If the goal was charity, TU spent more effort breaking the record than inducing generosity.
This past Saturday, the University of Tulsa made history by hosting the largest documented pizza party in the world. The Guinness World Record was attempted between 6:50 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. There were 3,357 people in attendance at the Reynold’s Center who fulfilled the requirements in order to qualify. Each participant had to eat two small slices of Andolini’s pizza and drink an eight ounce bottle of water within the 15 minute timeframe. The participants also had to be over 12 years of age.
The party directly benefited Make-A-Wish Oklahoma via donations by sponsors and attendees alike. In total, the party raised about $40,000 for the foundation.
The event was no small feat and the record was earned at no small cost to TU. Although the university still charged tickets to the party and subsequent basketball game at the discounted rate of $5 per person, students were not required to purchase a ticket. TU provided free commemorative lanyards and sweatshirts to the first 1,000 attendees and an additional 1,000 sweatshirts to the first 1,000 students through the door.
After the attempt was finished and the sponsor’s donations were publicized, it was announced that President Brad Carson would match every dollar donated at the event.
If the goal of the event was to put TU on the map and gain notoriety, Carson succeeded. If the goal was to get more attendance to the basketball game, Carson utterly failed when most of the attendees fled the stadium before the game could begin. If the goal was to raise money for charity, students questioned if this was the best way to go about it. With the amount of money that was put forth to create the event in the first place and incentivise the participants, why didn’t TU simply donate those funds instead? The free souvenir sweatshirts and lanyards combined with renting shuttles to transport participants to the Reynold’s Center had to cost thousands.
There is no guarantee that TU even gave out 2,000 sweatshirts. Although this is what the university claimed, sweatshirts were given at the end of the event as attendees left. To simplify and speed up the process of seating people in the stadium, participants designated to receive a sweatshirt were given wristbands as they checked in. When I walked to the home side of the court to collect my sweatshirt, the volunteers handing them out were not checking for wristbands at all. They tossed sweatshirts to the clamoring sea of students haphazardly, trying to get them out as fast as possible. There was no order to the process at all and absolutely no way to ensure that the first 2,000 attendees or students were able to receive their promised goods. Not only that, as I fought my way out of the Reynold’s Center, I witnessed another group of volunteers giving out more sweatshirts in chaotic fashion without checking wristbands.
Additionally, Andolini’s spent money on the ingredients to make at least 1,700 personal pan pizzas (as every participant ate half of a personal pizza), which could have gone directly to Make-A-Wish Oklahoma had charity been the primary goal.
Without the hype and excitement of contributing to infamy, TU would not have attracted so many sponsors or attendees who, undoubtedly, donated at least $20,000 as part of the event. TU’s goal was to raise $15,000 for the Make-A-Wish foundation, which they surpassed. However, Carson ended up matching the donations. Carson could have made that $20,000 donation without spending university funds on the pizza party had he wished. As a charity event, the pizza party cost TU funds that could have strictly been donated or used to improve our campus and academia by giving our professors raises or fixing the dilapidated buildings.
