PSU Magazine Fall 1995

Cramming for Clinton n the peculiar sti ll ness of 3 a.m., Secret Service teams with spec ially- trained "sniffer" J ogs began sweeping Smith Memorial Center, where the Pac ific Rim Economic Conference woul<l begin in four hours. As one team scoured the offices of the Vanguard reca ll ed John Fowler, head of Campus Safety and Security, a sniffer dog became exc ited, indicating it had fo und something. Cautiou ly the agents investigated, on ly to discover a long-forgotten sand– wich tucked into a nook. It wa bu t one of many glitches the campus hand led with aplomb this summer when President Bill C linton, Vice Pres ident A l Gore, cabinet officials, and 250 of the West's most powerfu l CEOs converged on campus June 27 for the Pac ific Rim Economic Conference. "We had a glitch a minute," says the unflappable Fowler, "but you expect problems when you're putting on an event of this magnitude. What we didn't have were any 'stoppers,' something that we couldn 't so lve or find some way around ." Fowler may have seen flaws, but the outside organizers had on ly praise fo r PSU employees. "I've done over a thousand pres iden tial trips," says Steve Leroy, pres ident of Group 2000, which specializes in organizing spectacular events like the 1995 V Day ce lebra– tions in Eu rope and the fo rmer Soviet Union. "I would definitel y put PSU at 4 PSU MAGAZINE FALL 1995 or near the top in terms of how much they volunteered, how well they did what they volunteered, and how quickly they did it." Perhaps most significantly, though, the frantic three week pu lled PSU employees together in a way more typica l of a great crisis, say, an approaching hurricane. "The unsung heroes of this campus made things happen that I didn 't know could happen," says Janis Nichols, d irector of Public Relations, "and they did it with a great deal of panache." More than 22 5 PSU employees worked directly to ensure the success of the conference. O thers worked as It was an intense three weeks getting ready for a visit from the White House. By Melissa Steineger PHOTO BY MARC OLSON Smith Center Ballroom was transformed for the White House conference with rented stage and custom-built table and backdrop. hard to keep the campus- where summer sess ion was in fu ll swing– running smooth ly. Almost 100 volunteers, many of them P U alums, also helped make the event a succes . Notable was alum– nu Eric EglanJ 's last minute donation of 2,000 pop ·icles fo r over-hea ted spectators waiting fo r an outdoor appearance by C linton, Gore, U.S. Rep. Eli zabeth Furse, and Judith Ramaley, P U President.