Academic Senate Questions Decision To Allow TOMMY LEE To Film Realty Show In Nebraska

November 3, 2004

Maggie Stehr of the Daily Nebraskan is reporting that Chancellor Harvey Perlman formally addressed members of the Academic Senate on Tuesday (Nov. 2) about Tommy Lee's reality TV show filming this semester at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Acknowledging the risks involved with taping, Perlman said the benefits of exposing UNL to a national audience would help offset the trend of declining enrollment.

"People think Nebraska is somewhere out there in a cornfield and assume the University of Nebraska is too," he said. "We are a place now because of this show. Students we are recruiting watch reality shows."

Patrick Shea, senate secretary, presented a resolution expressing the senate’s displeasure at Perlman's lack of communication with the Academic Senate about decisions leading up to a contractual media agreement.

Sen. Gerry Harbison called the reality show a misguided public relations agenda, because the reality show is not consistent with UNL's academic mission.

"All of us will be measured by this stupid show until popular memory moves on," he said. "The decisions which do affect the teaching mission of the university were done in an egregious manner without consultation with the faculty. The world was told about the show before the faculty was."

Perlman said the confidentiality of the NBC contract and the time constraint to approve filming prevented administration from revealing details of the show to faculty. Read more.

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