A shortage of Control Room Operators has Sacramento State administrators looking off-campus to keep distance learning classes running smoothly.

Control Room Operators are the mostly unseen men and women who help run lectures for the 37 different courses offered over public cable television this semester.

“Distance Education classes wouldn?t exist without these operators to run them,” Assistant Director of Media Technologies Allan Hinderstein said. “Without them, the program would be hard-pressed.”

While the ratio of operators to classes is nearly one operator for every two courses, the studios need more.

“We are pretty bare-boned right now,” Distance Education Operator Coordinator Claudia McEnerney said.

Currently there are 17 control room operators, when the department should have 25-30.

Operators set up classrooms with microphones, televisions, cameras, computers and lights for a given lecture. Professors provide the operator with a rundown of how the lecture will run and how they would like them to edit and switch camera shots.

The University Media Services Department is stepping up its recruiting methods due to the lack of manpower. That means breaking away from the traditional word-of-mouth approach the department uses.

“We?re thinking about looking into area high school students,” McEnerney said. “And we plan to talk with community colleges as well.”

McEnerney said the problem with recruiting Sac State students is that the job doesn?t fit with their school schedules, but Hinderstein thinks the problem is simply publicity.

“The biggest challenge we face is that most students don?t know these jobs exist,” Hinderstein said. “So our goal now is to get the word out about the program and the benefits working on campus can bring.”

“It?s a great building block for students,” Hinderstein added. “We?ve seen former operators go on to work in Hollywood, making six-figure salaries.”

Students aren?t required to have a related major to be an operator.Operators say the best part about their job is the admiration of fellow students.

“People applaud your work,” Engineering graduate student Emish Bandya said. “When you tell people what you do, they are very impressed.”

“My job is cool,” Avmish Jani said. “The recognition the professors give you makes our jobs really rewarding.”

Hinderstein said there is no other job on-campus where students efforts are seen by hundreds of thousands of people.

“How many students can say that the Sacramento area can watch their work on television?” Hinderstein said.

Students interested in becoming a control room operator can contact Claudia McEnerney at 278-5415.

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