Obama Visit Means Long Hours For Watertown College Planner

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — President Barack Obama’s scheduled visit to South Dakota May 8 is historic for one rather trivial reason.

Obama will do what only three other presidents have done: visit all 50 states as president. Presidents Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton hit all 50 while in office.

So news that Obama will speak at the commencement at Lake Area Technical College in Watertown has garnered more attention than most such routine presidential visits, because South Dakota is the final and 50th state he will enter as president. And on the far end of the state from the four stony visages on Mount Rushmore.

Among other things, the announcement has had a big effect on one person: LuAnn Strait, the director of student services who is organizing the college’s preparations for the May 8 visit.

Strait told the Capital Journal ( ) that planning the event “was pretty crazy at first,” with lots of excitement and long hours answering questions from all over the nation.

“Things have slowed down now but I am guessing it is a ‘hurry up and wait’ situation,” she said. “Once the advance teams arrive, the work will pick back up; but we are ready.”

Strait started at the college in 1987 as an admissions representative. Over the years she’s taken on many other tasks. She says her job as director of institutional relations includes marketing, public relations, admissions, recruitment and all student services.

Now she can add planning for a U.S. president’s visit.

Strait plans graduations every year, has helped organize a few air shows in town and a NASA Space Day that LATI was part of in 2008 that brought 2,000 to campus.

This is another level, she says.

“We have an army of people helping,” she said.

The big difference is working with the White House to draw up a list of South Dakota news reporters and photographers to be invited and setting up enough space for the national reporters who travel with the president.

Here’s how the event began on the South Dakota side, Strait said:

“The White House called Lake Area Tech President (Michael) Cartney on Wednesday, April 8, and asked when our graduation was and if we had our graduation plans in motion. After telling them we did, they asked if it would be OK if President Obama would be able to give the commencement address.”

That was taken by the college as a rhetorical question.

“President Cartney told a few of us at Lake Area Tech and we kept it a secret until the White House informed us they were going to announce his visit on Monday April 13 at 4 p.m. Central Time. We gathered the Lake Area Tech staff and announced the news to them at 3 p.m. It was so exciting and the staff was just speechless.”

She has been dealing with the White House’s office of scheduling, not any known personage, or even if it was a known personage, “we are not allowed to say too much,” Strait said. “And quite truthfully, we really haven’t been told much either.”

The presidential visit is not supposed to be a big disruption, believe it or not, which might be her most difficult job.

“We were told by his staff to keep things as normal as possible. They do not want this to take away from the graduates and their families and their special day. They have repeated this message over and over.”

The Watertown Civic Arena seats about 4,800, she said. “The national media are taking up all the back of the arena,” she said about her struggle to find room for South Dakota reporters and photographers. “We can’t get too close to the stage with the bleachers, so we are down a few (seats.)”

There is no admission cost, but it will take a ticket to get in and Strait is in charge of that, too. Parking, seating, entrance details join with the normal graduation planning of decorating, printing of programs and organizing “who says what” on stage.

Everyone attending the ceremony will “go through airport-like security,” according to Strait. The premises will be swept by security hours before the doors are open to the public.

No bags, sharp objects, umbrellas, liquids, signs or banners will be permitted. Cameras will be allowed.

Anyone bringing children should realize “we anticipate longer-than-normal wait times” to get in and seated, Strait said.

An alternative viewing area in the student center and student commons via video will be provided.

There are 719 graduates, a record number, she said. Last year, 672 graduated.

In her 28 years at the school, this is a new high point, Strait said.

“No one could ever have taught us how you plan a president’s visit,” she said.

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Information from: Pierre Capital Journal,