The Eastern Back – New “72 Hours” Class to Investigate Western Scandals

The Eastern Back is a yearly publication by the staff of the AS Review. Anything contained here probably isn’t true – unless it is. Happy April Fool’s week!

By: Sydnee Smith

Kyle Anderson and Alicia Eyikan, Western juniors, are working on a new broadcasting class through Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies. The class is said to be modeled after the television show “48 Hours”, with the working title “72 hours: Getting Ahead of the Next Western Scandal”.

Anderson and Eyikan are preparing and currently creating curriculum for the class to pitch to the curriculum committee at Fairhaven. Their hope is to have the class running by winter quarter of the 2019 to 2020 school year.

“I think we as students deserve to know what is going on with professors on our campus. I personally feel as though the opinions of students and their right to knowledge is being compromised. So, if the school won’t tell us what we want to know, we’ll just figure it out for ourselves,” Eyikan said.

Projects for the class will consist of coming up with questions for an assigned professor, following the professor around and interrogating their assigned professor. The whole class will be focused on a final video project. Students will be grouped up at the beginning of the quarter and work together on their end project.

Eyikan said she is most looking forward to seeing what students create and can do when they come together on a common goal. She believes with dedication and hard work the end projects that students will create can change the community and the way administration thinks and acts forever.

“We will not and should not be a disturbance to professors and their lives. All we want to do is bring justice to the campus and to the students, by following professors around we are serving a need that isn’t being met yet,” Anderson said. “Besides, everything is public property and we have a right to go into any office we please.”

Anderson and Eyikan believe the class will be a great way for students to work on their interviewing and broadcasting skills, while also helping out the community. Students will learn how to use broadcasting equipment, edit footage and investigate ledes they said.

However, some professors are worried about the students’ free access to professors’ office hours and personal lives. Fairhaven Professor Vanessa Dalanger, is scared students will take the class too far, by following professors to their homes and bursting into their offices while they are trying to work.

However, Anderson and Eyikan are gaining support from students all over campus for their idea.  Anderson noted he’s personally spoke with around 40 people who said they’d be interested in the class.

Eyikan made and hung posters around campus to promote the class idea and gain support. Western Freshman Daniel Allen, saw the posters and mentioned how he believes the class would be a big success for not only Fairhaven students, but campus-wide.

“It’d be sick class. When I came to Western, I didn’t realize how shady people can be,” Allen said. “I mean, truth is power and what better way to show that then busting all the shady people.”

The idea for the class was created after the television show, “48 Hours”, broadcasted an episode about a Western faculty member.