Chatting quietly with two friends, laptop and textbooks open, economic and finance senior Marc Nguyen works on his public speaking essay in the third floor Digital Radio Newsroom and Studio of the Walter Cronkite School.
He is one of many students who will soon need to relocate his study group.
Students using the area for study will no longer be granted unlimited access as the Cronkite School plans to change its policy regarding the space starting next semester. A journalism class, Intermediate Broadcast Reporting and Writing (JMC 315), will be restructured to take advantage of the room, making the space available to others only when class is not in session.
Assistant Dean and News Director Mark Lodato, who has been instrumental in changing the JMC 315 course, said the room is “like a smaller-scale NewsWatch.”
“We wanted to give students at that level a more hands-on experience in transitioning to broadcast style writing and reporting,” he said.
With its 15 computers arranged in groups of three, the radio room has become a popular place for journalism and non-journalism students alike to meet and work.
Nguyen said he spends around six hours per week in the room and prefers the collaborative atmosphere of the study area over more secluded parts of the building.
“It’s a group room,” he said. “It’s not quiet.”
For others, the open chatter has become distracting. The crowded area attracts students studying anything from chemistry to radio.
Digital media senior Jessica Conditt said she now plugs in headphones in order to block out noise so she can concentrate on her projects, noting that the noise level is annoying but workable.
The Cronkite School is a public building and allows non-Cronkite students as well as the general public to use its computers.
“We’re a public building,” Associate Dean Kristin Gilger said. “We want to be welcoming and provide an area where people can work.”
However, some sections have restricted access and are specifically for journalism students. The Public Relations Lab, Cronkite NewsWatch, Cronkite News Service, New Media Innovation Lab, and editing bays are examples of areas that can only be used by Cronkite students enrolled in those specific programs.
Though the Digital Radio Newsroom and Studio will soon join that list, Cronkite School Dean and Downtown Vice Provost Christopher Callahan said the school administration will make it more apparent to students that they can use classrooms as work areas during unscheduled blocks.
“We want people to know you can come here,” Callahan said. “We’re specifically open later than the rest of the campus for the full community to use.”
Contact the reporter at kristen.hwang@asu.edu
