Wichita State University recently devoted $188,000 to be featured on “The College Tour,” a Amazon Prime TV series showcasing universities across the country.
While this might sound like a prime marketing opportunity for the school, it raises significant concerns about misplaced priorities and the reality of student living.
Instead of putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into a show that stages campus life, WSU could have made more impactful investments in social media marketing or, better yet, improving the student experience.
“The College Tour,” hosted by the “Amazing Race” winner Alex Boylan, will air its 13th season with an episode featuring WSU, the first Kansas university to participate. The show currently has 11 seasons available to watch.
Yet, what should be a reflection of genuine campus life feels like a manufactured facade.
Group messages from RA’s to their residents requested student presence during filming because “It is late notice so they did not have enough time for arrange their own extras.”
The production was so rushed that actual students were asked to stage scenarios at the last minute, stripping the show of unique student accounts and schedules.
Although I am glad that real students will be featured in the show now, they were practically asked to be props, and only because of poor planning.
Either way, is this a true image of student life? Hardly.
WSU or the Amazon crew wanted to hire actors to give the illusion of campus life, not the reality. So, it makes me wonder how many other schools on the show are actors or prop students, smiling and waving like the Penguins of Madagascar.
How many impressionable, future students are seeing the show? Hopefully, they are not considering their top school choices based on the TV presentation — especially considering that the reality of Shockers is constant construction and fighting for parking spots that you do not win.
The campus experience is not always negative, of course, but it is not as magical as productions often make them seem on the tv. I do go to yoga classes in the gym and enjoy studying at various buildings on the main campus. Both these activities enhance my student experience, even if it is grabbing a side of fries in the RSC while I complete my work.
But excluding repetitive themes such as construction equipment and the building’s friendly, but unwelcome, critters seems dishonest to the impressionable viewers.
Being a Shocker student is walking around a pretty campus in the scorching summer sun, sweating off makeup or desperately trying to cool down. In the winter, it’s navigating a beige, lifeless campus and trying to keep hair out of your mouth thanks to unforgiving Kansas winds.
Have I mentioned the cockroaches, the buildings that are falling apart or the gross Dining Hall meals that famously make students sick?
WSU is no stranger to questionable marketing decisions. Just a few years ago, the university used tactics like small or free credits to inflate student numbers to promote a growing student body, when in reality the typical student body of full-time and part-time, degree-driven students was actually below the average enrollment for Kansas universities.
Is it me or is WSU out of touch with the reality of its campus? Turning its vision into a fake reality TV show does not make it magically happen, unfortunately for students.
