The sights and sounds of the biggest event in the history of Washington University will have their own place in history because they have been secured on video and audio tape.
Everything from local press briefings to high-level planning meetings were recorded on 30 hours of audiotape by University Archivist Carole A. Prietto. In addition, the University hired producer Andy Ruhlin to record on video the day-to-day happenings leading up to the first presidential debate of 1992.
Prietto was called into the project about halfway through preparations and Ruhlin began videotaping on Thursday preceding the debate. Both recorded activities throughout the weekend.
Prietto, who shadowed University officials for five days with microphone in hand, will listen to the tapes and edit and prepare them for use by University administrators. She said transcribing the recordings verbatim would be too cumbersome a task.
In addition, she also will compile a printed record by cataloging news clips from around the world and gather video materials that were produced by the University. Press packets, including pens, pencils, T-shirts, and all other promotional materials, also will be cataloged and stored.
"This will be extremely valuable for the University record because it will help us if we ever host another major event such as this," says Prietto. "By maintaining a complete record, we will be able to learn what issues officials had to deal with at the time and how they handled the issues. This is the biggest event in the history of Washington University. We have never hosted an event of this magnitude, and we need to record it because it's too important to overlook."
The vidoe footage produced by Ruhlin will have multiple uses.
Ruhlin had one crew taping Thursday through Monday and two crews taped Sunday. He conducted follow-up interviews Monday for a perspective on the week's activities.
"I am recording an energetic portrait of a community mobilized to take advantage of an opportunity," Ruhlin said in describing his task. "We covered why Washington University was selected as the site for the first presidential debate, how it responded and who was involved."
Prietto was particularly enthusiastic because this was the first time she had been involved directly with such a project. In 1988, when George Bush debated Michael Dukakis at University of California, Los Angeles, she was an assistant archivist there. At UCLA however, the campus closed early and no one was allowed to get involved in the activities.
Other past presidential-related events that have been held at Washington University were in 1965, when Vice President Hubert Humphrey delivered the first Benjamin Youngdahl Lecture; in 1984, when Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale made a campaign stop; in 1989, when President George Bush stopped on his Thousand Points of Light tour; and 1991, when former President Jimmy Carter spoke as part of a lecture series.