KATE SCHWARTZ
News Assistant
At its general meeting Wednesday, SGA supported a new program called MTVu that is showing up on college campuses across the nation. MTV University, MTVu, is a new program that MTV recently created to better connect and inform college campuses.
An MTVu channel would be added to Pepperdine’s cable television package featuring music videos, clips of MTV programming, “ABC World News Tonight” and different broadcast programs from more than 750 colleges across the country.
It would provide a forum for student produced work to be broadcast on a national level, allowing the telecommunications program to be more widely known. It would also allow the entire student body to be more in touch with campus activities and local events.
Already featured at more than 750 universities across campus, SGA President Kevin Mills said MTVu would be a beneficial investment for Pepperdine.
“It would be cool to see productions from different schools and to let other schools see ours,” Mills said. “ It would also provide an outlet for school announcements and upcoming events that students should know about.”
MTVu would be available to the telecommunication department, students and clubs. Open contests would be held for television and film productions. The winning entries would then be featured on the MTVu channel across the country.
Junior Sen. Dallas Cook, who also happens to be a telecommunications major and an active participant in Pepperdine’s broadcast news station, said MTVu is a good way to get national recognition for Pepperdine’s productions.
“That would be amazing if not only Pepperdine students could see what we do, but also 750 schools around the country,” Cook said. “We have a great department at Pepperdine, and this is a way to both compare ours to other schools and receive recognition as well.”
MTVu also offers a number of different benefits to schools that choose to participate. “Professor For A Day” features the possibility of having a celebrity come in unannounced and teach a course at Pepperdine for a day.
“We talked to MTV, and they said that since we are so close to LA and Hollywood, it would be really easy to get a celebrity to come,” Mills said. “Imagine coming to class and seeing someone anywhere from Madonna to Bill Gates teaching it.”
Mills said the date of installment of MTVu is not yet known, but said he thinks it will definitely happen in the near future.
SGA also approved an upcoming environmental week organized by a public relations class on campus. PR455 will conduct a campaign to raise awareness and generate positive environmental change.
Junior Angela Smith, a public relations student and author of the resolution, said Pepperdine students are generally unaware of the environment around them.
“We did a survey of about 200 students and what the result basically showed was that the Pepperdine community has barely any environmental awareness,” said Smith.
During the first week of April, different competitions and giveaways will be held to promote awareness.
“We hope that students, faculty and staff who participate will become more aware of environmental issues and the positive changes they can make,” Smith said.
02-22-2007
