Yesterday, I confessed that I was partially to blame for my inability to get a good career in broadcasting after I graduated from college. Keep in mind that I was working full time in the industry at the end of my schooling, but there was just no way I was going to ever make very good money.
I honestly did not put as much effort as I should into becoming one of the best Radio/TV students at Eastern New Mexico University. This was because I focused so much energy into the Theatre Department. That happened because I more in common with those students. I didn't have the same connect with the students in the Radio/TV Department. This was because the primary focus was on producing news and not entertainment programming.
I did express a desire to do something more entertainment-related, but the Radio/TV faculty didn't help me much there. They could have suggested I go elsewhere, but retention is always an issue at ENMU, and they weren't ready to lose a student to a program that would be more geared for a career they were more suited for.
I should point out that I am not the only Radio/TV student who felt like he got the short end of the stick. There were several others who came up empty-handed after graduating. In the Class Notes of the Alumni newsletter, this one person actually wrote that he had an air shift at an all-volunteer radio station in the middle of nowhere and made it sound like a major accomplishment. But that person wrote a rather humble essay in the Alumni Directory five years ago. He didn't crow about his "professional" acheivements, but focused more on his family.
Probably the largest issue was the work-study program. If you were lucky enough to get in, then you had all the opportunities practically handed to you on a silver platter. If you were on work-study, you got to spend up to 40 hours a week learning all of the ins and outs of every section there at the Broadcast Center. And it seemed like the powers that be never really worked very hard to keep students from abusing the program. I know students who would clock in anytime they were at the Center, so they would get paid during classes that were held there. There were students who went too far, like some would clock in before a weekend assignment and clock out when it was over, expecting to get paid for the 36 hours they were away.
It should be noted that work-study only paid minimum wage, which was $3.35 an hour at the time. But if your schooling was already paid for, it just provided you with a lot of extra money for non-essentials, like pizza and beer.
I tried to get into work-study and filled out the paperwork for the financial aid. I was rejected because my parents made too much money. And it probably didn't help that I was able to pay all my college expenses upfront. From the school's perspective, I didn't need financial aid. However, I noticed that a lot of the students appeared to be better off than me were enjoying all the benefits of learning every detail about the department and getting a paycheck every two weeks.
So, how were they getting on work-study? I have one theory, but I could be completely wrong. I refer to this as the "Emancipation Scam." All the students' parents made too much money for them to qualify. However, if they stated that their parents no longer claimed them as dependents, their own financial situation would show that they were in dire need of funding for college. They would then qualify. When I put in my application, I had to include a copy of my parents' tax return. It was very easy for students to dummy up a fake 1040 showing that they weren't being claimed and submit it to the Financial Aid office, which had no way of verifying if the information was real.
Another issue with the work-study is that there were actual paid positions for students in the TV News department that wasn't necessarily connected to work-study. One was the Student News Director. However, they tended to award that position to the student with the most experience. That student got there by being on work-study.
I knew none of the upper classmen in the Radio/TV department before starting school. The other students who got on work-study likely learned of the cheat from students they knew who got there before them. They knew what to do. I didn't, and my mind was not devious enough to come up with something like this. I was (and still am) basically an honest person. Even in my financial aid application, we mentioned that my mother had taken a leave of absence from her job and the family had taken on the expense of an extra child (Johad) that year. None of this swayed the powers that be.
I don't know how the department operates now. I know that they do a little more with producing entertainment, but the larger issue is having the accessibility to all of the aspects of broadcasting the university has to offer. A few years ago, I had hoped to pay a visit to the school and see how the Radio/TV department handles the current student load. That didn't work out.
I think I would have gotten a lot more out of it if I were a student today.
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