Communication Week celebrates and demonstrates students’ abilities
Pictured (left to right) are event management students Abbie Dorfman, Hannah Grimes, Sara Swiatek and Bri Hughes, who organized and orchestrated the 2016 awards banquet. Photo submitted
By Alexis Ancel, News Editor//
For the fourth consecutive year, the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication held its annual Communication Week. Overall, Communication Week has three primary goals: to promote the School of Communication on campus, to give annual awards and to showcase student work. In addition, Communication Week also highlights the many changes and additions to the School of Communication over the years.
Dr. Vern Biaett, assistant professor of event management and one of the main coordinators of the week, said, “It’s really to celebrate who we are, but it’s also an opportunity for other students on campus to attend and see what we’re about.”
The week consisted of 14 total events ranging from guest speakers, a Rock Band tournament, a Graduate Student Research Symposium and a year-end banquet for awards and recognitions. One event designed to demonstrate what these students are capable of is the 48-hour film festival in which groups of students are assigned a topic from a random genre and then create a movie in 48 hours using other assigned props and lines.
Of these various events, the one that proved to be the most popular was the First Amendment Free Food Festival. For one hour, students experienced what it might be like to not have basic human rights such as free speech and the right to practice religion through various activities in exchange for free food. The event even included a mock jail with different forms of “punishment” for students who violated the rules set to prohibit these rights. “Rather than talk about it, it demonstrates what it’s like when those rights are taken away,” said Dr. Bobby Hayes, communications professor and coordinator of the event. “It’s a powerful hour for many of our participants as they see what it’s like to live in an environment without these freedoms.” Over 800 people from all across campus participated in Communication Week, and every member of the communications department faculty was involved with it in some way. Though much of the planning was done by Biaett and other communication faculty, for the first time students were given many opportunities to assist with the planning and coordination process.
Two teams of communication majors from event management assisted with the week; one was in charge of the banquet, and the other dealt with arranging a guest speaker.
The team responsible for the banquet had tasks such as ordering food, making tickets and making any other necessary arrangements. One hour prior to the start of the banquet, all tables were intentionally left unmade so that the students could get a sense of what it would be like to have to put something together at the last minute. On the second team, HPU senior Grayson Halsted helped arrange for her personal contact and friend Colleen Connor, a blind entertainer, to speak at this year’s banquet.
Halsted said, “Colleen’s speech about disability awareness and post-college motivation was enlightening to say the least. As someone who began to lose her sight in high school, Colleen does an excellent job of connecting with sighted and visually impaired audiences as well as educating them on the perspectives they were likely unaware of.”
In upcoming years, the School of Communication faculty even plans to hand off the majority of the planning and coordinating to the students. This allows communication majors to get a more hands-on experience in their field, just as they experienced during this year’s events.
HPU sophomore Abbie Dorfman said, “I think the best part about planning this event was getting hands on experience and realizing that planning these types of events are what I want to do in the future. I love planning and getting to know more people at the university.”
This year’s banquet also hosted its largest audience yet of 182 people total. Three categories of awards were presented: graduate student awards, top senior awards, which were faculty nominated and voted, and top student project awards that were student nominated and faculty voted.
“We take pride in our students, pride in their work and pride in what our school has to offer,” Biaett said.