Published: April 24, 2008 04:30 pm         

Putting Mr. Prez on the spot

SMALL TALK

By Tracy Chesney



Did I ever tell you about the time I put the president on the spot? In an effort to get what I wanted, I boldly put one foot in front of the other and approached the front of the room where the president was standing.

That was totally unlike me, because I’m the quiet, reserved type. I’ve spoken to the president several times before, but after he gave a speech to the senior class at Texas A&M University-Commerce four years ago, I was ready to take on the world, gulp, and take the challenge and give him my two cents’ worth of what I thought of his speech and then bequeath of him my request.

By now, you should know I’m not talking about the president of the United States but the president of the university, Dr. Keith McFarland.

After spending three hard-earned years studying at the university, I thought I deserved a chance to ask one simple favor. Or at least I figured it wouldn’t hurt.

I worked at the university’s newsroom for a year and wrote for the college newspaper, and that had given me the opportunity to interview some of the “big wigs” at the university. So there were a few times when I would cross paths with the president.

After I told my co-workers what I was going to ask the president, you could see them off to the side snickering and saying, “I can’t believe she’s going to ask him that.”

McFarland had spoken about how we seniors should be thankful to their families for supporting us throughout our college years. When I approached McFarland, I shook his hand and congratulated him on a great speech but stated that I had one problem with it.

You could tell he was a little taken aback by that remark. And did I just imagine a tiny bit of blushing, Dr. McFarland, or was it my imagination? Excuse me; I made an error. It was I who was blushing and trembling like a leaf.

Much to McFarland’s grace and quick wit, he quickly caught on to what I was getting at.

I told McFarland that I agreed with his speech — that seniors should be grateful to their parents or any other family members who supported them through college. And I told him how much I was looking forward to being able to walk across the stage to receive my diploma and how happy my family was for me.

Since there were hundreds of graduating seniors, each senior was given only five tickets for family members to come watch their loved ones walk across the stage. My only problem with that was that I had six loved ones, and there was no way I was going to tell my parents or my children — I wasn’t your typical senior — that they couldn’t come to my graduation.

After explaining my situation to McFarland, he graciously told me to call his secretary and they would see what they could work out. The next day, there was one extra ticket sitting on my desk.

When it came time to walk across the stage, McFarland shook my hand, gave me my diploma and carried on a one- or two-minute conversation with me. He just wanted to make sure that all my family got to come watch my graduation.

So to other graduation seniors out there seeking extra tickets, sorry to say that this tactic won’t work for you. It was explained to me that every office has only a certain amount of tickets, and the president’s office only had one ticket to spare.

After serving the university since 1973 in various capacities, with the last decade being the university president, McFarland will be retiring as president in several months.

As my farewell note to Dr. McFarland, I felt that this unusual memory should go into the newsroom’s scrapbooks. So, thank you, Dr. McFarland for a great three years at the university, and thank you for the extra ticket. Oh, and sorry about putting you on the spot.



Chesney is a feature writer for the Herald-Banner.