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@PPUGlobe September 4, 2019
Could your zodiac sign translate to your major? Lilly Hinckley finds out Student shares opinion on why shuttles should go to Oakland Volleyball goes undefeated in annual Emileigh Cooper Memorial Classic ppuglobe.com
Covering the world of Point Park University news since 1967
Issue 2
LABOR DAY PARADE MARCHES DOWNTOWN WPPJ rebounds after system failure Hayley Keys Co-News Editor
This past Thursday, Aug. 29, WPPJ General Manager Bie Teal announced on Facebook that Point Park’s student-run radio station was back on air. The announcement came after the web streaming computer in the studio suffered a hardware failure, preventing students from broadcasting their shows both to campus and on WPPJ’s website. “The problem was not hard to fix,” Dr. Tim Wilson, Assistant Vice President of Information Technology, said. “All we needed was to find another streaming device.” Professor David Fabilli, the advisor for WPPJ, said he was happy with the turnaround on the problem. “We went from being considerably worried to being quite pleased in just a matter of days,” he said. “It was excellent work on the part of our IT team and the support from
Dean Paylo. We couldn’t be happier with their quick and effective team response.” WPPJ is one of the main student media platforms on Point Park’s campus and offers students the chance to get hands-on experience in multimedia from day one. Freshman journalism major Jasmine Schulte said she chose to go to Point Park because it was recommended to her by her mentors after she expressed an interest in broadcast reporting. “Obviously broadcast reporting is something I’m deadset on, that’s what I want to study and that’s what I want to pursue,” Schulte said. “I knew I wanted to go to Point Park because it was close to my house but also because it had such a well-known journalism program.” Schulte also expressed a desire to work for WPPJ after learning that the university had a campus radio station. “I am really excited to get
WPPJ page 2
Katie Williams | The Globe
A veteran at the Labor Day parade sells American flags and American flag-printed apparel.
Artists supported by the federal government
Dr. Hooper gives presentation on past and future of arts funding Amanda Andrews Co-News Editor
Dozens of students sat packed together in the GRW Performance Space on Aug. 28. Instructions were given to make space for others pouring through the doors, and many still had to make do with the floor. All were there anticipating Dr. Colleen Hooper’s presentation on the past and future of their careers. Hooper, assistant professor in the Conservatory of Performing Arts (COPA), has researched the topic of funding for artists since 2014 when she began her dissertation. Her interest led to her publishing an academic article entitled “‘Ballerinas on the Dole:’ Dance and the U.S. Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA), 1974–1982” in the Dance Research Journal in December 2017 and participating in a podcast about that article in October 2018. Most recently, she is working on a book proposal on the subject and presented a full history of how artists once gained, and lost lucrative arts funding from the government. Hooper started her talk by explaining the roots of public funding for the arts during the Great Depression. The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) employed actors, dancers and artists and gave them stable work throughout the period of economic turmoil, though it would only last until 1939. The foundations of FTP
made possible 1970s formation of CETA, the main theme of Hooper’s lecture and research. “It was basically a work program,” Hooper said. “So anybody who was unemployed during this time period was eligible to get a job through the government. Dancers and theatre artists were not supposed to be part of it, but somebody had the idea to include them, and then it became a movement all over the country.” According to Hooper’s presentation, the government employed between 10,000 and 16,000 visual and performing artists. The employees worked standard hours of 35 hours per week, and their
yearly salary was $10,000, which given inflation rates, roughly amounts to $40,000 in today’s currency. When Hooper asked how many students pursuing the arts would take that job offer, a significant number raised their hands. Assistant Professor of English and coordinator of the literature program in the Department of Literary Arts and Social Justice Barbara Barrow helped coordinate the event with Hooper. To her, this event was important not only for students in the Conservatory but any member of the student body, faculty and staff. “Currently we’re seeing dramatic cuts in funding and support to the arts and
Amanda Andrews | The Globe
Dr. Collen Hooper speaks about the history of arts funding to the student body in the GRW Performance Space in the Dance Complex.
humanities, which is deeply troubling,” Barrow said. “Even if we are not professional artists ourselves, we all benefit from the arts and the kind of creative and flexible thinking they promote.” While the duration of the presentation was around an hour, much time and effort went into scheduling Hooper’s talk. One of Hooper’s own students, senior dance major Chezney Douglas, introduced Hooper to the audience. Hooper was Douglas’ instructor for Dance History, and Douglas was adamant about Hooper’s ability to communicate about social justice issues and how they relate to artists. “[Hooper] does a really good job of presenting it in a way that you know dancers and younger students who maybe aren’t as involved or... we just weren’t raised to have the respect for what’s going on in the nation because we don’t quite understand how it affects us because it does two-fold,” Douglas said. “Everything that happens there comes back at us. But she does such a good job at not dumbing it down but just making it more presentable for us. An easier pill to swallow for us to kind of understand it. Like hey, these things are happening, we have a role to play, like we can easily use our voice to help. She does a great job at informing us.” Setting up the event also included thorough coordination with the Provost’s office. “I received a course re-
lease last fall from the Provost’s office to do research, and from talking with the Provost John Pearson, he suggested that I do some type of public event to share my research with the community,” Hooper said. “And I worked with literary arts, school justice Professor Barbara Barrow, and we put this together and luckily we were able to get support from the Dance Department and from the theatre personnel because it’s a lot of work. But that was kind of the impetus for it, is that now faculty do receive some course release to do research.” Barrow advised Hooper in how best to spread the word about the event and helped secure light refreshments via Barrow’s former position in the 2018-2019 academic year as a co-chair of the Campus Academic Resources Committee. According to Barrow, the committee “works to support and promote faculty research on campus.” “This was a great opportunity for faculty and students to come together around a topic of shared interest and to engage in a rigorous and collegial discussion,” Barrow said. “I hope that we’ll see more of these events where faculty get the chance to share their research with students and to hear from students about issues that are important to them, both in and beyond the classroom.” Amanda Andrews
aaandre@pointpark.edu
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