Why The Ath Should Change Its Video Policy

I spoke with the head of the Athenaeum's speaker program about the policy vis a vis videos of speakers. Apparently a team of Claremont McKenna lawyers drafted the policy that allows speakers to edit videos or stop them from going up on the website. As I understand the policy, it is opt in, so if a speaker declines to make a decision, his video does not go up. This policy needs to change for the following reasons.

As I commented earlier, this policy allowed Bono to ban recording equipment from Bridges Auditorium. I think that's a shame. It certainly makes you wonder if speakers really believed in their message, wouldn't they want to shout it from the rooftops? Many of the speakers would be inclined to just let us put up the video on the website, but when we show up with a form, they grow skittish. Whenever I see a form, even when as innocuous as a release form, even I find myself asking whether or not I should consult with an attorney.

While we're on the subject, though, even speakers that have allowed Claremont McKenna to post their speeches haven't had them go up on the Athenaeum website. I have gone and looked on the website countless times to try and catch speakers that I have missed and it isn't uploaded!

If Claremont McKenna would allow us, the students, to put the videos up on YouTube.com, we could really do the school a tremendous service. Many of us own video camera and would do it for free. If quality were an issue, I'm sure the school could hire a media studies major relatively cheaply. (Poor Media Studies, that's probably one of the few paying jobs they'll ever get...)

For starters, very political students tend to love YouTubing their favorite politicians or law professors. In turn, when they see our name attached with those speakers, we can win prospective students through the use of our speaker programs.

A big reason I came to Claremont McKenna was due to the videos I found on the Athenaeum from John Yoo, Akhil Amar, and Claudia Rosett. I then went to look for other videos -- only to find that none of the ones from the previous semesters were available. We can use the speakers to attract interest in Claremont McKenna. We would no doubt increase our name-recognition if parents and prospective students saw the kinds of high profile speakers we've been bringing to Claremont.

Now I confess to have a selfish ulterior motive for the Athenaeum putting videos online.
I wouldn't have to buy a camera and do it myself! It sure would make blogging easier...

We all know that YouTube is the future. Indeed Pitzer College seems to have gotten the message. Though I'll no doubt be posting a reply critical of the way the class is constructed -- it doesn't use the dynamic media of video in the way that the course was initially billed-- I can't help but feel that Pitzer scored a significant P.R. point. They certainly made the news media and entered into the blogosphere. The class and the college was profiled in The Boston Globe in September and the influential blog, TechCrunch, gave its due (even if they mostly ripped into it!) Complete with a video press release, Pitzer certainly seems like it's entering the 21st century. (If only the students didn't smell as if they were from the 14th!)

In any event, it's time to reevaluate the policy.