Imagine the President of the United States chooses to make a commencement address at your institution. It’s a big deal, right? What if this ceremony also marked your institution’s 250th anniversary, and you expect more than 50,000 attendees, rain or shine? Then it’s a huge deal. And what if your commencement task force had less than a month to finalize plans? Talk about a perfect storm. This was situation that Rutgers University faced this spring, when they learned on April 14 that President Obama had decided to make a speech during commencement on May 15. This presentation explores the historic visit and the massive preparation effort involved in its execution from Tony Calcado, Senior Vice President, Institutional Planning and Operations, who served as chair of the commencement task force. Hear about logistics challenges including transportation, public safety and off-site locations.

1. Wheaton College (MA)
Whitworth University
Widener University
Wilkes University
Williams College
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester State College
Wright State University
Xavier University
Yeshiva University
Youngstown State University
Sightlines Webinar: Interview with Tony Calcado of
Rutgers University
August 25, 2016
A Company

2. Today’s Interviewer and Interviewee
2
Interviewer Interviewee
Jim Kadamus
Senior Advisor
Sightlines
Tony Calcado
Senior Vice President of Institutional
Planning and Operations
Rutgers University

3. Background of Rutgers’ commencement planning and
logistics
Discussion of event timeline and execution
“By the numbers” review
Media coverage and impact
Questions & comments
Agenda
3

4. Feel Free to Start a Dialogue with Our Presenters
Enter questions in the box at any time
Enter questions
here at any
point during the
webinar
Presentation slides
and webinar
recording will be
sent to each
attendee following
today’s session
4

5. Commencement 2016

6. Institutional Planning and Operations
May 2016: Logistics Task Force
6
EOC-Commencement
• Announcement April 14th , 2016
• 30 days notice
• Howard – 49 days
• UC- Irvine- 60 days
• Arizona- 80 days

7. Institutional Planning and Operations
May 2016: Logistics Task Force
7
EOC-Commencement
• Emg Ops Ctr Activated April 22nd (22 days)
• Regular cadence of meetings
– Department/Inter-department
– Governmental Agencies
– Functional Teams
• Team Lead Report outs
– Do/Done/Parked action items
• Critical Path View
• 48 Hour View
– 6AM Saturday 5/14 to
6PM Sunday 5/15
Plan & Execution

8. Institutional Planning and Operations
May 2016: Logistics Task Force
8
EOC-Commencement
• Administration (Kim Pastva)
• Stadium Logistics (Matt Colgiavanni)
• Emergency Services (Bill Scott)
• Safety, & Security (Ken Cop)
• Traffic Logistics (Jenn Stuart)
• Facilities (John Shulack)
• Student Affairs (Felicia McGinty)
• Communication (Kim Manning)
• Labor (Vivian Fernandez)
• OIT (Michele Norin)
EOC Functional Teams (10)

9. Institutional Planning and Operations
May 2016: Logistics Task Force
9
EOC-Commencement
5/9/16 (6 days)
• Meeting with Advance Teams
– Marine 1 Pilots
– White House Advance
– Military Advance
– USSS

10. Institutional Planning and Operations
May 2016: Logistics Task Force
10
EOC-Commencement
Timeline of Event
May 15th, 2016
• 8:00am- Doors open
• 9:00am- Congestion at
all gates & 300 additional
tickets to graduates
• 9:04am- Train departs
with Newark Students
• 9:30am- Mags at
capacity (350
people/hour)

11. Institutional Planning and Operations
May 2016: Logistics Task Force
11
EOC-Commencement
Timeline of Event
May 15th, 2016
• 11:15am- Campus Road
clear of traffic
• 11:50am- Stadium flyover
• 12:10am- POTUS arrives
• 2:15pm- POTUS departs

12. Institutional Planning and Operations
May 2016: Logistics Task Force
12
EOC-Commencement
By the Numbers
• 10,475 graduates
• 42,000 guests
• Over 1,500 staff
• Over 500 Volunteers
• 1 President of the United States

13. Institutional Planning and Operations
May 2016: Logistics Task Force
13
EOC-Commencement
By the Numbers
• About 14,000 vehicles
• Approximately 2,500 barricades
• 106 Buses
• 2 Trains

14. Institutional Planning and Operations
May 2016: Logistics Task Force
14
EOC-Commencement
Staffing
• 295 Police Officers
• 133 EMS personnel
• 38 Apparatus
• 57 “simple assists” (band aid, ice pack etc)
• 8 EMS transports to local hospital
• 18 assessed and treated
Public Safety

15. Institutional Planning and Operations
May 2016: Logistics Task Force
15
EOC-Commencement
Media
• Total Stories Since April 14 Announcement:
More than 12,000
– Print/Online Stories: More than 7,700
– Broadcast Stories: More than 4,300
Communications

16. Institutional Planning and Operations
May 2016: Logistics Task Force
16
EOC-Commencement
• 252,903 Pageviews for Commencement
website
• 182,825 total views for Live Stream
(majority were for the full ceremony)
• More than 1,300 tweets and Instagram posts
published to Tweetwall
which reached an audience
of 2.5 million
• 236 million media impressions
Communications

17. Institutional Planning and Operations
May 2016: Logistics Task Force
17
EOC-Commencement
POTUS Approved

18. Questions/Comments?

19. Stay Current with Latest Trends and Best Practices
Let us keep you current, visit our Insights page
19
If you haven’t downloaded
our report, The State of
Facilities in Higher
Education: 2015
Benchmarks, Best
Practices & Trends, please
go to sightlines.com to
download your copy today.
Sign up for our monthly
newsletter
Read our blog, explore our
content