User:Rick-menchaca

Rick Menchaca]

His job was to bring to the campus speakers and entertainment programs for the students. That meant making many contacts all over the country with booking agents and all the diverse talent that was going to end up at the school: “We booked movies, comedians, rock stars, bands like Buddy Rich’s, country singers, speakers like Yolanda King, G. Gordon Liddy, George McGovern, and Ralph Nader” that agreed to come to the school to speak or perform. In that job Rick managed a budget of about a quarter of a million dollars each semester. Students were assessed $15 each for the service, and the school had 6500 students at the time, so the operation was pretty big time and involved Rick’s working on marketing, promotions, and negotiation of contracts. And he had frequent dealings with the university administration—the college’s president and dean (good training for the future city manager). The Student Center program was new the year before Rick got the job. He soon realized that some of the events, especially the concerts, needed to go off campus to a larger venue than a gymnasium that could only hold a few thousand students.