Katie Reing
Video Practicum, a program developed to utilize the equipment that was not being used in Cabrini’s video studio, was created for students who are interested in communication involving video production and want to be a part Cabrini’s TV show. The class, that will eventually be producing a TV show, meets every Thursday at 5 p.m.
“The TV show was Frank Plum’s idea,” Cathy Yungmann, associate professor of communication, said. “He proposed it when they moved into the new facility last year.”
“When we moved into the new studio, we wanted to use it as a club,” Frank Plum, executive producer of practicum, said. “Instead we gave students credit. It’s a one credit class that meets once a week for about an hour.”
Plum proposed and created this class along with Kim Campbell, director of the TV show. Dr. Jerry Zurek, professor of English and communication, and Yungmann approved the proposal of the class.
“For two years I bugged the school,” Plum explained, “to start something. They have all this equipment and they were not using it.”
“So, I did some investigating and found out that there is public access in Radnor. I went down there and they said they would give us some time.”
Plum and Campbell worked together with other students in advanced production. “Last semester they piloted the project and trained 20 mass media students to operate a camera, write news stories and produce those stories,” Yungmann said.
The stories that the students write and produce are then produced into a TV show called “Cabrini Cross Section.”
“It’s a news magazine show. It airs every two weeks on Radnor channel 21,” Plum said.
The show is a local show designed by these college students about local events. “It’s like the Loquitur on TV,” Campbell said. “It consists of campus and local news and events that are going on.”
Last semester the students who were interested were trained. This semester, they are going to produce the show. “We start the first show next week,” Campbell said. “It takes a week to put together and a week to get it out. The show will probably be out in four weeks.”
“Cabrini Cross Section” took a lot of work to get initiated and carried out. “I am in awe of these students,” Yungmann said. “They took the entire concept themselves within a semester and trained a whole bunch of students. It’s an amazing thing.”
Since this is the first year for the production, those involved hope that it lasts.
Yungmann trusts that other students will follow in the footsteps of Plum, Campbell and the other advanced production students who took the time and energy to create this project.
“These students are starting a whole new medium on campus,” Yungmann said. “When they graduate, the students who they trained can take over.”
Like Yungmann, Campbell wants to see this as an ongoing, yearly project.
“We hope the freshmen enjoy it so it catches on,” Campbell said. She and Plum, along with others, are graduating this semester and leaving the production in the hands of those they trained.
