Dinner With Daniels

In which I may or may not have gotten stood up by the President of Purdue

It was something that had been in the works for almost an entire school year, but finally our previous president, Allison, stood up in chapter to let us know that she had successfully booked Mitch Daniels, the president of Purdue University, to stop by for a dinner with our sorority on April 17th at 5 pm. Everyone was beyond excited to say the least. However, after working through logistics with our chef and President Daniels' security team, we were given some disappointing news, only 50 girls would be able to eat dinner with the President. The odds were stacked against me, especially since priority would be given to girls living in the house, but I managed to snag one of the coveted spots.

The morning of the dinner an exciting announcement was released, the 10 lucky girls that got to sit at President Daniels' table had been selected. Until this moment no one knew how the people to sit at the table would be selected. Maybe it would be the oldest sisters, or those on executive board. Maybe it would come down to those sisters who were most involved in the sorority, or on campus. My favorite theory was that Allison was going to rope off the patio and have the sisters battle it out in a tournament of hand-to-hand combat until only the strongest sisters remained. In the end the seats were given to Allison (because she put the event together), Klaire (because she is our current president), and 8 other sisters selected by a random number generator. My hands shook as I glanced over the list, until finally I found my name. I was equal parts thrilled that I would get to eat dinner at President Daniels' table, scared that I was going to slip up and embarrass myself in front of the big man himself, and disappointed that I didn't get to demonstrate my superior athletic ability in mortal combat against my sisters.

As I set off to my first class of the day, I carefully ran through my schedule for the day in my head. After class I would have 3 hours to eat lunch, go back to my dorm, and get ready before my second, and final, class of the day. My final class of the day ended at 4:20, which would give me approximately 25 minutes to catch a bus to the house in time to help set up. So, I rolled up to my Spanish class in heels and a dress, my hair curled, and my face fully done. Needless to say, my classmates were confused, but after I explained why I wasn't wearing leggings and a sweatshirt for once, I was promised a full-scale interrogation about how the dinner went at our next class. I arrived at the house right on time, and took my seat.

Everyone was in their respective places promptly at 5. We all sat at the edge of our seats, eyeing our nicoise salads and the baskets of rolls hungrily. When 5:10 rolled around, people had started to get antsy. Surely President Daniels wouldn't be late? I mean, maybe he just got held up at the office, or caught in traffic? By 5:15 people were starting to express serious concerns, the most plausible being that Steve Wozniak was giving a presentation on campus tonight, and it would make sense that the school president be there to greet the co-founder of Apple. With no way to contact President Daniels, we were unable to confirm anything. As the clock struck 5:20, our own president, Klaire, caved and gave us permission to start eating our salads, especially since some girls had to leave at 6. By 5:35 we had started in on the french onion soups and gouda crostinis. At 5:50 we placed our orders for entrees (we had the choice of either bacon wrapped duck breast with wild rice, snow peas, and a blueberry sauce, or roasted New York loin with redskin potatoes, and Burgandy mushrooms, or seared salmon with goat cheese polenta and tomato vinaigrette).

At this point all formality had been thrown out the window. Girls were moving from table to table talking, Allison was passing around a picture of Mitch Daniels that she had pulled up on her phone so that it was almost like he was really there, and our chef, Steve, (who had been preparing and planning this meal for almost a month) was on the verge of crying in the kitchen. At precisely 6 pm, a scream broke over the noise of 50 girls who had all been stood up.

"Oh God!" someone cried, "He's HERE!!!"

Then ensued a very hectic minute. Klaire and Allison leaped up and ran to the front door to let him in. Everyone rushed to refill the pitchers on their tables. The busboys frantically cleared empty plates. My table scrounged up what rolls we could from other tables to refill our basket. I can only hope that Mitch Daniels' walk down the hall from the front door to the kitchen was not accompanied by shrieks of panic, but I cannot be sure. All I know is that once he crossed the threshold into the kitchen, the room fell silent, save the jazz that Steve was playing in the kitchen.

He said a quick hello, and then took his spot at my table. It was an interesting (if not at least a little bit stressful) dinner to say the least. We learned about President Daniels' favorite events happening during the 150 Years of Giant Leaps celebration. We found out that his favorite building on campus is Duhme Hall. We discussed the validity of the stereotypes of different engineering majors. We talked about how Phi Sigma Rho has grown over the past 34 years. President Daniels also got back in Steve's good graces when after the meal he mentioned that he might have to become a familiar face at dinners because the food was so delicious. Most importantly, however, we got a picture with President Daniels. We also got some publicity from President Daniels tweeting the picture. All things considered, I would invite Mitch Daniels back to dinner at Phi Rho, I'd just make sure that he has the right start time.

The ladies of Phi Sigma Rho sorority and President Mitch Daniels