Letter from Dan McCarthy to Sally Souris

[handwritten: copy] October 31, 1986 To: Sally Souris From: Dan McCarthy Re: SGA Fall Festival I am writing with regard to a recent SGA event, "Fall Festival" where the SGA planned entertainment with booths, rides for adults and children and various other carnival activities. The event was scheduled to be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 3, 4, and 5. What brought this to my attention was the fact that Wednesday afternoon, October 1, one full day prior to the festival beginning I received a call from a student from SGA identifying himself as being the public relations person. He requested that I assist him in developing public service announcements and make calls to representatives of the media in order to publicize the SGA event which would begin on Friday at noon. I explained to the young man that I could not and would not call media contacts and ask them to do something like this with just one day nritice. It would be a reflection on the institution as well as myself, professionally. I tried to explain that anytime there would be an event such as this it would require at least two to three weeks lead time for public service announcements to be written and in the hands of the media for announcements to be scheduled in their programming log. Further, it has come to my attention through several individuals, one of whom brought his children here on Sunday, that the carnival and fall festival was abruptly closed on Saturday. My first concern is that we advertised publicly that this was going to be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It should have remained open for all three days, regardless of the financial loss, it is not a matter of just picking up and leaving which reflects negatively on the university. Although it was an SGA event the institution still receives the negative comments and we assume certain responsibilities in as much as the public believes we are the ones who sponsor and monitor these activities. I did suggest to the gentleman who called from the SGA that ads could be purchased in the Sunpaper and the page to have the ads placed on in order to heighten public awareness about the festival and possibly generate attendance. This was done and this furthers my concern that the general public knew of this event and if they arrived on Sunday they found an empty Burdick Field.