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Newsource 15 State of the Program Fall 2003 |
ENROLLMENT
We expect to double broadcast news starting next year. This is the most significant change in the last twenty years. We will go from 64 majors to 125. The program has become one of the most select and restrictive in the University and the country, easily in the top five of over-enrolled programs at UGA. President Adam's administration wants most students who obtain admission to UGA to also get into the major of their choice. Broadcast News has become so popular that only one in four students get in. Starting next year, the number will go down to one in two (unless, of course, more students continue to come to UGA for this program.)
This is good news for the program. We are very small and, while the reputation is growing, graduate too few students to have a major impact on the industry. Missouri graduates 200 students a year, others schools more. While broadcast news students generally have trouble finding employment, graduates of major programs such as Missouri and Georgia do not. The UGA broadcast news job placement rate has varied from 100--percent to 86-percent, but never lower. We don't expect it to decline with the increase.
QUALITY
We are of course concerned with keeping the quality that has made us attractive to both students and employers. We feel the program blends academics with the practice of broadcast news, resulting in students prepared to work and prepared to later manage. We intend to continue to put them under pressure and test their mental resources so they can grow.
In other do do that, we will produce a daily, live broadcast news show both semesters starting next year, instead of just in the spring. We feel producing a daily news show year-round would be counter-productive since we have neither the students nor the audience to justify shows over the summer or Christmas break. On the other hand, we want to become a bigger presence in Athens for the good of the community and our students. In the case of Athens, literally half our audience leaves during breaks. We need to focus our attention where and when it can do the most good.
FACULTY
Clearly, doubling enrollment will require more resources. We will be hiring two more faculty to supervise the news show in the fall and teach producing and writing courses in the spring. They will be joining a who's who of faculty:
- Michael Castengera, a former news director, station manager, assignments editor and reporter who is still a leading industry news consultant
- Dan Keever, formerly a major market videographer at WAGA-TV in Atlanta, who serves as both professor and facilities manager
- Alan Stecker, who has won a Peabody, a DuPont Award and 17 Emmies. He was a highly regarded NBC News videographer and still owns a production company.
- Steve Smith, former ABC News bureau chief and WXIA news director who also served a stint managing part of Fox Sports South. Steve is teaching a one year assignment after teaching at Indiana last year
- Bob Furnad, the former president of CNN Headline News and other units, continues to work with our classes
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They join an impressive academic faculty who lead their fields in research and publications. Those academic faculty will be teaching a new seminar course on a rotating basis which will marry their specialties to daily news coverage, showing students the applicability of diversity, management, legal, historical, international and programatic issue to daily news coverage. This new course will be taught in association with the news show and will link academic areas to practical broadcast news issues.
The Telecom department has also passed a curriculum change which, if approved by the College and University, will increase the course load award for the capstone courses from six to nine. This, in concert with the seminar course, will allow students to take 12 credit hours during the capstone experience and be rated as full-time students for the first time. This will eliminate issues with immigration, insurance and HOPE scholarships.
FACILITIES
We have already gone through significant changes. Our facilities stay at the top of the list nationally. We had to sell our satellite truck because we could not afford to maintain it. (CNN and private contractors will allow us to use theirs when needed.) We used the funds from its sale to purchase all new computers for the newsroom. We now have nonlinear video editing at every desk. We have also replaced the Grass Valley video switchers with new Video Toaster II's and have installed an overhead "eye-of-god" camera in the studio and a jib arm.
This fall, we ordered 20 more cameras. That will bring the department's inventory up to about 35. In addition, we have installed a laptop video editing lab (with about 15 laptops) and Professor Keever was awarded another grant to purchase a remote multi-camera field production unit. This has already been used for several Telecom shows.
Plans are in place and funding has been approved for a robotic camera system for the news studio, a Pathfire satellite system to receive CNN and other feeds, and more extensive server-based nonlinear systems that will allow us to do modular news production. We also have a grant request in that, if approved, will purchase a VizRT graphics system, the same system used by CNN and CBS.
CONCLUSION
We have faculty, facilities and students of the highest caliber. In an age of massive budget cuts to education, we are doubling in size. This is a testament to the quality of students who have graduated from the broadcast news program at Grady and have made an impact on the industry.
Regards,
DCH
David Hazinski
706-543-4976