Academic Role of Public Broadcasting Topic of Forum

A faculty/staff committee is seeking input from the campus community on ways that academics can better utilize the public broadcasting facilities. In its mission to suggest ways that Public Radio 90 and WNMU TV-13 can become “aligned with instruction, which is the core mission of NMU,” the committee is asking for responses to the following question: How do you perceive Public Broadcasting’s current support for academics, and how do you envision our broadcast operations could be changed to strengthen their support of academic departments and student needs in the future?

There are two ways to respond: by e-mailing comments or suggestions to Bill Rigby (TAS), chair of the committee, at brigby@nmu.edu ; or by attending an open forum for the campus community from 4-5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10, in the Mead Auditorium in West Science. Rigby said a report summarizing input received via e-mail and the forum will be presented to Fred Joyal (Academic Affairs).

Rigby also said the university has retained Tom Livingston of Transformations Consulting Group in Fairfax , Va. , to investigate external funding sources as well as offer suggestions for the alignment of academics and public broadcasting resources.