Friday, December 2, 2011

Marywood & Me

Consider this the definitive blog entry on Marywood University.  I am a 1983 graduate, back when it was Marywood College.

The Princeton Review says its survey shows Marywood students are among the unhappiest in the nation.  If a Marywood student is unhappy, it is because he or she didn't do their research before deciding to attend.  Marywood is a conservative and sleepy community.  You will never hear "fun" and "Marywood" in the same sentence, and that's okay.  You're there to learn.  If you want to party, go somewhere else.  I will say that there are more than enough activities at Marywood and in the Scranton area to keep you busy.  You can also do what I did when I was a sophomore-- find a job.  Quit your whining.

Why did I go there?  It was close and it was cheap.  End of story.

My education was adequate.  I knew I wanted to be a broadcaster, so I made sure I was active at the radio and television stations.  More about those later.

Marywood has done some things that have angered me.  High on the list was taking Congressman Joe McDade's porkbarrel money for something called the "military family institute."  Thousands of your tax dollars was spent to produce a few paragraphs.  I was ashamed of my college.  While the military family institute is long gone, my disgust remains.  Marywood, you're better than that.  You never should have taken that money.

Marywood and I have been estranged for some time.  I've never attended a reunion, and I've never given it a dime, other than tuition.  If Maryood likes you, it really loves you.  In a fit of childish pique, I made the university take me off its mailing list several years ago.  I grew weary of reading about the same six graduates in every edition of the quarterly alumni magazine.  I had enough.  The university gives the distinct and unmistakeable impression there is an elite class, and the rest of us are chattel.

I try to go back every year for the Christmas tree lighting.  I will give Marywood a lot of credit for holding off on most of the Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving.  The campus remains a thing of beauty.  Most of the new construction has been on the edge of the campus.  The heart remains as-is, and as it should be.  Marywood bought the Scranton State School for the Deaf property for a song, and I'm okay with that, too.  Marywood will be a great care taker of the land and buildings.  You won't see a Turkey Hill built there.

Now, let's talk about broadcasting.  I listened to the college radio station for more than an hour the other morning.  In that time, I didn't hear one live voice, and the university should add that one to the "ashamed" list.  No disc jockey.  No weather.  No news.  Nothing to reflect the university and the community.  The radio station should be a tool to train tomorrow's broadcasters.  It should be a place to make mistakes, and learn the craft.  I was lucky to have done my time there.  Now, it's just a computerized, automated music machine, and that's plain wrong.

I vividly remember my first broadcast, in December 1979, and my last one, in January of 1983.  My first song was also my last song-- "The Stranger" by Billy Joel.  I treasured the opportunity.

Marywood has a channel on my cable company's line up.  Pardon a "geezer" moment.  Back in my day, we did four news broadcasts a week.  Now?  No news.  All I see is an occasional basketball game and a scrolling list of public service announcements.  A few of those on a recent evening were outdated.  Again, shame on you.  The university has a marvelous resource, and it's being wasted.

Yes, there is more to broadcasting than being a disc jockey and doing news.  DJ work hones your timing and adlib skills.  If you can handle the discipline of news, you can do just about everything else in the industry.

Way deep down, I wonder if the choice of an institute of higher education really makes a difference.  I've seen kids from obscure schools who were fantastic journalists and broadcasters, and I've seen students from allegedly great broadcasting/journalism universities who couldn't write a succinct and clear news story to save their lives.  They might have excelled in the college world.  The real world is an entirely different story.  I've discovered that colleges might not be places to learn, but rather develop what you already have in you.

If you're unhappy at Marywood, transfer out.  Last time I checked, there isn't a wall around the campus.