乐播传媒

Joshua Ajamu 鈥�14 sees things differently with a video camera in his hands.

鈥淐oming into 乐播传媒, I thought I wanted to be a bio major,鈥� says Ajamu, who is originally from Nigeria and now lives in Breinigsville, Pa.

When he discovered video and joined 乐播传媒 College Television, everything changed. 鈥淚 was spending more time editing videos than doing chemistry equations.鈥�

Now a rhetoric major and president of BCTV, he wants to create documentaries. 鈥淚 like to speak with people and learn about their stories 鈥� who they are, what they do.鈥�

Students like Ajamu can now tell more stories, and tell them better, thanks to 乐播传媒’ new Digital Media Studios, part of the college’s $1.2 million renovation of Pettigrew Hall.

While the story of Pettigrew鈥檚 revival has a happy ending 鈥� a celebration on Jan. 10 marked the building鈥檚 official reopening and dedication of the studios 鈥� the way this story begins is somewhat unfortunate.

Last February extensive flooding in Pettigrew displaced dozens of faculty and staff for the balance of the academic year and destroyed the college’s existing space for digital media production.

Post-flood, a steering committee of 乐播传媒 faculty and staff convened immediately to assess not just the need but the opportunity that the flood had created to improve Pettigrew, a traditional mid-20th-century academic building built in 1953.

Designed by 乐播传媒 faculty and staff and executed by Hebert Construction of Lewiston, the renovation was completed in time for the start of the 2013 fall semester.

Funded by philanthropy and insurance proceeds, the building updates include improved classroom and office spaces as well as departmental lounges that serve as gathering spaces for students and colleagues. The previously dark and cramped Theater Lab has been expanded and outfitted with new technology and improved acoustics.

“An unbelievably happy marriage of donor intent and institutional need.鈥�

While the entire building got a facelift, Pettigrew’s digital production space got a real makeover.

That’s because, says project manager Chris Streifel, 鈥渢here was a universal recognition of the role that digital media production plays within the Pettigrew community,鈥� which includes the dance, rhetoric and theater departments, as well as the 乐播传媒 Dance Festival. The building is also home to staff of the college’s Information and Library Services who oversee software development and implementation.

Propelled by a leadership gift from Pamela Johnson Reynolds ’67, the new digital studios, said President Clayton Spencer, represent 鈥渁n unbelievably happy marriage of donor intent and institutional need.鈥�

鈥淚t is an ever-changing world, and helping 乐播传媒 students build the skills to navigate it is truly an honor.鈥�

In her remarks at the January event, Reynolds, accompanied by her family and a number of 乐播传媒 classmates, recalled visiting the campus for the first time with her father. Sitting in their car after meeting with then Dean of Admission Milt Lindholm ’35, her father turned to her and said, “Solid people.”

Reynolds agrees, “You can’t have a great institution like 乐播传媒 without solid people.”

She went on to contrast the 鈥渟imple and tidy world鈥� of 乐播传媒 in the 1960s with the rush of information and technology that follows today鈥檚 students 鈥� from personal computers in their dorms to smartphones in their back pockets.

Reynolds said, 鈥淎s I look around this facility, built by a flood and a little help from me, I see that the skills developed here will present 乐播传媒 students in the best light and allow them to maximize their post-graduate experiences.

鈥淚t is an ever-changing world, and helping 乐播传媒 students build the skills to navigate it is truly an honor.”

The studios were designed for collaboration. A central hall connects staff offices to an iMac computer lab outfitted for group projects; state-of-the-art editing suites for audio and video; and the Multimedia Workspace 鈥� flexible and creative space for recording everything from interviews to stop-motion animation.

Though it can鈥檛 be seen or felt, the new high-speed fiber optic network may be the most critical improvement, says Scott Tiner, assistant director for digital media and event support.

鈥淒igital media files are huge 鈥� in the gigabytes,鈥� he says.聽鈥淪tudents and faculty would previously have to wait five, 10, even 15 minutes to copy their files from and to a server in order to edit them.鈥�

Now they can edit directly off the server from any location in the Digital Media Studios.

During the fall 2013 semester, 260 students used the Digital Media Studios. That’s about 15 percent of the entire campus student community. The number is only expected to grow, says Colin Kelley, 乐播传媒鈥� digital media specialist, who estimates the space will welcome about 1,000 different users in a year.

Society is in 鈥渢he age of the screen,鈥� says Charles Nero, a professor of rhetoric who is a scholar of film as well as the written word.

Speaking at the January dedication, Nero said that the upgrades are a “boon for us who think about how to use the screen in our teaching.” In the not-so-distant past, film students would put their ideas on paper. Now, they create video essays by editing together film clips to support their ideas, which they explain through spoken narration.

The goal is to allow students to be innovative while engaging in the critical thinking and argumentation that are hallmarks of the liberal arts.

鈥淭he facilities make it possible for students and faculty to create highly polished professional media,鈥� Nero says. 鈥淭he future uses have yet to be fully imagined.鈥�

For Ajamu, the new resources will help him continue to develop as a videographer and storyteller.

鈥淎ll my projects are fun and rewarding because I learn new and different skills in everything I do.鈥