Chancellor Nancy Cantor sent an e-mail to the Syracuse University community on Friday stating that The Daily Orange contained some misinformation in its Friday issue regarding her Thursday meeting with HillTV producers.

‘Contrary to a report on the front page of today’s issue of The Daily Orange, the executive staff of HillTV had every chance to answer the charges against their organization at my meeting with them yesterday afternoon,’ Cantor said in the e-mail.

However, Emily Wasco, former HillTV entertainment director, said Sunday night that she stands by the original comments she made to The D.O.

‘When we walked into the meeting, a letter had already been written and given to Rich Levy,’ Wasco said. ‘We were never asked, prior to the meeting, what our side of the story was.’

In a letter to The D.O., Dean of Students Anastasia Urtz said that the HillTV executive staff ‘participated in a full and fundamentally fair airing of the charges against the organization.’ And the staff was ‘given an opportunity to discuss the charges against the station and (emphasis original) accept responsibility on behalf of the organization for each of the violations alleged.’

Matt Maisel, former HillTV sports director, agreed with Wasco.‘We weren’t really given a chance to respond to anything,’ Maisel said. ‘We went into that meeting with a full plan of action … and we weren’t given the opportunity to say that.’

Maisel added that after the HillTV staff was notified of the station’s end, the producers had an hour-long discussion with Cantor about plans for the next campus TV station.

Administrators discuss sensitivity with comedy plannersIn light of recent events surrounding the content of HillTV’s ‘Over the Hill,’ Black Artist League President Jasmine Thompson and University Union Comedy Chair Laura Garrison met with Syracuse University administrators Friday afternoon. It was agreed that performers would be read a statement prior to performing to make sure they understood the current campus climate, and that the audience would be read a similar statement. Garrison said the meeting was just to make sure that organizers felt comfortable putting on the event, and understood that they had a responsibility to be sensitive to the audience.

‘The purpose of the event is to make a positive climate, not to make a bad situation worse,’ Garrison said.

Published on October 23, 2005 at 12:00 pm