Fair Student Production Opportunities

Those videos are ridiculous. I don’t get why the University is being so stubborn.

The Northwestern University department of University Relations has recently released former TV advertisements on YouTube.com. The University paid for these to be professionally produced, despite strong media creation ability within the student body. While well-intentioned, the videos portray Northwestern students stereotypically, and even the most recent ones are anachronisms, reminiscent of inane driver’s education videos. This makes the university appear homogenous and incapable of producing effective media, both of which discourage prospective students from enrolling.

Of course, these problems are symptomatic of the largest problem of all: a refusal by the University Relations department to allow students to produce the promotional videos. Firstly, we, as students, know what style and content appeal to people our age, so the videos would be more effective in recruitment were we to make them. Furthermore, there is no reason NOT to allow student involvement. Spokesman Alan Cubbage claimed the decision to exclude students from the creative process over was to ensure that the videos would be polished and professional. Well, they are embarrassing, and NU students are capable of much greater things.

The Northwestern University production community, including students in film, television, and journalism, is nationally renowned. NU students are indeed prolific while still in school, having recently secured numerous College Television Awards, including

• a 2003 student Emmy Award for the Niteskool music video, “How Does It Feel,”
• a 2007 student Emmy Award for Ellie Burrows and Kunal Savkur’s short comedy, “The Detention Teacher,” and
• a 2008 student Emmy Award for Northwestern News Network’s SportsNight television program.

The various production communities at Northwestern are more than qualified to be involved in the creation of promotional media for their own university. The University Relations department at Northwestern University, headed by Alan K. Cubbage, has not extended the opportunity for, and has explicitly refused, allowing the student body to input their talents into the current media campaign, even though it would make the university’s publicity material more effective. If Northwestern trusts its ability to teach media, it should trust its students’ ability to produce it. Students’ recent awards should be good reason for the University Relations department to rethink their production methods for the future. Cubbage says NU does not plan to make commercials for the next few years, and in the meantime NU is airing its inadequate commercials on national television.

A suggested course of action would be for NU to immediately hold a pitch process for student production proposals, and then, if the chosen individual or group produces a satisfactory video, NU would air it instead of or in addition to other ads. If it is unsatisfactory, then of course Northwestern should not air an embarrassing video—that is the purpose of this campaign. But there is no reason to deny students at least the opportunity of professional experience in representing their own school. Many filmmakers begin their careers with commercials—who better to get them started than the school that taught them?

Thanks for your time, and let’s show NU that this is important to us. Join this campaign.