Department of Communication celebrates 20 years
In the fall of 1996, Richard Krause, chair of the Department of Communication, welcomed incoming freshmen to the newly official communication program. Twenty years later, students continue to enter and graduate from the program, which has been in the works since 1976.
The work the department does began before 1996, however. This year is the 40th anniversary of TV remote productions at Waynesburg University. The first remote production was the Bicentennial Celebration of America in 1976. At that time, the production was run out of a black and white control room, the equipment transported in the maintenance department’s 1970s blue Chevy van.
It wouldn’t be until the 1979-80 school year that the Communicating Arts Media Study program (CAMS) would start. The CAMS program was a branch off of the English department aimed at pulling more students into communication.
William Sipple–then chair of the department of English, now special assistant to the President for International Enrollment and a professor of communications and information management for Bay Path University–said he knew the department needed to be built up.
“When I became chair we had to look at ways to beef up our major or we would become what we call internally a service department,” said Sipple, “which means that the core curriculum [for all students] requires a composition class, but beyond that, we wouldn’t have any majors.”
The most important thing Sipple felt that the new CAMS program could do was give students the opportunity to learn hands-on.
“We wanted to give them real-world projects, things that were not just contrived to the classroom but doing things that were for a real purpose,” said Sipple.
Sipple was one of three people behind the decision to hire Bill Molzon, assistant professor of communication and director of TV Operations, who graduated from Waynesburg in 1973 and started working for the university in the A.V. department later that year.
Molzon was a student who had experience working with film and audio productions, according to Sipple.
“I was the kind of guy that I didn’t just want that stuff to sit in Buhl, I wanted to take it outside and do remotes like the parade,” said Molzon.
The CAMS program was eventually able to purchase an old traveling library that was refurbished by Molzon to fit all the needs of a remote production. The department’s current production truck has been with the program for 16 years.
In 1996, the CAMS program developed into the department it is today and Krause became chair of the Department of Communication, completing the Buhl project. The project included a remodeling plan for the fourth floor of Buhl Hall.
It included moving the TV studio from the third floor of Buhl to the fourth floor, knocking down walls for windows and adding two soundproof booths.
“What [Molzon] and I and some of others were talking about in the about in the mid ’90s has come to fruition,” said Krause.
Graduates across generations agree that the ability to work closely with professors and other students motivated them, according to Chris Shoff, a 2005 electronic media graduate who works for a Silicon Valley tech company.
“I think I mainly liked the smallness [of the school; it] was a big thing for me,” said Shoff. “I feel like if it were a larger school I would kind of just allow myself to blend in and would be lazier. With professors you knew, they would get on you a lot harder for doing work.”
Bill Ingalls, a 1987 grad who now works for NASA, credits his success to meeting a Waynesburg graduate who worked for NASA and to being able to stand out from other applicants because of his hands-on experience at Waynesburg.
“I met a gentleman during an alumni day who worked at NASA and offered up an internship,” said Ingalls. “In a lot of ways I contribute Waynesburg to my success – number one getting the internship [with NASA], and number two from the hands-on access I had with equipment and experiences. The great one-on-one mentorship I had with lots of different professors helped me out.”
The Waynesburg University Department of Communication is still a growing program and Molzon–its longest-standing member–still wants to see growth.