University in California Dresses Up for First Lady
By JESSE McKINLEY
MERCED, Calif. — There are, to be sure, other things happening here this year. But in terms of sheer excitement — and frantic primping — there has been no bigger event in recent memory than Saturday’s visit by Michelle Obama, who will deliver the commencement address to the first full graduating class of the University of California at Merced, the newest, smallest and most anonymous of 10 campuses in the state university system.
“It’s going to be huge,” said Zain Memon, a 22-year-old senior. “This puts us on the map.”
Of course, such reputation-making is not cheap. Officials at the university were scrambling on Tuesday to finalize the financing for the event, which is expected to draw more than 10,000 visitors and cost some $700,000, or roughly $600,000 more than had been budgeted before Mrs. Obama committed to speak.
The cost includes a raft of technological upgrades, including an audio-video feed, a Spanish simulcast over cellphone and a concert-size stage set up on the Bowl, the sodded campus lawn where the first lady will speak. Extra security added nearly $100,000 to the cost, including metal detectors on the campus, which sits in a former cattle field surrounded by hay-laden farmland and cows of unknown political leanings.
None of which, university officials said, will be a problem.
“We are going to the office of the president, to the university’s discretionary fund, we’ll borrow if we have to,” said Mary Miller, the vice chancellor for administration. “This is an investment in our future. It is an investment in our community.”
Sure enough, even as students crammed for finals, workers were swarming all over the campus on Tuesday, doing last-minute landscaping, installing flags in front of the library and unloading thousands of shipped-in chairs. One of those hard at work was Joe Hobbs, 24, from nearby Atwater, who said Mrs. Obama’s visit had already become its own stimulus package.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/us/13merced.html