Schedule slip-up causes double-booking on Mall

Katherine K. Gardiner Arizona Daily Wildcat Edelweiss Folk Dancers perform a traditional German dance during Multi-Cultural Week festivities on the UA Mall yesterday. A conflict occurred when a speaker for the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship was also scheduled to use the Mall.

A double-booking of the main Mall area caused the "Festival of Nations," part of Multi-Cultural Week, to bump shoulders yesterday with a speaker sponsored by the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. It was Multi-Cultural Week's first year at the UA and Christian Pastor Cliffe Knechtle's 11th.

The organizers of both activities said they had the space and amplification for the week of March 3-7 reserved since last year.

Yesterday's events ran smoothly though simultaneously. However, the International Students Association, which organized the Multi-Cultural Week, was frustrated. When it comes to explaining how the conflict occurred, each side has its own story.

"We were under the impression this whole time that the Mall was reserved," said Thomas Dornis, a member of ISA and one of Multi-Cultural Week's organizers.

Multi-Cultural Week's original schedule included panel discussions of international issues, cultural performers and food booths celebrating the diversity of international students on campus.

After planning for the event, inviting performers and preparing fliers, ISA was notified less than two weeks ago that there had been a double-booking for the Mall space and amplification, said Bevin McArthur, ISA president.

ISA had eight or nine groups scheduled to perform on the stage yesterday, McArthur said, but some had to be canceled due to the conflict. Discussion panels scheduled to address international issues on Monday and Tuesday were also canceled, she said.

Mall Scheduling requires event organizers to turn in a Mall event request form at least two weeks prior to the event. A reservation, however, should be made a year in advance, said Diane Newman, commercial and Mall activity coordinator.

"It's all tentative until the Mall form is in," she said.

Rhonda Wilson, Associated Students president, said she made the reservation for Multi-Cultural Week in February 1996.

Dornis said he collected all of the signatures needed and submitted the form to Mall Scheduling on Feb. 20, 1997, exactly two weeks before Multi-Cultural Week's major Mall event, "Festival of Nations."

But McArthur said she received a phone call on the following day saying that another event had turned its Mall form in before ISA and had been scheduled for the same week.

Facing the difficulties, McArthur said she agreed, although unhappily, to move Multi-Cultural Week to the area in front of the Campus Health Center. To build a stage for the cultural performances, however, Facilities Management was going to charge ISA $200, McArthur said.

After negotiating with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, ISA was granted 45 minutes of amplification time yesterday so that the cultural groups could perform on the stage between 11:45 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

"We had to work a different deal out for every day of Multi-Cultural Week," McArthur said.

Phil Alderink, member of the International Student Fellowship and co-sponsor for the speaker, said the fellowship's request for the Mall space was put in a year ago as well.

"If anybody is at fault it's really Mall Scheduling. When that second application came in, they didn't catch it," Alderink said.

Newman said she attributes the cause of the problem to confusion within Mall Scheduling and misunderstanding of policy.

"Part of the problem was that the Mall Scheduling office was moved to event scheduling. There wasn't just one person doing one thing," she said. "People were doing what they could, as best as they could."

Newman said Intervarsity Christian Fellowship submitted its Mall reservation form in May 1996. Multi-Cultural Week organizers, she said, turned in part of the form in January 1997 and completed the process two weeks ago.

ASUA Accountant Gail Tanner said she has had problems with scheduling Mall space. She said Mall Scheduling should explain their terms better, stress the deadline for the Mall form and hand out the form at the time the event is scheduled.

"I think they should call us first instead of scheduling someone else on top," Tanner said.

Newman said because she took over the job of supervising Mall Scheduling last month, she was not aware of the double-booking until ISA finished its reservation process.

Multi-Cultural Week organizers said they were concerned that students would associate Knechtle's speech about his Christian beliefs with the international celebration.

Unsal Kuscuoglu, president of the Turkish club and a graduate student in molecular and cellular biology, said it isn't proper to have a Christian speaker associated with Multi-Cultural Week.

"This is a very diverse campus, and this is one speaker speaking of one religion," Kuscuoglu said.

The double celebration on the Mall yesterday didn't seem to bother Knechtle, the speaker sponsored by Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Knechtle is a Christian pastor from Wilton, Conn.

"As a follower of Christ, I support diversity and pluralism," Knechtle said. "That's the foundation for a university system. When we disagree, we don't fight. A liberal arts education is based on freedom of ideas."