What's Up at UFVA

Greeting UFVA Members!

With the end of the semester right around the corner I’d like to report on some of the exciting happenings of the spring and highlight events that are coming this summer.

Thanks to the efforts of member Norman Hollyn, the NAB hosted a delegation of seven UFVA members representing schools across the country at the NAB/BEA conference in Las Vegas last month. The UFVA delegation described the needs of educators to industry representatives while learning how new technologies are changing the world that our students are graduating into. Our delegation will share their insights in a report that we’ll post on the web site, look for it in the News section later this month.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2011 Carole Fielding Grants: Puja Maewal from the UCLA School of Film and Television; Debra Sea from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro; and John Rory Fraser, from Stanford University. 


The 2011 UFVA conference at Emerson College continues to take shape—there were a record number of submissions this year and so the panels, papers, screenings, and scripts selected for presentation should be among the best ever. This is truly a historic conference, as long-time sponsor, Eastman Kodak, will not be attending. While it may be prescient that Kodak will be absent from a conference on The Future of Media Education, the company has been a lasting and loyal friend to the association. On behalf of all of us, I thank Kodak for their years of support and wish the people there well. Jean Stawarz, our conference host will announce new sponsors for the conference in the weeks ahead. Stay informed about conference happenings by checking our facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/ufvaconnection. And I’ll try to keep everyone informed on twitter, @robsabal and @UFVAConnection or check #ufva to get the latest news.

The UFVA board has approved the minutes of the February board meeting so if you’d like to see what your leadership discussed and the actions that we are pursuing, please take a look. The minutes are posted in the News section of the web site. The board has activated the Membership Committee, chaired by Linda Brown, and the Web Site Committee, chaired by Jeff Warmouth. If you’d like to serve on either of these committees please let me know. The Nominating Committee, chaired by Mary Dalton is just about finished with its work and a slate of candidates will be announced in the next few weeks with an election coming up later this summer.

There are many opportunities to get involved in the UFVA and to help shape the future of the organization. The board welcomes your ideas, inquiries, comments, or concerns.

Sincere best wishes,
Rob