WMUB is a special place

As a graduate of Miami's communications department, I have been made aware of the possibility of the station losing it's funding in order to promote other endeavors.

During a recent visit to the station with over 30 friends that were made in that building 36 years ago, I was reminded how things were in the early 1970's, and of all the wonderful careers that started there. I remembered all of the contributions made by the graduates of the program.

WMUB is a special place where, if given the funding and the chance, students could learn about broadcasting and join the hundreds of alumni that have contributed in monumental ways to the entertainment field. Just in the class from which I graduated, there is a radio station owner, executives of various advertising agencies, technical people, an extremely successful advertising agency owner, world class sports announcers and newsmen and women, and business executives, all of whom have contributed on a national level, and have won national awards for excellence and creativity in their fields.

Miami University did a disservice to the students and to the community by letting WMUB-TV go. On the air experience, both radio and television, is what made the graduates of this program great. Students were given the opportunity, with the guidance of brilliant professors, to make decisions, create programs, expand their own horizons by actually going on the air, and thus were able to make mistakes, learn from them, and triumph at the end of the day. No other department on campus has afforded students this unique experience. No other university, including UCLA or USC, allowed students this experience. Per capita, no other department has garnered the loyalty or generated the successes of the WMUB/WMUB-TV experience.

Your suggestion to somehow cut back or terminate this program is short sighted, destructive to the university mission, and just plain wrong. WMUB taught me confidence, loyalty, business,broadcasting skills, and all of the best about how to succeed in life. While breaking into the business in Hollywood, my Miami education was widely known, highly regarded, and unmatched by any program in the country. This program is the epitome of what a university should teach. It should be expanded, duplicated, and nurtured. it shouldn't be smothered.

Please don't blow it now.

--Joseph F. Rosenfield '71, Los Angeles