Syracuse University students who worked for the television station formerly known as HillTV received news Monday afternoon that the station had gained recognition from the university as a provisional student organization, now called CitrusTV.

CitrusTV General Manager Rich Levy said he was asked Monday at 2 p.m. to meet with Anastasia Urtz, the dean of students, a couple hours later. At the meeting, he was given a letter from Barry Wells, the senior vice president for student affairs, informing Levy of the provisional recognition. Levy said he was elated when he read the contents of the letter.

‘Provisional means we gain now all the rights and privileges associated with being a registered student organization,’ Levy said. ‘The difference between recognized and provisional is that any changes that we make to our governing documents between now and Sept. 15 need to go through the university.’

According to a university press release, having provisional recognition means CitrusTV will be under strict administrative supervision. The press release also stated CitrusTV will have a disciplinary probation status through April 2, 2007.

Recognized student organizations on disciplinary probation must adhere strictly to the Code of Student Conduct, other university policies and applicable laws. Failure to meet these expectations can result in loss of recognition for an indefinite period of time.

Administrative oversight during the yearlong probation period will be provided by Wells, the SU administrator who was given the authority to determine when the organization had met the conditions given to them by the appeals panel for reinstatement.

The conditions the station had to meet included an open apology to the campus community, a new station name and monitoring and guidance by a tenured faculty adviser.

The faculty adviser will be professor Michael Schoonmaker, chair of the television, radio and film department in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Levy said. The former HillTV station had an organizational consultant, Carrie Grogan Abbott, but not a faculty adviser.

Schoonmaker said in a press release that he is very proud of how the students behind CitrusTV have grown from the experiences of the past six months. He said he looks forward to working with them and to creating a station that can be a model for others.

The station had to create an advisory board and a committee on cultural competence, two groups of faculty, staff and students who will assist the organization with matters of content, perspective and tone. The station also had to amend its bylaws with greater attention to content sensitivity, nondiscriminatory actions and practices and program decision-making, as well as procedures and policies for program oversight and cancellation.

The minimum period of suspension ended Feb. 1. CitrusTV had submitted the code of broadcast standards and station bylaws to Wells by this time, Levy said. Since then, the station has continued to work toward recognition.

‘The students worked very hard to fulfill the requirements for a new student-run television station to gain recognition,’ said Kevin Morrow, director of SU News Services.

During the suspension period, former HillTV students worked within Watson Studios, Levy said. Students involved with the former HillTV station worked with General Manager of the Orange Television Network Andrew Robinson in order to create and review programming to be aired on OTN.

The sports department continued its sports coverage with OTN, Levy said. The news department, which is in a rebuilding phase, continued production, but did not broadcast any programs, he said. The entertainment department aired a few episodes of a student game show with OTN.

CitrusTV students are currently working on a few projects they hope to start soon, Levy said. These include a short film project involving a campus-wide script project. They are also working on creating a Web site, citrustv.net, which they hope to have up and running soon in order to broadcast programming on the Web, Levy said.

The sports department has been working on an hour-long major league baseball show for a few months, said Matt Maisel, CitrusTV’s sports director. The show features two panels of college students filmed at Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The show includes interviews with Joe Buck, the voice of major league baseball on Fox Sports; Bob Ryan, a sports writer for The Boston Globe and Harry Kalas, the voice of the Philadelphia Phillies.

‘We treat it like a sports report on ESPN,’ Maisel said. ‘It’s essentially organized arguing … now that we are recognized, we are excited to run it under CitrusTV,’ Maisel said.

The show will be airing on local Time Warner Cable channel 26 next week. There will also be a campus screening of the show on Wednesday. The exact time and place of the showing is not yet known, Maisel said.

Levy said CitrusTV is extremely happy and excited to regain its status on campus.

‘We look forward to moving ahead and getting back to producing high-quality student-run television,’ Levy said.

Published on April 3, 2006 at 12:00 pm