SIUC wins more awards than any other University

Scott Hodgson takes comfort in the fact that even though SIUC may not have the name recognition of a New York University, it can still mop the floor with them in some categories.

The National Broadcast Service Alpha Epsilon Rho Awards, which announced its winners a couple weeks ago, honored the Department of Radio-Television at SIUC with more awards than any other university in the nation, taking home 23 percent of all the awards, 17 total. The nearest competitor was West Texas A&M University with 10 and Marshall University with seven. To enter, students send in material for various categories and sit back and wait to hear the news.

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Hodgson, chair of the Department of Radio-Television, was especially impressed because this honor is not new for SIUC.

When it starts happening two to three years in a row, that’s when you say we’ve got something here, Hodgson said.

SIUC competed with a total of 125 universities and also took the largest amount of awards with 21 percent of all grand prizes. In each category, contestants have the chance at one grand prize and two honorable mentions. Some of the categories included Music Video and Video News/Sports/Feature Segment.

Brian Ehman, a junior in radio-television from Glenwood, won an honorable mention in the Feature Package category for a segment he did for alt.news 26:46, called Vulturefest. Ehman said he was happy to see SIUC win so many awards, but it wasn’t a big shock.

We sort of sweep it every year, Ehmen said. Every time it’s an honor.

Hodgson said he was pleased with SIUC’s performance at the awards, which he said are some of the most prestigious, especially because SIUC did not have the name recognition of other schools.

Down here in Carbondale is this [Radio-Television] program and we’re competing with the big boys, and we cost a whole lot less, Hodgson said.

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Hodgson said that while he is proud of the department itself, he said none of it would be possible without the students and their hard work.

I’m so proud of our students, Hodgson said. It’s the students that bring the University its glory. [The students] really impress the socks off of us.

Reporter Codell Rodriguez can be reached at [email protected]