A Centennial View of
the Student Experience at the
University of Chicago
|
Donald Miller, WUCB studio, 1956. A determined Donald Miller operated the microphone for the annual WUCB marathon, during which staff members solicited pledges for the March of Dimes by staying awake as long as possible. Miller played music from the Pro Nausea ensemble and, as WUCB did every year after 1951, broadcast the farewell speech of President Hutchins. Photograph by Town and Country. |
The Student Voice
Film
and Radio
The Doc Films programs were
soon joined by other ambitious student film efforts. Beginning in 1932,
the International House Film Society sponsored a regular series of films,
many of them the works of French, Russian, German, Chinese, and other
foreign directors. Its recent schedules have continued this pattern
together with a selection of contemporary American films. Across the
Midway Plaisance, Law School Films in 1977 became the newest addition
to the campus cinematic scene. Law School Films concentrated its programs
on the exploration of the classic American studio products of the 1930s,
1940s, and 1950s.
Other students wished to tap different forms of media for the benefit of the University community. In January 1945 William Washington (Ex 1946), a math student, decided that the University of Chicago needed a campus radio station to broadcast and coordinate University activities and serve as a medium for student thought. The Chicago Maroon expressed more amusement and skepticism than support for his effort, stating that "student progress all innovation" were impossible on campus.