ESU alum and Hollywood actor Katie Keane will speak at 7:30 p.m., Sept. 6, in R.Q. Frederickson Theatre in Roosevelt Hall.
The event is open to the public and admission is free.
Keane will be a guest instructor in Jim Ryan’s acting class and will teach a master class to theater students while she is on campus.
Originally from Topeka, Keane has been acting since age 11. In Hollywood, Keane’s work includes supporting roles in “Funny People” with Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan and the 2010 horror flick “Hysteria.”
The Pflaum Lecture is presented by the department of Communication and Theater and is supported by the Performing Arts Board. It is held annually to honor the memory of Dr. George R.R. Pflaum, who came to Kansas State Teacher’s College in 1923 and served on the faculty for more than 40 years.
Sears waiting game kept staff on edge
Chicago Sun-Times June 26, 1989 | Lisa Holton Local politicians and economic development officials weren’t the only ones playing a waiting game, wondering where Sears, Roebuck and Co.’s massive retailing headquarters would move.
Imagine being among the 6,000 affected employees, worrying for the last eight months about where your job will go.
Or imagine being a local supplier to the company – someone who has enjoyed having Sears Merchandise Group in his own backyard and was facing the prospect of having to fly for a one-on-one audience with his buyer.
“I think the general consensus,” said one staffer last week, “is `God, just let us know already.’ ” She didn’t want her name used, like several other Sears employees who agreed to be interviewed for this story.
“There’s no substitute for a face-to-face meeting. . . . My people are down at the (Sears) Tower an average of once a week, two are down there today,” explained Sam Keller, vice president-marketing for national accounts at Elmhurst-based Chamberlain Manufacturing, a maker of garage door openers that carry the Sears Craftsman name. “The proximity is important to us.” Today, Sears will announce it will move the Merchandise Group to Hoffman Estates.
A Sears buyer who is a divorced mother with a 10-year-old son said last week she was concerned about the relocation deadline. But she admitted she is relieved that her department is in the middle of the buying crunch for the retailer’s spring merchandise lines. “It’s not like we’re all sitting around shuffling papers and wondering what’s going to happen in the next day or hour,” she said. “We’ve all got a tremendous volume to buy, and that’s relieving the tension of the move.” But when Sears Chairman Edward Brennan made his announcement last Halloween that the Merchandise Group would have to find new quarters as part of a sweeping corporate restructuring, the impact didn’t take long to hit home. in our site sears coupon code
“I didn’t say anything about it to my son when I got home that night, but first thing in the morning he read the story in the business section of the newspaper and asked me, `Mom, what’s all this about?’ He was concerned about having to move and not seeing his father so often.” Another Tower staffer said last week, “We have no idea of where we’re going, but everyone at least knows that they’ve got to put a hole in the ground first, and that’s going to take two or three years,” referring to the fact that Sears plans to build a “campus-type” structure.
Most of Sears’ employees, aside from the elite group that negotiated with the various local officials for sites, admitted they were in the dark about the move and kept up mostly by newspapers and TV. Courtesy of Sears’ corporate public relations department, many articles were photocopied and passed around to employees, sometimes with notes about the accuracy of each report.
“I know more about what’s going on just by reading the papers – and that’s too bad,” noted one Sears Tower staffer last week. “I just wish they could have put this together months ago.” Some employees have chosen to fill the information blackout with their own gallows humor. Three weeks ago, fake memos began circulating through the Sears Tower. One anonymously written missive had Merchandise Group Chairman Michael Bozic “announcing” that Sears had decided to move the Merchandise Group to the Bikini Islands as part of the retailer’s “Develop the Western Pacific Program.” Another more notable example was the “Application to Live in North Carolina,” a two-page jab at southern living that drew the attention of fact-starved reporters both here and in North Carolina and ruffled some political egos in Charlotte and Raleigh. Those cities, with Dallas and the Chicago area, were considered the four top finalists for the Merchandise Group site.
While Sears had consistently stated it wanted to stay in the Chicago area, it also had kept a consistent eye on cities with cheaper land and work force – notably the Texas and North Carolina cities. Sources had told the Chicago Sun-Times that Sears management could decide to break up the Merchandise Group initially, moving 4,000 out of Illinois and keeping 2,000 here in jobs that will eventually be phased out.
In the Chicago area, Sears had considered the city’s proposed site of a 220-acre tract of land at O’Hare Airport in addition to the 1,000-acre site it chose just north of the Northwest Tollway at Illinois 59 in Hoffman Estates. Sears never publicly confirmed the locations it was examining.
Every Sears employee who responded stated the obvious hope that Sears would pick one of the local sites. But a couple noted that either location would provide a bigger commuting problem than they face now to the Sears Tower, which is close to CTA bus and subway lines and Metra train lines coming into Union and Northwestern stations.
“I can practically walk to work from where I live now,” said one administrative staffer. “If we go to O’Hare I can probably try to take the L, but if we go to Hoffman Estates, I’ll definitely have to use my car to do it.” Sears Tower is expected to lose the 6,000 Sears Merchandise Group employees in stages over four years, with uncertain chances of quickly refilling the vacated Sears Tower space. Sears is selling the Sears Tower as part of the restructuring, and real estate observers have complained that the planned vacancy will damage the landmark’s value to prospective buyers. While Sears’ corporate office will stay in the Sears Tower, it is expected to do so with fewer than its current 600 employees.
Besides the employees, Sears’ local suppliers were watching developments with the relocation closely. Sears Merchandise Group does more than $1 billion in annual business with an estimated 606 Illinois companies, most of them in the immediate Chicago area.
A Sears spokesman noted that most of Sears’ 10,000 suppliers nationwide have long-term contracts and reputations with the retailer and should have no fear of losing business because of a move. Yet local suppliers see clear advantages in being only an hour’s drive from one of their biggest customers. see here sears coupon code
Chamberlain’s Keller notes that proximity is an important factor in any supplier’s relationship with a customer, particularly since his company has dealt with Sears for nearly 40 years.
“We can be there in a half-hour, we get an immediate idea about how the business is going, whether they want us to adjust manufacturing. The basic thing is to communicate on product needs and the promotional schedule.” Adds Gerald McCarthy, president of Zenith Sales Corp., the consumer electronics sales arm of Glenview-based Zenith Electronics Corp.: “The close proximity to Sears has given Zenith the ability to develop a much closer working relationship with the key people (at the Sears Tower) than if they were a long way away. Because we’re both nearby . . . we have a better feel for the pulse of what’s happening there.” “(A move out of town would have been) a little more inconvenient from a sales and marketing standpoint, and to some extent for product development,” notes Jack Hirsch, president of Video Technology Inc., a Northbrook manufacturer of electronic toys and games. “We develop probably a stronger relationship because we see them more often, but if you do your job well, it won’t be that serious.” If Sears Merchandise Group had left the Chicago area, suppliers would have spent the travel money necessary to get to them, Keller said, even though that would have been a bigger problem for companies smaller than his.
But Keller said it would have been tough to get used to. “Sears and Chicago, to us, they go together.” Lisa Holton
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