Communications Program on a “Timely” Mission

By: Nesha David

ST. THOMAS -- From its inception in 1963, the Communications Program in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of the Virgin Islands, has come a long way. Fighting to keep its head afloat, the program is now making an indelible mark throughout the university’s community.

“I want to make this into a program where we can teach our students not from a book, but through hands-on experience that will allow them to go directly into the work-field,” Alexander Randall V emphasized as he tapped away at his keyboard in his “hole” as he affectionately calls it. “That is my aim and that is what I am going to do,” he finished.

Beginning his tenure in 2001 as adjunct staff, the professor said the communications lab at the time, was barely equipped with the technology and tools to suffice an all-round knowledge of what was being taught from the text book.

As the semesters waded in and out, the program has shown tremendous growth, and exhibits no signs of slowing down.

When the university introduced journalism courses in 1982, with Basic Reporting, Editing, Journalism Law and Ethics, they had an unconscious mark to press towards a goal-- a newspaper.

Four years later, Journalism Program became Journalism and Mass Communication. It took some time before more courses were added, in 1988.

In fact, Advanced Reporting and Newswriting, the newest members to the family, helped to set precedence for what was being formulated.

Then, UVI Voice came to life. The Voice is just one example where the students are at the helm, running the paper as editor, publisher, reporters. This can arguably be the Communications Program’s first public appearance.

Introduced early in the curriculum, the paper began to struggle with its function as the school’s mouthpiece, where it features not only news related to the school, but students’ opinion and entertainment sections.

So much so that, during the 2006-2007 academic year, in order to aid the paper, Journalism Workshop was added after careful revision was done by Randall and Robin Sterns, program coordinator during that period. The two decided to add a few more core journalism courses like Desktop Publishing and Newswriting: Editing and Feature Writing.

So, with the ever changing tides of technology, The Voice went digital later in 2008. That same year, Gillian Royes joined the team as Associate Professor of Communications, and lent her expertise to the department and ultimately took over the paper. Royes, on her unwavering path to better the standards and upkeep of the paper, foresees a dramatic change on the horizon, for both print and internet-based newspaper.

In the old sailor’s quarters, now modernized into the Classroom Administration Building, another set of students utilized and implemented their newly acquired skills in television broadcast. Students were armed with video cameras, tripods, microphones, and sent out beyond the classroom walls. For the first time ever, their finished products were aired on the local television station, TV2.

This is something the program never saw, when the course was added in the 2006-2007 school year as Broadcast Communication II.

Sometime later, stretching across yet another semester, the program reached out to the community once more, this time across the waves of the local radio stations. This time, Liza Margolis, UVI Special Events Coordinator, partnered with Randall. Together, they gave birth to a brainchild of having the students host one of the university’s radio show, The Afternoon Mix.

Although added much earlier during the school year 1992-1993, Radio Broadcasting as it was introduced, has tread from having students mangle with little to no equipment. Now they have the malleability to incorporate into their course of study, equipment and a Radio Laboratory, in which to doctor their work. Something the students could relish in, since it was absence from the onset, more than a decade ago.

Fast forward to the present!

With all this newly found technological advances, this gave light to the students adding their up and coming expertise in the news broadcast world. So much so that, at that point in time, the news coming from K-UVI, as they [the students] dubbed their class, at the time “…the most original news coming out of the Virgin Islands,” boasted Randall.

By this time, Spring 2010, Randall, who came on staff full-time in 2006, decided to have students of the Advanced Production class, work in partnership with Angela Gordon, former executive producer of Hollywood’s Talk Soup. When stirred, the pot produced a final product, a 10-minute documentary showcasing the success of UVI students.

Despite a few technical setbacks the video was well accepted during its debut on Charter Day, Tuesday March 16, before a crowd of well-wishers at the Administration and Conference Center, during celebrations for the inaugurated president for the university, Dr. David Hall.

With so much going on, the communications program is on a mission to do greater things and prepare its students to be the next Katie Couric or Dan Rather.

Ava Gumbs, a senior in the Communications Program, said confidently that in her opinion, besides the nursing program, no other program had literally reached out and touched the community. “In fact,” she pointed out, “it has had a direct impact on the people outside of the school’s compound. That is one sure way of having it recognized, and perhaps get better funding for expansion.”