On Oct. 23, the long-awaited Top Dog Awards finally happened.  

The annual award ceremony, where the most prestigious and honorable Bulldogs of varying generations are recognized, is a big deal for the Fresno State community.

The original ceremony date was scheduled for Oct. 24, 2024, until a mysterious postponement was announced just a few days before it was time for the alumni to gather. The postponed event was followed by no explanation, leaving the alumni, administration and community members with questions and concerns. 

A year later, everyone’s lips are still zipped.

“They’ve kept the cause under wraps like it’s a matter of national security,” said Jim Boren, Outstanding Alumni Award recipient and Fresno State Media, Communications and Journalism professor.

There were circulating rumors of a heated confrontation that involved one of the honorees, Gary Peacock, before the event, leading to legal issues and the ultimate decision for the ceremony to have to wait. However, through immense pushing and pulling for information, these rumors were never confirmed to be the actual reason for the postponement. 

I called Peacock — no response.

The Collegian previously published an analysis of the entire situation when it first occurred. The analysis discussed the importance of the event, the honorees and a breakdown of the search for unanswered questions regarding the postponement.

Now, the issue here isn’t so much about the award ceremony in itself having to be postponed. Life happens; it’s understandable. The main issue is the lack of transparency that the university is offering to the people involved.

The Top Dog Awards are a sponsored event that honorary sponsors prepare for and wait for every year. I would say it’s unfair to them to sow so much into such a prominent part of Fresno State’s alumni association and be left to figure out unanswered questions on their own.

Boren said that as an honoree, he never really received any explanation from the university about why the event planning took the route it did. I quickly learned during our conversation that he practically knew just as much as I did. 

He mentioned that the university did succeed at showing all participants involved how apologetic they were about the delay and ultimately, put on a great ceremony when it did happen.

“The ceremony itself was handled with real class, and I was genuinely proud and humbled to be part of it,” Boren said. 

I took the issue to Lauren Nickerson, associate vice president for university marketing and communications, in an effort to get connected with someone who could help me further. 

This is how the train of emails with nothing but beat-around-the-bush, already known information, proceeded. 

I reached out to Lisa Bell, public information officer for Fresno State. Nothing. Nickerson responded, stating she had cc’d her colleague Esra Hashem, director of strategic communications, who could provide a statement. 

Hashem replied with a “statement on behalf of the university,” provided by Vice President for University Advancement Brady Crook. Once I was given this statement, Bell reached out to me and basically said she understood the matter had been resolved by her colleagues.

Resolved for whom? Not me.

This could be deemed as progress, considering The Collegian never received anything back from Crook when the publication reached out to him last year.

However, his statement was simply unsatisfactory and didn’t answer my questions regarding any sort of explanation for the postponement and how the honorees were impacted. Was I surprised? Unfortunately, not really. Crook’s statement read as follows:

“The Top Dog Alumni Awards took place last week during Fresno State’s Homecoming Week, celebrating our distinguished 2024 honorees at a sold-out event. Aligning the event with Homecoming created an especially spirited and engaging atmosphere for our alumni and campus community. We’re grateful for the continued support in recognizing the achievements and impact of our exceptional alumni.”

Apart from Boren and Peacock, I reached out to almost all other honorees in hopes of receiving a statement. Crickets, except for Nicole Linder, CEO of the Marjaree Mason Center and Distinguished Alumni Award recipient. Her statement, however, is also very vague. 

“I am not sure I have much to share other than I was really grateful to have been recognized, and the Fresno State team really went out of their way to provide a meaningful experience and honor all of the Top Dog recipients,” Linder said.

Everything ultimately fell back on the public record requests The Collegian submitted a year prior to Esther Gonzalez, a staff member for the office of the vice president of administration. 

I revisited the information Gonzalez had, and out of the thousands and thousands of emails even remotely related to Top Dog, one stood out, but again, it was all information we already knew. 

Practically the same statement from Crook that was in the original email sent to all the honorees was what was later given to me. 

It may sound odd that we, as college students, are so widely concerned with the incident that is the 2024 Top Dog awards; however, it’s deeper than that.

This isn’t so much about the event itself getting postponed. It is about the lack of care the university administration has for providing some sort of answer to the people affected by it. 

If the answer is that the reasoning for the postponement is a private and personal matter, say that. Don’t keep circling the same goody two-shoes statements that don’t give anyone, including the honorees, an answer.

If they can be so secretive about a matter like this, I can only imagine what other secrets hide behind our university walls.