leather sofas and chairs for the candidates' holding rooms, although Gore's people ordered three sofas. Bush's camp replaced the pipe-and-drape dividers surrounding its area in "Spin Alley" with modular walls and made a small room with a door.

Moore called her operation the central communications point--requests come in and she passes them on to others to fulfill. Moore also has the job of securing payment for items ordered. She said her biggest challenge is finding the right person to talk to at the networks and finding the right people to pay the bills.

On top of his debate duties, Shelton and the rest of the athletic department still had to coordinate varsity sports. The Homecoming football game was Saturday, and the men's soccer team played a home game Monday.

Members of the Public Affairs staff have worked hard to meet media needs, preparing press kits, briefing reporters and helping prepare media facilities. They also are promoting the university's role in Debate Watch, organizing the remote viewing sites around campus and documenting the university's role in the debate through photographs and video.

In addition, the Publications Office created and updated the debate Web site; designed, produced and installed many signs and banners around campus and at the Athletic Complex; and oversaw student designers in the creation of debate posters, T-shirts, pins and other items.

The staff of the Facilities Department helped transform the field house into a TV studio.

Ralph Thaman, associate vice chancellor of facilities planning and management, said 15 members of his staff oversaw the scores of contractors hired to implement the requirements of the Commission on Presidential Debates. Facilities personnel did most of the wiring needed in the Media Center (Francis Gym) themselves, Thaman added. The department also oversaw the last-minute beautification of campus, as new flowers were planted and other improvements made to make sure the campus looked its best.

Carole Prietto of University Archives is documenting this piece of history for posterity. Prietto said she has reminded people to save samples of debate memorabilia such as T-shirts and posters, just as she did for the debate in 1992. A thorough archivist, she had 12 boxes of memorabilia from 1992. Prietto also has taken notes at meetings of the steering committee, which met weekly and then daily as the debate neared. And she dug up records from 1992 to use as resource material for this debate; one request, for example, sought information about the 1992 student lottery procedure.

"I'm being helpful wherever I can be helpful," she said.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton offered heartfelt thanks to all those working on the debate. "We have been blessed with an extraordinary team of volunteers--students, faculty and staff--who have been working around the clock to transform the Athletic Complex into a television studio and a massive communications center for approximately 2,000 members of the media," he said. "The... members of the Commission on Presidential Debates and others who are here to produce the event have been extremely positive in their praise for the university."