Live from Lafayette
By Mike Litzenberger
Photography by Chuck Zovko
By last April, things were really moving for the College’s newest academic major, policy studies. Much had been accomplished  by many, and it was on track for faculty approval within weeks. But as Mark Crain, who’d played the lead role in the major’s development, sat watching College Theater stage The Compleat Works of Wm Shkspr (Abridged), he was thinking hard about next steps, about an early defining moment for the nascent program.
With the Nov. 7 midterm elections roughly six months away, Crain, the Simon Professor of Political Economy, already knew he’d find creative ways to include the political process in his courses. But with policy studies in the picture, he believed he had to put together a project outside the classroom as well. The elections had to be part of the policy studies equation, but what event, what learning experience, could connect the two?
And there, in the dark, the light bulb went on. “I saw how excited the students were—
they seemed to rise up a level when they performed live,” he remembers. “I thought,
‘Why not put on a live broadcast?’”
From that “why not” moment sprang E(lection)N(ight)vision, a full-blown, two-hour television broadcast beamed live from a Pfenning Alumni Center that had been utterly transformed into a complex of studios and control rooms. It was a defining moment for the new policy studies program, all right, but also for the College—a powerful, unprecedented statement that virtually no obstacle can’t be overcome when Lafayette people pull together
to make a vision real.
In the end, more than 150 students, faculty, administrators, and alumni answered the call and became a part of the broadcast in some fashion. Students from a multitude of majors took the roles
of anchors, producers, writers, and members of discussion panels. Professors opened up their classrooms and wove preparations for the
broadcast into their courses. Washington attorney
Jeffrey D. Robinson ’80 signed on as a political commentator. MBC Teleproductions of Allentown provided technical support,
on-air training, and world-class production facilities. And that’s not even mentioning the hundreds of hours of indispensable behind-the-scenes support from people
in plant operations right up through top administrators.
The number of potential viewers
was staggering. The telecast could
Coanchors Jayne Miller ’10 (left),
and Megan Zaroda ’07
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be watched around the world via the web and was carried on RCN Lehigh Valley Cable Network, which reaches 345,000 homes, and on the internal campus cable system. And it was shown, bigger than life, on the new jumbo video board in Fisher Stadium. (For the large, highly energized crowd gathered on Bourger Plaza, close by the telecast’s epicenter in Pfenning, that may have been the coolest thing of all.)
For months Crain met with members of numerous academic and administrative departments and hashed out a plan to make the election-night telecast happen.
At its core, policy studies focuses on interdepartmental cooperation. Eighteen faculty members, representing all the academic divisions, are affiliated. Students majoring in the program will work with them to learn about the workings of political systems by combining coursework in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering.
ENvision also needed to reflect this approach.
“One big fear I had was, I knew I could do this in my own classroom, but would there be a broad-based interest across campus?” Crain says. “Well, I was overwhelmed by the tremendous support from faculty and students.”
“I’m really impressed with the students’ initiative,” said Meghan Morel ’07, a double major government & law and economics & business, as she watched on the stadium board. “I’m happy to see such a broad range of opinions from students, faculty, and the politicians themselves. I’ve never heard of this type of broadcast on any campus.”
William P. Rutledge ’63, a member of the Board of Trustees, was very excited about the broadcast. “This is a great example of extended student-centered learning, which ought to be a hallmark for Lafayette.”
The telecast featured up-to-the-minute tracking of results, predictions, student-reported stories, analysis from students, and frequent cutaways to unscripted discussions with panelists in a “student lounge.” Also airing throughout the evening were pre-recorded, student-produced segments that focused on various issues of the day.
For Jayne Miller ’10, co-anchor for the telecast with Megan Zaroda ’07, it seemed like destiny. When Miller composed her admissions essay for Lafayette, she wrote that she wanted to go to a college where she would have the opportunity to do something big. She certainly got her wish.
“I wanted to try new things and work with a variety of people,” Miller says. “The chance to be a part of this broadcast is exactly the sort of thing that I was writing about. My fingers are crossed that it becomes a yearly event.”
Jeff Robinson, senior partner in the law firm of Baach, Robinson & Lewis PLLC and a Lafayette board associate, was very impressed with the hard work put in by the students and the value of the telecast as a learning experience.
“The students did an excellent job with a project that is remarkably difficult to put together,” he says. “In addition to the specific skills gained in broadcasting or politics, whenever you are forced to do something this hard you will gain perseverance and dedication, and those are qualities that will help in anything you do.”
Crain believes the fact that such a large number of students were so energized and dedicated to the broadcast is a great measure the project’s effectiveness.
“This was a way to get students excited about the political process,” he says. “It also brought out the interdisciplinary nature of policy studies and provided a way to get students involved who wouldn’t normally be involved.”
Like, say, Karen Ruggles ’08. Politics is not the biggest thing for this art and English major. But she was so turned on by the idea of merging broadcasting – an area she hopes to work in after graduation – with the political process that she grabbed the reins as student producer within in the framework of an independent study with Crain as adviser.
Ruggles served as the main student point person for the broadcast and had responsibilities ranging from taping interviews to making sure everyone involved was constantly updated with information to coordinating the overarching theme for the final broadcast.
She says that the entire process was an eye-opener, giving her a new perspective on what she sees on TV and a new take on where she may be headed after Lafayette.
“What we view on TV as the general public is the final product, but what we did with the election-night broadcast was to go behind the scenes and create a product from the political issues we grapple with as students,” she says. “It doesn’t get more educational or real than that, and it was also a lot of fun. This experience has allowed me to look at this potential career path in a whole new light.”
The multidisciplinary element also shone through in 18 pre-recorded video segments focusing on various election topics through interviews, discussions with experts, and original research. The segments were created by students in classes taught by Mark Crain; Nicole Crain, visiting professor of economics and business; Sharon Jones, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering; John Kincaid, Meyner Professor of Government and Public Service; and Jim
Panelists in the “student lounge”
spoke their minds about election issues throughout the telecast.
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Lennertz, associate professor of government and law.
Issues illuminated in the segments included Pennsylvania’s gambling legislation, the banning of violent video games, nanotechnology in American life, negative campaigning, public transportation in the Lehigh Valley, the political power of the Internet, and alternative forms of democracy, such as proportional representation.
Julie Smith ’07 was part of a team of economics and business majors that produced a segment comparing the political beliefs of Lafayette faculty with those of faculty around the nation. She stresses how important a learning experience the broadcast became for her.
“I learned how time-consuming and challenging such an in-depth process can be,” she says. “The amount of time and analysis that went into this segment was much more than I had ever expected, but in the end it was all worth it. The results themselves answered many of my questions and assumptions about politics in the classroom.”
Nanotech was the topic for Scott Backus ’07, an A.B. engineering major, and his team. He believes the broadcast provided educational benefits not only for those involved but for the entire campus community.
“This project was especially beneficial in the fact that it got college students more involved in what’s going on in government, at both the local and federal levels,” he says. “It’s very easy to become disconnected from current politics while you’re in college, and projects like this will help keep us involved.”
It was a learning experience for Crain, too. As far as taking on the challenge of producing another broadcast for the 2008 presidential election, he says he will have to take a serious look at the feedback and consider the logistics of a new broadcast before making a decision.
“This has been a thrilling project for me,” Crain says. “There is nothing like a learning experience in a live, under-pressure environment to motivate students and get them interested in politics. This exemplifies Lafayette’s mission to extend learning beyond the ordinary classroom setting."
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