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William J. Regan, director of the Office of Special Events, is a co-chair of the Dalai Lama Visit Steering Committee.
It's not unusual for the Dalai Lama to visit a university campus.
How will his visit to UB Sept. 18-20 be different than other visits?
The duration of his visit is the first striking difference: His
Holiness the Dalai Lama has chosen to stay at UB for three days. We
believe this is in response to the many attractive features of UB and
the Western New York community that will have him participating in a
full array of meaningful programming. UB is the most comprehensive
campus of the SUNY system, which in itself is among the world's biggest
as measured by students; we are ranked 11th in international enrollment;
Western New York boasts a richly diverse ethnic heritage; and we are
conveniently located to major metropolitan areas (Toronto, Cleveland,
Pittsburgh, Rochester, Syracuse, etc.). In response, His Holiness is
honoring UB with multiple engagements: a public event in UB Stadium on
Sept. 19, an interfaith service in Alumni Arena on Sept. 18; a special
meeting with UB students; and an international conference focusing on
Tibetan and Buddhist law. And of course the Office of Tibet will work
with UB officials to coordinate smaller meetings in between these public
events.
Please share the scope of the challenges you face as the person
coordinating logistics for the visit of the Dalai Lama to UB.
Unlike any other program I've been associated with here at UB since
1980, His Holiness' visit effectively breaks all the molds that we have
developed over the years for facilitating the broad array of
UB-sponsored events. This program has parameters of size, duration,
complexity, planning and participation that dwarf almost everything
we've ever attempted. Hosting the 1993 World University Games certainly
required a long-term, high-level and substantial university and
community response. But unlike the World University Games, which had
little impact on our students, the visit by the Dalai Lama is very much
directed to our students, as well as faculty and staff and the Western
New York community. Interestingly, the fact that we have such a
beautiful, high-capacity stadium-our legacy from the World University
Games-is a principal reason for the Dalai choosing UB; he wants as many
students to come as possible. Perhaps the biggest challenge the visit
presents is the timing: the events with the Dalai Lama all take place
during the day on weekdays, when classes typically are in session. But
this is perhaps our biggest opportunity as well, given that we have the
proverbial "captive audience" that will allow us to maximize our UB
response to this wonderfully unique learning opportunity. The public
lecture theme is essential to our mission: Promoting Peace Across
Borders through Education. From a logistics standpoint, the fact that we
are presenting multiple programs in our biggest venues (Stadium, Alumni
Arena, Center for the Arts) within three days, in front of possibly
capacity audiences (30,000, 6,000 and 1,700, respectively) will require
a massive sustained effort-in terms of pre-planning and execution-on the
part of our event-services enterprise here on campus, which includes
University Police, Parking and Transportation, University Facilities,
Athletics, Center for the Arts, Campus Dining and Shops, and News and
Creative Services, as well as our own Office of Special Events. Big
assists will be provided by the offices of the President and Provost
(especially the Office of International Education), and the offices of
the vice presidents for Student Affairs and External Affairs. But
logistics, while an obvious concern, cannot overshadow the work that
presently is being done by many members of our faculty, staff and
student bodies, along with individuals in the community, to not only
plan for the events that will feature His Holiness, but to develop
additional programming and activities to ensure that his visit is not an
isolated program. Several undergraduate and graduate academic courses, a
film festival, UB Reads, Buffalo Public Schools curricula, special
concerts, photo exhibits, a residency here at UB by Tibetan monks who
will construct Mandala sand painting and perform sacred music and sacred
dance already are in place to make the experience a year-long
celebration. More exciting elements will be added as more people get
involved.
How do those challenges differ from, for example, hosting a former
U.S. president as part of the Distinguished Speakers Series?
We've hosted four former presidents on campus over the past 20 years
(Carter, Ford, Clinton and Bush Sr.). The challenges we face hosting
His Holiness the Dalai Lama surpass those we faced for the presidents on
several fronts: duration (several hours vs. several days); venue and
size of the primary audience (stadium with 20,000-30,000 persons vs.
