By Lily Yengle ’13

Photo by Ally Hill ’15

“This was the only undergraduate student-run election broadcast in the country,” said Austin Denesuk ‘13, co-producer of Lafayette’s 50 States of Grey election coverage program. The student-run broadcast was focused on politics, but there was a lot more going on behind the scenes.

Denesuk is one of the students enrolled in the Economics 373 course taught by Simon Professor of Political Economy and Chair of Policy Studies Mark Crain. Roughly 20 students in the course had been working throughout the semester to prepare for the night of November 6, where they were broadcasted live on channel 39 PBS from 9 to 11 p.m.

Though the students were given a lot of creative freedom, professionals were brought in to assist in specialized areas. The anchors of the show worked with professional reporter Nancy Werteen to learn technical skills such as reading from teleprompters and buffing over glitches during the live broadcast to keep it running smoothly.

Surprisingly, the students never actually performed a full rehearsal before the event. “We had a rundown, which described what would happen when, but [they] could say what they wanted,” said Denesuk of the on-screen interactions. Anchors Maddie Laskoski ‘13 and Alex Charchalis ‘15 read from a teleprompter, but the rest of the students involved gave their own analysis onscreen. “It was an organic process,” said Denesuk.

Students were in charge of creating pre-taped segments during which they interviewed politicians and talked about a variety of different topics ranging from “fracking” to political fashion. These videos were then interspersed during the live coverage. “[Videographer] Chris Knight helped us learn to use the equipment and to edit the footage afterward,” Political Director Cameron Roche ‘13 said. “Before this I knew nothing about anything technological,” Roche said. “Now I have a much better idea—I even made some edits myself.”

Roche and Denesuk were among the small group in charge of designing the set, along with Stage Manager Taylor Dougherty ‘13, and Co-Directors Jesse Ryan ‘13 and Tom Parsons ‘13. “We had a lot of creative decisions in regards to the colors, camera angles and positions, if people were sitting or standing—a lot of it was last minute,” Denesuk said. “We went around campus trying out chairs. We almost built a desk!”  New Century Productions, led by Mike Werteen (husband of Nancy), helped make the set and the students’ vision a reality.

The class students worked with PBS 39 Executive Producer Amy Burkett to be sure the broadcast was ready for live television. “This was the first time they have given live air time to college students,” Roche said. “She put a lot of faith in us.”

On election night, the students prepped for the camera in business attire with the help of professional make-up teams. The night started off with a pre-show in the Marlo Room, which included performances by The Hoochie Coochie Men and free food organized by Lauren Puhala ‘13. According to Dougherty, when the show went live at 9 p.m., “there was no down time.”

“I’ve only ever done theater stage management before, which is also live but is completely different,” Dougherty said. “It’s not as high-stress, because people don’t notice as much, but here, we’re on PBS.”

Denesuk, who aims for a career in production, also noted the difference of working in a live-TV environment. “I’ve done commercials and reality shows and some scripted shows,” she said. “Usually you have time to perfect things, but on live television the only thing you can do is try to keep moving.”

Besides learning how to operate under the high-stress environment of live-TV the students had the experience of seeing their hard work culminate in an actual production. “The best part for me was that people didn’t understand why it was such a big deal,” Dougherty said. “Once everything came together, people could see what all the work I put in was for.”

The students involved are quick to give credit to Professor Crain, their advisers, and their fellow students for the success of the night. “It was a bunch of people who have different niches coming together, and a select group who managed that and brought that creative vision into line,” Roche said. “This is proof of what can happen when you get dedicated, high-level students together.”