Every Monday last year, I participated in the Gossip Girl dash. Ignoring persuasion to “stay tuned for scenes from our next episode,” I would instead spring to life, say a quick goodbye to my friends, and race down the stairs. I had 116 seconds from the ending credits to get from the fourth floor of KB to Cro for my 10 PM meeting, not that I ever counted or anything crazy like that.
Arriving a minute late and completely out of breath, I always felt a connection with those girls sneaking in behind me; we all just could not bear to leave five minutes early. This is Conn’s television culture at its finest: bonding entertainment, time-eating relief and escapism in a neat one hour package.
It is this culture that the college’s Information Services (IS) committee plans to study closely over the next year. With the current cable contract expiring this summer and prices continuously rising to ridiculous heights, Conn is unable to keep up with the increases. Currently, the school is paying nearly $130,000 to put 88 cable channels into every dorm room on campus, with costs only growing. Thus, in order to make the needed adjustments accordingly, the committee is faced with this question: what role exactly does television play in the lives on Connecticut College students?
The majority of students watch shows, not TV. With little time to spare, those with a TV cannot afford the brainless luxury of flipping through the channels to see what is on, though a good number still do so in procrastination.
“Television provides some momentary mental breaks from studying,” explains sophomore Cody Charpentier, “I use it as background noise when I’m studying and a means of lulling me to sleep at night. Normally, however, I don’t have enough time in the day to turn it on.”
Time seems to be a consistent problem among students when it comes to catching their favorite shows. Primetime lineups for most major channels directly clash with most club meetings and, of course, with prime homework time. Sophomore Meaghan Kelley elaborates on this dilemma.
“I follow several shows and I really try to keep up with them, but I also (usually) don’t let TV come before schoolwork. If I have a lot of work to do or a meeting to attend, I (usually) won’t put it off to watch TV.”
In this past, this issue would have been solved with VCRs and timers, but the rise of legal streaming sites such as the ever popular Hulu over the last year provides a much simpler solution, allowing students to watch the shows they missed online. This also allows students without a TV to follow along as well, using their computer instead.
It is in this exploding trend that the IS committee hopes to find its breakthrough. A survey orchestrated last year showed that the number one concern on campus is the lack of wireless connectivity in the resident halls. While wireless itself is not really a necessity in the dorms, it is a much desired convenience. Also, installing wireless would raise the college to the level of its peers already offering the perk.
How would Conn go about doing this? Why, by paring down the cable channels, of course!
“It occurred to me that because so many students are using alternative means to get video [besides television],” Lee Hisle, the College Librarian and Vice President of IS said, “would the student body want to give up cable for wireless?”
The answers seem to be mixed on that question. Many students only watch shows online out of necessity; if they could, they would much rather watch them on an actual television. Some even go as far to refuse online shows.
“I always watch TV on a TV because I just don’t think the qualities the same on a computer,” said sophomore Kayla Erikson, “I’m more comfortable with a real TV.”
Others take the opposite stance, advocating for online programming.
“So much time is saved [watching shows online] from there being no commercials, so you waste less free time,” explained sophomore Olivia Grossman, “[Plus], I don’t have a TV.”
Even with the bold idea of cutting cable programming, fans of Food Network and Discovery will find little reason to protest; sports channels, with their extreme pricing, are most likely to get the ax. While the committee itself has yet to meet to discuss these ideas, Hisle and others have already began brainstorming. Forty percent of the $130K sum comes from sports programming, so one suggestion is to broadcast such specialized channels as Yes and NESN in designated common rooms only. Fans then of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox would gather in these spaces to cheer together, and those with no interest would be spared the monumental cost of such networks.
“Why should non-fans be paying for Yankees and Red Sox games they aren’t even interested in?” explained Hisle, “It is our job then to figure out who even is interested.”
However, with all these possibilities floating around, Hisle feels the need to remind us of one thing.
“Nothing has been decided,” he stressed, “It’s currently all just conversation and ideas. Before we make a final decision, we definitely will share our notions with the student body and SGA.”
