By Stephanie Vosk
Thanks to the work of students and faculty, communications studies majors have finally found their voice on campus and on the air.
With the newly created Communication Club, students have the chance to address their concerns and creative energy and network with classmates and faculty and have even lined up a show on public access television.
The show will air beginning in May on the Boston Neighborhood Network (BNN), a public access station.
Meetings so far have focused on “housekeeping,” president and sophomore communications major Erika Erb said.
“The club’s new and we’re just trying to get it started right now so we’re going through the paperwork and the process,” she said. “Our goal for the club is we want to become a student voice.”
At meetings, students are also encouraged to bring up ideas for creative projects and when senior Michael Krentzman suggested the club should produce its own television news program, the idea received overwhelming support.
The students will control every aspect of the show from production to on-air anchors.
“We get to come up with our own stories and go out and interview,” Erb said. “For this television station, we get to do it all.”
Episode plans are currently in the works, but the show will focus on what it is like to be a college student in Boston, including interesting things going on in and around the city.
“It’s a way to tell people our age what’s going on the weekend,” Krentzman said.
He said that the students involved in the production will rotate between being on-air anchors and going out and reporting stories. Some students will work behind the scenes with cameras and editing to complete the student-run process.
“Some people are more interested in sports, some people are more interested in shopping, some people are more interested in the Boston nightlife, and whoever’s most interested will do a better job so they’ll go and do it,” Krentzman said. “Some people know how to edit better than others and a lot of people are very interested in taking ownership of a special project.”
The club also hopes to be the liaison between students and faculty in voicing concerns of students in the program.
The students hope, among other things, to secure better classrooms for their lectures than rooms in the basement of Snell Library where their classes are currently held.
“It really will be an opportunity for [the students] to have an outlet for their creativity, particularly as it relates to video,” said faculty advisor Alan Zaremba, an associate professor of communications studies. They will be able to expand “social contacts, professional contacts; the kind of things you develop better in a social setting.”
Communications Studies Chair David Marshall also feels that the club is the right thing for communication studies majors.
“I think it’s doing wondrous things in improving the quality of the experience for students,” Marshall said.
Erb and other students plan to meet with Marshall in the near future to discuss important issues.
The club will hold its next meeting April 30.
