Students speak out against firing
Dept. could name interim chairman as early as next week
By Blair Busch
Staff Reporter

An interim chairman for the radio-TV-film department has not yet been named, College of Communication Dean William Slater said Thursday.

Slater said an interim chair might be named next week.

“I’m going to meet with the faculty next week to discuss where the department goes from here,” Slater said.

RTVF professor Roger Cooper was dismissed as chairman Tuesday following an investigation of enrollment discrepancies for two summer Video I courses. He will continue to serve as a faculty member.

Senior RTVF major Chris Greer said he is livid about Cooper’s removal and is trying to start a petition to reinstate him as chairman.

“He was only doing it for us because 15 of the students had to have the class or they would have to go to school for two more semesters,” Greer said.

Signs saying “We love you Dr. Cooper!” were put up in the Moudy atrium Thursday evening.

Britta Natwig, a senior RTVF major, said Cooper should not have been fired because his actions did not compromise the students who signed up for the class and then dropped.

“I don’t believe the vice chancellors and administrators of TCU understand or even try to understand the sense of community within our department,” Natwig said.

Cooper said he asked students to enroll in the summer classes to meet enrollment requirements and then to later drop the class on the first day of the summer session.

Susan Brewer, a senior RTVF major, said she was approached by Cooper and asked to sign up for the Video I summer class. She said she later dropped the class.

Cooper said Wednesday he wanted students to register for the class to aid juniors who needed the course to graduate on schedule.

Video I is the prerequisite for the fall-only Video II course and both classes are required for production majors. Video I was offered in two classes during the first summer session and taught by RTVF professors Richard Allen and Charles LaMendola.

The two classes, which both required a minimum of 15 students, only had 11 and 13 students enrolled in it and were in danger of being dropped, said Chris Baran, coordinator of operations and marketing for Extended Education, who handles enrollment in summer classes.

“The minimum number of students for a class has to be met or there will not be a class,” Baran said. “They check the numbers on Friday before the Monday the class starts and if the class does not meet the requirement, then the class will be canceled and the students will be called and informed that the class was dropped.”

Leo Munson, assistant vice chancellor for academic support, said he was aware of the problem and developed a plan for the two classes to be combined. Allen and LaMendola would be paid 5 percent of their annual salary for teaching the class together.

Professors are usually paid 8 percent of their annual salary for teaching a three hour credit course during the summer, Baran said.

Junior RTVF major Cassie Fauss said all 24 students met at the same time and split the work in the two studios in Moudy Building South.

Robby Zebrowski, a junior RTVF major, said the classes were combined and co-taught. LaMendola taught single camera and Allen taught multiple camera aspects, he said.

“Each professor could teach their specialty and the class learned more,” Zebrowski said. “I don’t think that I would have gotten as much out of the class if the two classes were not combined.”

Allen declined to comment when asked if he had known about Cooper asking students to enroll in the class in order to keep it open. However, he did say the department is supportive of its staff and the students and faculty would rather move past this.

Cooper and LaMendola had not returned numerous phone calls by press time.