Alumni Arena with 6,000), concurrent program (packed schedule vs.
singular event) and entourage (the Dalai Lama travels with up to two
dozen persons vs. Secret Service detail only for the former presidents)
to name a few. Because of this scale of programming, planning for the
Dalai Lama has involved a high level of university and community
participation, versus a fairly discreet group of planners—mostly
from my office, the Office of the President and University
Police—for the visits by the former presidents.
What's the biggest logistical challenge in hosting the Dalai
Lama's visit?
Given the timing of the visit, which UB had no control over, and the
scheduling of events during the day over a Monday through Wednesday
timeframe, accommodating our stadium-event patrons with parking and
transportation certainly will be complicated. For UB faculty, staff and
students, we have the worry that there will be approximately 30,000
"eligible" campus hang tags distributed for use, and we only have
approximately 12,000 parking spaces on the North Campus-with many of
these already dedicated to students living in the residence halls and
apartments. We have begun to reserve parking off campus and have been
negotiating with transportation companies for shuttle buses to handle
our event patrons. We also have had conversations with officials at the
NFTA to explore opportunities on two fronts: tapping into parking at the
airport, and ramping up the number of trains they could deploy on the
Metro Rail line. This latter strategy would allow us to promote using
the Metro Rail line to get to the South Campus, where we then could
provide shuttles to the North Campus. We will be talking with major
event planners that have faced similar challenges-a venue without enough
parking to support expected attendance-to determine our best
solutions.
How are tickets going to be distributed? When will tickets go on
sale?
Ticketing for the UB Stadium event will be handled through our
Division of Athletics ticket office working in coordination with
Tickets.com. Sales will be facilitated both online and in person at the
box office in Alumni Arena. Given the tricky situation regarding
parking, we will bundle our parking options directly into the ticket
purchase (i.e., column "A" choice of ticket options; column "B" choice
of parking options). We would like to begin selling tickets starting in
mid- to late April. We will begin by offering the UB campus community
and current Distinguished Speakers Series subscribers an exclusive
opportunity to purchase their tickets. We'll then open sales to those
individuals who have registered online, at no cost, as patrons through
the Dalai Lama Web site at http://www.buffalo.edu/
dalai_lama). Finally, we will open up ticket sales to the
community at large. The allocation scheme for tickets-the overall
numbers we will make available to the various constituent groups-will be
in direct proportion to our ability to provide the necessary parking and
transportation.
What question do you wish I had asked, and how would you have
answered it?
It's not an obvious one because it would be a silly and self-serving
question in most instances, but it would go something like this: "What's
it like being responsible for managing such a huge event?" You have, of
course, asked this question rhetorically because I don't want to even
pretend that I alone could be responsible for managing such an ambitious
set of programs. The series of events, programs and activities that we
have embarked upon and will travel through to at least the end of the
year is and will be the direct result of the efforts of scores of people
who have embraced the Dalai Lama's visit to the point of ownership.
Indeed, we have a great number of stakeholders who feel beholden not to
me, but to the Dalai Lama and what he can deliver to us. Many, many
people want this to succeed, and have been and will continue to be doing
their utmost to assure success. A very strong steering committee that is
highly representative of our campus and community has been assembled and
is meeting regularly. It is co-chaired by Stephen Dunnett, vice provost
for international education, and James "Beau" Willis, chief of staff in the
Office of the President and interim executive vice president for finance
and operations, along with myself. Many subcommittees also have been
formed to address the multiple facets of the programming. The visit
here by the Dalai Lama will be a true university-wide experience, and
will involve more students, faculty and staff in a common pursuit at one
time than has ever been the case. It will yield a common bond and a
sense of purpose and accomplishment among the members of our campus
community—this event will be a defining moment for our university.