Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

37° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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SaveR-TV-F seeks to raise awareness of changes

About 20 graduate and undergraduate radio-TV-film students called more than 200 parents and alumni in a phon-a-thon to raise awareness of controversies within their department, including the elimination of a popular film production course.

Members of the recently formed SaveR-TV-F organized the phon-a-thon to tell parents and alumni about past and future changes to the department’s direction, they said. They did not call to solicit money, organizers said.

Sitting on couches and the floor of a living room at 1705 Ridge Ave., students dialed phone numbers that organizers found by using NU’s Ph directory. Working in shifts, they explained that they were not asking for money and then told of proposed changes to the department, including the creation of an interdisciplinary doctoral program between R-TV-F and communications studies.

Students directed parents to the SaveR-TV-F Web site, which contains contact information for faculty and administrators, and offered to send them packets of information.

“What we want to do is make parents aware of what’s going on,” said phon-a-thon organizer Kara Brugman, a Speech junior. “Maybe they don’t know what’s really going.”

Reed Pence, Medill ’77 and father of event organizer Nate Pence, said he supports the students’ efforts to draw attention to their cause.

“I think they have every right to do it, and it’s probably a good idea,” Reed Pence said. “It seems, at this point, like these students see the value of their NU film degree disappearing before their eyes.”

Reed Pence said he had contacted administrators by e-mail Saturday but had not received a reply.

“I have e-mailed Dean (Barbara) O’Keefe and (University) President (Henry) Bienen with my concerns, just in the hope that they will take the concerns of the students seriously,” he said.

“I’ve also expressed my confusion, to be honest, about the direction that they’re taking. I don’t think that the students and certainly not myself have gotten really any explanation for what the vision is that these students are going to be trained for in the future.”

Toward the end of the phon-a-thon, Pence said the event had gone well.

“We’re getting a wonderful response from parents,” said Pence, a Speech junior. “I haven’t heard a negative response from parents yet.”

To make the calls, organizers borrowed weekend and evening minutes from students’ cell phones. They also planned to e-mail alumni using borrowed laptop computers. Because the group couldn’t find e-mail addresses for all alumni, organizers hoped to start a chain reaction with the addresses they had, Brugman said.

Some parents were skeptical at first but sympathized with students’ concerns, said Emily Greenberg, Speech junior. Greenberg said she hoped that parents would voice their concerns.

“Definitely some of them were more passionate than others,” she said. “I’m hoping others will get involved as well, since it’s their money and their child.”

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SaveR-TV-F seeks to raise awareness of changes