A breach in communications between Student Union Service Council officials and Marsh Chapel administrators created scheduling problems for the annual ‘Fight for Life’ benefit and eventually led to last week’s cancellation of the event, Union president Ethan Clay said last night.
Clay discussed the incidents leading to SUSC’s decision to cancel the event with Marsh Chapel dean ad interim Hope Luckie and Student Activities Office director Carolyn Norris in separate meetings organized to discuss different issues yesterday, he said. The event raised $6,000 for the American Cancer Society two years ago.
Clay said he was told there is often confusion when reservations originally made by organizations for Marsh Plaza are instead ‘given away to other individuals.’ But Clay said he does not feel any such sequence of events ‘necessarily’ had anything to do with the controversy surrounding the cancellation of ‘Fight for Life.’
‘I was told it was a paperwork mishap,’ he said.
SUSC chairman Mike Pereira received a letter notifying him of time restrictions from the director of the University Chaplain’s Office, Shelli Jankowski-Smith, on April 16, after SUSC decided to cancel the event because administrators had already changed the event’s location and placed audio and time restrictions on the event.
Jankowski-Smith said the audio and time restrictions were made in an effort to accommodate all parties involved.
‘We just tried to make a decision with what was in the best interest of the most common good,’ she said.
But Pereira said the ‘initial issues’ concerning audio restrictions came from a ‘nervous’ BU Conferences Services, which is the body in charge of scheduling specific events on campus.
Conference Services director Diane O’Brien Wall said the concern rose because of another event scheduled nearby.
‘We wanted to sort of know what the event was about because we [scheduled] a wedding here,’ she said.
Clay said situation could have been avoided and felt the lack of ‘adequate options’ given to event organizer and SUSC chairman Mike Pereira were ‘unacceptable.’
‘This problem should never have occurred,’ he said. ‘It definitely was a result of miscommunication somewhere along the way and I think the BU administration needs to make sure that the lines of communication are made clear the communication to student groups needs to be increased as well.’
Pereira said he doubted the group had ‘missed’ anything, but felt the old-fashioned methods of communication used by Marsh Chapel may have created problems. Reservations are still organized by paper, instead of computer, he said.
‘If you literally walk into the office, it’s like you’re in a 1950s office,’ he said. ‘They haven’t moved onto the computer system it’s just antiquated.’
Due to the cancellation, the $15,000 raised to hold the event will be refunded back to the college governments and other campus organizations that made donations.
‘We can’t give the money that we raised to pay for the event to charity,’ Pereira said.
But Pereira said students still have an opportunity to raise money for the American Cancer Society through an event similar to ‘Fight for Life.’ An 18-hour event similar to the SUSC’s fundraiser is scheduled for today starting at 3 p.m. at a park near Cleveland Circle, he said.
SUSC is also still working to collect money for the American Cancer Society themselves, but the details have not yet been worked out, Pereira said.
‘We also will be taking collections but we still have to work that out with SAO,’ Pereira said.