Evan's pitches

Evan Rhodes

1) University President’s make more than the President of the United States. A problem? (86)

This story is important to our audience, because it exposes the truth about a topic that isn’t often in the limelight of the media or common conversation.  It’s a fact that is truly intriguing and controversial.  Both are paid by tax dollars.  Undoubtedly, University Presidents have a challenging job, but is it really worth more than what the President of the United States has to deal with?  Some Universities are eliminating teachers ability to be tenured, eliminating faculty, increasing classes sizes class, dropping departments but are increasing University president salaries. The President of the United States makes $400,000 per year. The Chronicle, in 2012, released Public-College Presidents salaries from 2011.  It sites the president of Ohio University, Roderick McDavis, as making $429,000.  Not to mention the $1,992,221 that, Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State, makes yearly.  

Visual elements: video of student opinions around campus, show data of numbers from Chronicle http://chronicle.com/article/Public-Pay-Landing/131912/, take survey to get more student opinions and show graph of numbers,

2) Nicotine: the ultimate “legal buzz”.  Accepted stress relief, or personal stigma? To break the law or not?

This story would center around the topic of tobacco, but instead of focusing on the negatives that are usually highlighted (addiction, unhealthy, smells), it would discuss the fact that students use it to not break the law.  This parallels to students who are in programs like ROTC, and also for those students who may be recovering from a drug addiction.  This story would also tie in the opinions of students about people who chew and smoke, negative or positive.  

Visual elements: Video of student opinions of those who use, video of students who use and why, graphs of tobacco use (whether college increases usage)

3) The roommate from hell.  Taking care of the drunkard: A roommate’s responsibility?

This story would take a look into the subject of an out of control roommate, pertaining to alcohol/drug consumption and whether it’s the responsibility of the roommate.  Is it fair to put the stress on the roommate? Most college students have experience this personally, and if not they’ve heard of a situation from their friends.  This piece would take a look into the positives one may learn from a situation like this (the drunk), could help learn ways to drink responsibly, while very quickly addressing the negatives(OD, legal trouble) through graphs.  While also addressing how the roommate is left to control and handle the situation.  Could look into the reasons for why roommates may not want to tell RA’s/ police.  Is there a breaking point?
*Important that this piece isn’t a lecture, but informative of the viewpoint and position of the roommate.
Visual Elements: videos of student opinions from questions above, video of stories from roommates and the experience (funny stories, or serious), graphs or statistics of OD/police trouble rates among college students related to alcohol,