By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
A retired U.S. Air Force colonel dropped a bomb on the Bowling Green Memorial Day Program Monday, but it appears the torpedo may have been a dud.
During his keynote speaking comments, Col. Scott Manning expressed his sadness that Buckeye Boys State was moving from Bowling Green State University to Miami University after this year’s program.
As a high school student, Manning had attended Boys State and decided to return to BGSU for his college education and ROTC. So the loss of the program was a personal loss to him.
That bombshell sent some shockwaves through the dignitaries and the crowd at the Memorial Day service.
“I’m absolutely astonished if that’s true,” Bowling Green Mayor Dick Edwards said. Edwards attended Boys State when it was stationed at Camp Perry, convinced the program to move to BGSU in 1978 when he was in the university president’s office, and was later named to the Buckeye Boys State Hall of Fame.
The Buckeye Boys State program has been in limbo for a few years, with the primary sticking point being money. BGSU wants more to house the program, Boys State wants the university to consider the value of having 1,300 male high school juniors come to campus for a week of mock government activities each June.
“You get the best and the brightest from the state,” Edwards said. The program is not intended to be a money making venture, he said, but it does work as a recruitment tool for BGSU.
Until Manning’s announcement, it was believed negotiations for a new five-year conference agreement were still going on. The current agreement expires after the program later this month.
“I know negotiations haven’t been going well,” said Dave Ridenour, of the Bowling Green American Legion Post, who also helped organize the Memorial Day program.
But after the program was over, Ridenour said that Manning had been given inaccurate information. “He misspoke from rumors.”
The coordinates for the bombshell were faulty.
“It’s pretty common knowledge that negotiations have not been going well with the university,” Ridenour said. “However, there’s no confirmation that they’re leaving.”
Ridenour said the negotiations have narrowed the gap between what Boys State is paying and what BGSU wants. Meanwhile, “the whole community is on pins and needles.”
Patrick Nelson, director of the Bowen Thompson Student Union at BGSU, was at the Memorial Day service and said afterward that the university had just sent new contract information to Boys State organizers on Friday.
“As far as I know, we’re still looking good. I was surprised to hear that comment,” Nelson said.
BGSU spokesperson Dave Kielmeyer, when reached by phone, was also surprised.
“The last I heard, we were still negotiating,” he said.
“BGSU greatly values our long-term relationship with Buckeye Boys State. As of Friday, negotiations on a new contract were still ongoing,” Kielmeyer said. “The American Legion has not informed us that any decision has been made.”
Navy veteran and former BGSU faculty member Dave Chilson said the value to the university is far more than the dollars exchanged. “All these young men who come here, it’s an opportunity for them to see the university.”
That’s what convinced Manning to enroll at BGSU. “It left a really big impression on me,” he said.
If the program moves to Miami University, that will also make an impression on Manning, who said he will stop donating any money to BGSU.
“If they make that decision to save a few dollars, that’s the biggest mistake they could make,” he said of BGSU.
In February, Gerald White, the director of Buckeye Boys State asserted the American Legion’s desire to keep the civics event at Bowling Green where it has convened since 1978. At that point, White said that the American Legion does check out other campuses, and gets wooed by other campuses. But no steps have been taken to move.
The conference agreement must be periodically studied, White said, adding: “I think it is a mark of the partnership between American Legion Buckeye Boys State, the City of Bowling Green, Wood County, and Bowling Green State University and the pleasure and pride that the Buckeye Boys State Board of Trustees has in conducting our program on the BGSU campus that for 37 years, now going into 38, Buckeye Boys State has remained in the City of Bowling Green and the campus of Bowling Green State University.”
