Pandemic turns once bubbling RTVF program in to a skeleton crew that hinders progression
MALIK GILES
managing editor
New students in the RTVF program usually would be learning the ropes of television production. Campus shutdown has left the studio as a shell of its former glory.
For students who are in the RTVB program coping is a little harder.
NE RTVB student Sable Williams is taking four courses this semester and only met his classmates in one.
“I have only one class where we have to meet and collaborate but that’s it,” Williams said. “In radio, film, and television there’s a lot of hands-on equipment you have to interact with and a lot of things, visually, that you can only see in person.”
For Williams, this is not enough and it is harder with class projects that require interaction and partnership. Fellow students of his program feel the same way he does.
NE student Logan Evans whose major is in RTVB feels “socially distant” due to this new lifestyle change.
“I haven’t met anyone in person but online I met different people,” he said, “You definitely get more out of being there in person, one on one.”
Evans wishes classes, such as photography or cinematography, would do social distant meetups outside where students can get to know their classmates. From the student’s perspective, it seems like RTVB is a program that needs more in-person interaction compared to other programs.
“I haven’t really met a lot of staff or students in person,” NE student Jacob Rivera said. “It’s my third semester and honestly it’s pretty much different since the classes I’m enrolled in are for RTVB and most of that’s hands-on.”
Rivera said he does things out of school that deal with audio production and needs that person to person interaction, so compared to students with a major dealing mostly with math.
“It’s hard to learn something online that has to deal with recording and mixing and mastering,” Rivera said. “I mean there’s a whole bush of tutorials online on how to do that nowadays but on a professional level like studying it in school, I feel like there’s more opportunities in school than out of school online because you get more things like internships.”
Being in school gives students like Rivera, who’s also a musician, a way to network and connect with other students and staff. Rivera has his own studio equipment but even before the campus’ shut down he used the studio rooms in the RTVB building for projects.
“I have my own stuff but I always like to learn how to mix and master to further my own knowledge because I’m a beginner at everything,” Rivera said “I used to use their recording booth and the equipment that they have was like I was learning something new everytime.”
Even though Rivera said he has his own, he also said that not everyone has their own studio equipment, and starting off is expensive. There are many other programs of study that are going through the same crisis, but the main problem is with less of this interaction students are having less of an opportunity to learn.
