If you thought backronyms were only something that happened in Washington, think again. The office known as Lerner Hall is now offering called “S.A.V.E.”–the Student Audio and Visual Equipment program. S.A.V.E. will offer training in multimedia support and, according to a flier entitled “S.A.V.E. YOURSELF $$$”, will allow recognized student groups the opportunity to “S.A.V.E. on the cost of tech staffing for [their] next event.”
Still want to know more? According to the S.A.V.E. website, S.A.V.E. sounds like a marginally-accredited technical school advertising on the subway:
- Set up basic audio visual equipment properly, efficiently, and safely.
- Understand the fundamentals of audio which will enable them to perform audio engineering on a basic level.
- Prevent noise, feedback, and learn how to troubleshoot in the middle of an event efficiently.
If you or your group are interested in S.A.V.E., see their flier.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons.
3 Comments
@Kenny Durell Personally, I think Lerner should probably be commended for innovating and trying to have more direct student involvement and say in their events, as opposed to being likened to some sort of “marginally-accredited technical schools” (all sorts of issues with elitism there as well…). The goal is to have students not have to pay exorbitant tech fees for PA system, projector, mic set-ups and take-downs, and I think that should be recognized as a step forward for a previously much-maligned aspect of Columbia bureaucracy.
@A history Way back in the day, lerner had a large all-student tech staff. Students could work as much or as little as they wanted, and they’d remain on the payroll all year. It was a fun but very inefficient system. And yes, insular. Now, if a student group had a lerner tech as a member, and that member staffed the event, then the group could get reduced rates/free tech. The theater people, and to lesser extent, the culture show people, capitalized on this policy.
Lerner then started shifting to doing more corporate events — stuff that would bring in money. In a move towards efficiency, they got rid of everyone who couldn’t commit to a certain number of hours a week. (Aka, a whole lot of people.) They also hired non-Columbia people because they were reliable, and they were available during business hours.
In doing this, they got rid of the student-spirit that grew from having such a large staff. And since these jobs were passed down to lower-classmen (hey, you might be interested in this…), it also reduced the number of opportunities for students to learn about tech stuff and earn some money along the way. The emphasis on corporate stuff didn’t help – what fun is a powerpoint and a microphone?
Like I said, this was back when. I have no idea how the student-friendliness levels of lerner have changed since. But I have to say that this SAVE thing is more equitable towards the students, and definitely more transparent than the old old system.
@Judging from the bullets They should call it SUP.