To the editor,

I’d like to take a moment to respond to Jonathan Hirsts’ Opinion piece from the Apr. 21 edition of the Statesman.

Jonathan criticized the campus media’s role in covering the USG Senate meetings as “pathetic.” I can’t speak for the print media, but for the last two years, SBU-TV, the student-run campus television station on Channel 20, has recorded and broadcast the majority of Senate meetings. Not just once a week, but TWICE a day, everyday (Mon.-Wed., at 6 p.m. and 1 a.m.; Thurs.-Sun., at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.).

As to addressing student concerns, we also air SBU-TV News, our weekly covering of campus news, sports and events. (This airs three times a day, at 3:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and midnight). We’ve reported on everything from the housing situation and tripling of students last Fall, to the opening of new campus dining facilities, to the increase in parking ticket fines, and the campus lockdown earlier this semester.

We’ve done all of this, despite the student government cutting our budget by $20,000 this year. Our cameras are in need of replacement, and our equipment is breaking down. Additionally, in our quest to reach all of the students, including commuters, (as we are only carried on campus cable), our request for additional monies to purchase a system to stream our signal was denied.

This has been a period of great growth for the broadcast media here on campus, and I sincerely hope that in your opinion piece you simply overlooked us. As for your question, “why don’t we know what’s happening on our campus?” maybe you should turn to Channel 20 and find out.

Anyone can check our website for the schedule at www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Clubs/sbutv and we also have podcasts available of some of our programming at https://podcast.ic.sunysb.edu/weblog/sbutv/.

Steve Kreitzer is the operations manager at SBU-TV.