A number of Syracuse University alumni are disappointed with Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s decision to disband HillTV.

About a dozen SU and HillTV alumni, using words like ‘devastating,’ ‘extreme’ and ‘disheartened,’ seemed to sum up the sentiment of many past members at the now-defunct network.

Cantor announced her decision to shut down HillTV Thursday during the last of two public forums, triggered when an article published by The Daily Orange detailed what could be taken as racist comments from the satiric entertainment show ‘Over the Hill.’

Within several hours of Cantor’s decree, an Internet chat room was set up for HillTV alumni scattered throughout the country to collectively talk to one another about the situation.

Tori Socha, a 2004 SU graduate, is one of the approximately 22 former HillTV members that participated in the late-night online chat.

‘You need to nurture the learning aspect of it and say, ‘Here is what went wrong, and here’s what we can do to fix it,” Socha said.

While she said people have the right to be upset with ‘Over the Hill,’ the whole organization, more than 200 current members and many more alumni, should not be associated with the actions of a select few. Not everyone connected with the network is racist, she said.

Most alumni acknowledged that the HillTV administration made a mistake in allowing the offensive material to air, but also attributed that mistake as being an integral part of the learning process.

‘In every environment, especially a learning one, mistakes happen,’ said Matthew Berry, who worked as HillTV’s entertainment director from 1990 to 1992.

At least six other former HillTV members said they share the same opinion.

HillTV alumni relations director Katie Frey sent a number of former members an e-mail that summarized the events leading up to the network’s disbandment as well as contact information for Syracuse local media.

‘For everyone to be judged by a ‘worst of’ tape is a pretty cruddy thing to do to kids that put their hearts and soul into (the network),’ said John Beck, a former general manager of HillTV.

‘To me, if you’re going to show the ‘worst of,’ you need to show the ‘best of,” Beck said, in reference to the HillTV news and sports departments that he said do good work.

Beck currently works as co-executive producer of ‘According to Jim,’ a sitcom on ABC.

While all the alumni condemned the content featured on ‘Over the Hill,’ several former members said this circumstance is an issue of censorship.

‘I find this to be censorship at its worst at a place where censorship should be liberal,’ Berry said.

Beck said other student groups should not support the decision. He described the SU administration shutting down an organization it disagreed with as ‘very ‘1984.”

Several alumni said the decision to disband the network came too soon.

‘You can’t wake up one morning, read an article in The D.O. and make a decision on something,’ said Emily Craig, a 2005 graduate.

However, in an e-mail sent as a response to several alumni objections, Cantor said the cancellation of the network had been brewing for months.

‘The revocation of recognized student organization status was due to repeated violations after warnings over many months of the codes that undergird our student organization recognition system as well as the station’s own internal written policies,’ Cantor said.

In the meantime, former HillTV members will use its current studio, located underneath Watson Hall, with the guidance of current Orange Television Network general manager Andrew Robinson.

Calls to Robinson were not returned.

Cantor is planning on making a committee, which will include some former HillTV members, alumni and others to start a new student-run television station. Cantor said she and that committee ‘will work vigorously and quickly to create a plan.’

Tom McAndrew served as general manager in 1990. He currently works as a supervisor in the audio department at Sony Pictures DVD.

He said one of the good things about HillTV was that students could work independent of faculty instruction.

McAndrew’s friend, Bill Spring, said he feels the same way.

Working in a professionally run and structured environment is ‘great when you’re in your 30s, but when you’re in college it’s time to experiment,’ Spring said.

‘It’s not like the bicycling club,’ said Sean Wallace, a 1999 graduate. ‘The thing about HillTV is that it actually impacts people’s careers. The value of HillTV cannot be underestimated.’

Wallace is one of many alumni who credit their professional success to working at the student-run television station.

Some HillTV alumni are fighting back.

‘I will urge all of my fellow alumni to join me in withholding donations to the university until this decision is reversed,’ said current ESPN anchor Steve Bunin in an e-mail to Cantor.

Spring said he called Cantor to voice his concerns, but talked to Cantor’s assistant instead.

Matthew Berry said a representative from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ development office flew to California, took him to breakfast and asked him to donate $25,000 toward the construction of Newhouse III. While Berry said he was initially receptive to the representative’s request, he is now reconsidering the offer.

Sean McBride, who graduated from SU last May, said canceling HillTV is comparable to ‘sweeping the issue under the rug.’

Similarly, Kristin Olson, who served as HillTV’s entertainment director in 2003 to 2004 back when ‘Over the Hill’ was in its pilot stage, said in an e-mail she thought the problem was that the SU campus was too ‘compartmentalized.’ Too many minority-specific groups lure minority leaders away from media outlets. This leads to a lack of diversity, she said.

‘If people are really offended by the shows that get produced as a result, they should be doing what minority groups have always done – seeking a voice within an organization, not outside of it,’ she said.

Published on October 23, 2005 at 12:00 pm