Editorial Call it 'strike two'

Author: [no author name found]

Ten minutes after Paul Rusesabagina's lecture was scheduled to begin last Saturday, a public safety officer poked his head outside the door of Mead Chapel to face the frustrated crowd of students, staff and community members still hoping to get inside.

"Is there a Mr. McKenna?" the officer asked.

Vice President for Communication Mike McKenna, who had been shut-out and was patiently waiting in line with everyone else, stepped out from the crowd and entered the building.

Almost five months after College administrators botched the event planning for Middlebury's last major speaker, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, they did it again last weekend hosting Rwandan hero Paul Rusesabagina.

In response to the mismanagement of the Roberts lecture in October, we made numerous suggestions for the College's next high-profile event. Above all else, we proposed a ticket and lottery system to manage student and community access to large public events. But once again last Saturday students waited out on Mead Chapel's cold, commanding hill wondering if they would get to hear their prized speaker, and many of them did not.

Those turned away from the live event crossed paths with those being turned away from the satellite viewing area, because unlike Roberts' speech, the live satellite feed was set up in a lecture hall far too small to accommodate the demand. Inexplicably, another lecture hall was not quickly arranged to accommodate the demand as the first room overflowed. And those students who had waited and been turned away from Mead Chapel were turned away from even seeing a satellite feed on the opposite side of campus.

In an all-campus "Thoughts on Convocation" e-mail, Dean of the College Tim Spears recognized those students who had tried all options for hearing Rusesabagina but been turned away. Spears apologized, said his committee had underestimated interest and would plan better in the future.

But it is too bad that with all that went well about Rusesabagina's lecture - including a powerful introduction from Spears and an inspirational address from Rusesabagina - that students were shut-out from the opportunity because of poor planning.

Old Chapel's poor handling of Roberts' speech this fall was strike one. The underestimations made in planning for Paul Rusesabagina this past Saturday were strike two. We are encouraged by the thought and creativity from the Commencement Committee that is going into President Bill Clinton's visit at May's commencement. But we are left crossing our fingers that it will not be strike three.

We applaud the college for bringing such high-profile guests, but the administration needs to begin planning accordingly for the wide-appeal and recognition that these names command. Venues should be selected that will accommodate larger crowds, arrangements should be made for online and on-radio streaming of the lectures and administrators should be doing more on-the-spot work to address access problems that come up minutes before the event.

On-the-spot problems like, for example, locking the Vice President for Communications outside in the cold.