(Nick McCarthy)
President Turner, you are safe. Normally you are the focal point of my complaints. This time I just hope you follow the reading.
I only attack the position that you hold and the power you posses. Which is why I ask for your attention.
SMU messed up and I want to know why.
Relay for Life was back! A 12-hour walk for a cure, if you will, taking place on the Boulevard. More than 70 teams, set to raise six figures in donations. All to benefit the American Cancer Society.
It was my honor to once again receive the invitation to host the SMU Relay for Life event benefiting the ACS. I have held the mic since the first night the fundraiser came to the Hilltop and I enjoy my returns even more than the first.
2007 was to be no exception.
This university already has developed one of the top fundraising events from a collegiate perspective across the country. Every year the numbers grow not only financially, but from a participation standpoint as well. You can’t put a price on the value of campus unity.
2007 was to be no exception.
The committee puts in countless hours of work to hammer out each and every detail in an effort to create an evening of awareness, emotion, direction and reflection. I don’t really host the evening; I just help bring the picture to life.
2007 was to be no exception.
That was, until Mother Nature threw a little curveball.
Reports of nasty weather forced the committee to make sudden changes in plans and split-second adjustments to the event. My phone started ringing at 7 a.m. the day of the show and didn’t stop until 4 p.m. later that afternoon. Each call with an update, but the 2 p.m. call was the heartbreaker.
Let me track back and take the blame. Every year the majority of the committee is turned over to new faces. New people in new places attempting to execute a game plan with even more conviction than the years past. The only thing left behind to help them prepare? Notes from the previous year’s staff.
I guess I could be the X-factor. I have been through it all before, so I know what to expect. I even leave work early to meet the committee and try to help answer some questions. I take the event very seriously. Relay for Life is a brilliant show for a stellar cause.
Friday the 13th should have been my first warning. Then again, maybe I should have spoken up about the weather. Every year it is an issue, every year the show goes on with fingers crossed and hopes held high. Never before have there been worries of hail and tornados. Never before have we had weeks of rain, 80 degree sunny days and 50 degree chills mixed into the month. Maybe I should have asked about the back-up plan – I didn’t and the event suffered.
My fault?
Sure, if that makes it easy for everyone to get over it, but simply placing blame doesn’t excuse the acts of the university.
The 10:30am phone call the morning of the event was to explain how everything was moving into the old Mrs. Baird’s building across from the SMU bookstore on Mockingbird Lane. The committee asked if I could get off work and arrive a little early to go over the changes, and they e-mailed me an updated agenda.
The 1 p.m. phone call was filled with more emotion. Mrs. Baird’s was a no-go; the event was moving. I asked: Why the sudden change? The reply caught me by surprise.
Risk Management said, “No.”
The committee said there wasn’t a specific reason, they just said, “No.”
So I called over to Risk Management and asked to speak with someone that had called off the event at Mrs. Baird’s. I have no desire to use names, it doesn’t matter. The issue isn’t with a single person, it is with the response. I asked as an unbiased participant if I could get a proper explanation as to why the event didn’t work at that location. I asked for an answer so I could call the committee and say X,Y and Z didn’t meet requirements so it is time to move on. I needed something with substance, something that was valid.
The committee put in months of prep work making phone calls, sending e-mails, scheduling visits, writing letters and attending countless meetings. Members were caught off-guard by the weather and hoped for the university to come to the rescue. Instead, Risk Management slammed the door in their face.
My phone call was put on hold twice and given the final response as, “NO.”
Thank you, Captain Obvious.
I called for clarification. Don’t give me some standard spin response. I realize that a number of the people may have just been relaying a message.
That word “no” came from someone’s mouth. That word “no” is a joke. Two people in this world can say no to me without me putting up a fight…a Doctor and my Ma.
I don’t feel sick and my Ma doesn’t work in Risk Management.
My question to the fine people in RM is simple – why no effort to help find a solution that produced a YES? If you think that your flip-the-switch power position is as simple as a YES/NO day at the office then I would like you to reconsider your values.
The next time you flip the switch on a six-figure fundraiser in desperate need of some help, at least come to the table with an answer greater than a two-year-old’s vocabulary.
The committee simply asked for a reason. In order to create a NO answer I would hope actual reasoning is there.
Let me remind the people in RM: without the students you have no job. Don’t get caught up in the business side of this university, or before long you will forget whom you actually work for.
Hint – it isn’t the person who signs the check.
So, President Turner, this is when it all comes back to you.
Such an amazing event is right under your nose. Why doesn’t the University embrace it?
SMU strives for rankings, recognition and national top finishes in everything they do. How about the positive exposure of one of the nation’s finest collegiate fundraisers?
Are rankings really where the value of this campus sits? Or is there value uniting more than 1,200 students for a 12-hour period?
Imagine if those same 1,200 students went to campus sporting events to support the athletic cause. Maybe the football, basketball and volleyball teams, who sent members and supported the cause, see the value in campus unity. I can only hope the students return the favor next fall.
You can’t put rankings or front-page headlines on that.
Will the Bush library raise six figures to fight cancer?
Will a top 25 athletic program raise six figures to fight cancer?
Will new Georgian style architecture raise six figures to fight cancer?
I need to apologize, if you don’t know me, right now you probably think I despise this school and all of its greatness. Quite the opposite; I love this school so much that I hold it to only the highest standards. That is why the blatant disregard of last Friday’s event without formal explanation is inexcusable.
The good news from all of this is that the committee came together and fought harder than ever before to pull off the event in its abbreviated glory. Many of the students still came out and supported the cause and the hard work of their peers.
Some rain, a little hail and a few tornado sirens weren’t enough to cloud out the real winner of the day: the continued fight against cancer.
Guy Bellaver is an ’04 graduate currently working in the Dallas area. He is author of the collegiate humor book “Dumb It Down” and can be reached for comment at [email protected].
