1987_10 The Daily Collegian October 1987

              The DallV Collegian
California State University, Fresno
Founded in 1922
Monday, October 3, 1987
Student feedback called for in forum
Parking problems, campus
services emerge as major
areas of student concern
Aon Hotmon/Th. Daly Cofagfan
Mark Astone sought out suggestions from students during the President's
Forum held Friday In the Pit
By Don Coleman .   -.".  '■;?—
Stoffwriter
The AS kicked off *he first in a
planned series of dialogues between stu¬
dent government leaders and the stu¬
dent body Friday in the Pit.
Promises to provide more student
services highlighted the agenda.
AS President Mark Astone told the
crowd, "If you don't tell us how you
want your money spent, I'm going to
spend it on anything I want."
Between/Charrte calling for more par¬
ties and condom machines, a few stu¬
dents managed to express a concern
over the parking issue/ Astone replied,
"We're working on parking. Fresno
State and Chico are on record as op¬
posing parking increases. Right now all
the money from parking goes into a
slush fund—a combined pool. San Fran¬
cisco and Los Angeles are sucking up
all the money. The next meeting on
parking is on the 17th and we will have
a representative there to discuss our
opposition.''
Astone told the crowd that the in¬
creased problems with financial aid
has led the AS to look into the pos¬
sibilities of opening a student credit
union for loans. Astone said the credit
union should open in February.
Other issues addressed were a stu¬
dent book cooperative, library services,
Food Services, student employment,
and the "tipsy taxi" service. Legislative
Vice President Scott Vick said the AS is
checking into a campus-wide meal
card. Vick said the only system in effect
now is trie meal card for the residence
dining hall.
Addressing the xall for longer li¬
brary hours, Vick replied, "We don't
know if we can do anything about the
hours, but we're going to see if we can
do something about the service. When
the copy machines don't work and
your pencil falls apart when put in the
pencil sharpener, when staplers don't
have staples, it's caused by two pro¬
blems. One, there's no money to pay
people, or two, there's no money to fix
the problems."
Astone said a book cooperative spon¬
sored by the AS would be designed to
.save students money on buying and
selling back books."We intend to com¬
pete with the Kennel Boolcstore. We
expect to have something on that later
this semester."
A book co-op would also increase
the number of available student jobs on
campus, Vick said. "Currently there are
647 student positions on campus. Our
goal is to increase growth in that area,
possibly through the library, the book
co-op and Food Services."
The target date for starting "tipsy
taxi" is Oct. 16. Darrien Silveria, an
administrative assistant, says that date
is tentative on corporate sponsorship
and the AS Senate allocating funds for
the project.
Silveria says the service would oper¬
ate 7 days a week for 24 hour a day.
Explaining the program, he said, "Bar¬
tenders would identify students who
have had too much too drink, give the
student a voucher which is to be given
to taxicab drivers and they receive a
free ride home.
"The program is based on a very suc¬
cessful program at Cal Poly where
their pilot program was very suc¬
cessful. It was used 233 times by 350
students. Now Cal Poly is looking into
starting the program full ti me."
Silveria said the "tipsy taxi" service is
designed to cut down on drunken
driving. "We're soliciting sponsorship
from beer distributors. Most of the bars
in the area have endorsed the program,
See FORUM, page 4
TV industry talks down to viewers
By Tim Hurrianko
Stoffwriter
r
"At Universal(Television) we tend to
Chink viewers are not very bright, so
we kind of talk down to them," said Jim
McDonald, director of programming.
Calling television a "business first
and ah art form second," McDonald dis¬
cussed the' realities of television before
a class studying how the industry looks
at audiences.
McDonald described his most im¬
portant function as reading scripts,
"policing the material," and keeping
continuity among the shows that he is
in charge of.
"Basically; I look at the script and ask
myself, 'Is this what the character
would do in this situation?' I also look
for ethnic stereotypes and how char¬
acters are portrayed," said McDonald.
Television shows undergo so many
changes through the different stages of
production that often, a show that
started well will be diluted and simp¬
lified beyond recognition.
"We don't want the viewers to get
lost in the first two or three minutes of
the show," McDonald said. "If the
script is too complicated, if there are
too many plot twists, then my job is to
simplify it so the viewer can follow
what is going on."
To gauge reactions to a new show,
'At Universal we tend to think
viewers are not very bright./
Jim McDonald
Universal will randomly bring in
people off the street, put them in a
room with buttons they can hit such as
"I liked it, I didn't like it," and have them
'record their feelings towards a show as
they watch it
Another important factor in mea¬
suring the success or failure of the
show is the Nielsen ratings. These
ratings are received every morning at
nine in the "Tower" at Universal's
headquarters in Los Angeles, and the
data is evaluated to see how each show
fared.
A share of 36 used to mean. can¬
cellation, according to McDonald, but
with cable and Home Box Office, it is
now an acceptable rating. ^
McDonald admits that this system is
far from perfect and feels that there is
really no way to get an accurate
reading until "they can figure, out a
way to put a box in everybody's home."
A new system being experimented
with is called people meters. It allows
people chosen under the Nielsen
program to push buttons as they watch
the   show  instead  of-.writing  their
feelings in a diary.
"This system is driving everybody
down south crazy," McDonald said,
"but it seems to be more practical than
the diary method."
There are four groups that television
programmers aim for; kids, teens,
young adults, and adults.
Each show put on, television is
aiming for one of those categories.
"Take the 'Equalizer' for example," said
McDonald. "You have an older hero
who probably Wouldn't appeal to the
teens or young adults. He's mostly for
the older audience." *
Television also goes .through fads,
according to McDonald. "Everything
this year is cop shows. Two years ago it
was what we call "hardware shows'
tike 'Air Wolfe' and Knight Rider"
The first step in a new television
show begins when a writer submits a
script. The script is then sent to some¬
body like McDonald, who reviews it,
decides if it is worth production, and
makes any necessary changes. The
script is then sent to a producer who
makes changes and forwards it to the
show's staff writer, who makes
changes to keep the character's actions
congruent with their past personalities.
The script is then sent back to Mc¬
Donald for final approval.
This long and drawn out process is
what contributes to most shows being
the   way   they   are,   according   to
McDonald.  "You  have   ta remember
See MCDONALD, page 4
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