PULLMAN As part of ongoing efforts to achieve maximum use of existing resources and increased operational efficiencies, Washington State University President Elson S. Floyd has directed that the operation of the university’s two public television stations be consolidated within the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication.
In a message this week to senior faculty and staff of both the college and the public television stations, Floyd asked that a plan be prepared to complete the organizational transfer of KWSU/Pullman and KTNW/Richland from WSU’s Information Technology Department to the Murrow College by Feb. 1.
WSU is the licensee for PBS-member stations KWSU/Pullman and KTNW/Richland and develops the program schedules and local and national production for both from the university’s Pullman campus. WSU also manages a statewide network of 13 public radio stations, which is not affected by the recent organizational realignment, but remains a part of an ongoing organizational review.
Erica Austin, who will assume accountability for operation of KWSU/KTNW as dean of the Murrow College, said that by consolidating the resources of the television stations and the college, the transfer generates a number of potential benefits to both, enhancing the stations’ community outreach mission, and the faculty’s academic vision for the college.
“This is a move that has a good deal to offer from the perspective of students, the university, the communities served, and the state,” said Austin. “It creates an opportunity to leverage the use of KWSU’s state-of-the-art technical resources to help educate students while enhancing the station’s local programming through a variety of service-learning projects and programs created and supported through the college.”
While acknowledging that some of the challenges of the transfer will need to be more fully identified and addressed in a relatively short time, Austin said the primary benefits of such a move have been widely discussed and understood within the college for some time.
“As a college, this is a move that will allow us to harness our academic vision of developing a model teaching experience, much like that of a teaching hospital,” Austin said. “Students will be afforded the opportunity to greatly enhance their classroom experience through their participation in a real, operating television studio.”
Warren Wright, station manager for KWSU and KTNW, said he and other broadcast professionals at the television stations welcome the move as an opportunity to contribute to the academic mission of WSU while enhancing community outreach and service, which are core to the mission of public television stations.
“This is a very exciting opportunity to take part in something that promises to significantly enhance the student experience,” Wright said. “It’s also clearly a collaboration that will allow us to better serve the communities by expanding our local programming options.”
