| Sororities featured on The View, live from AU 
Photo by Jeff Watts
When TV hostess Star Jones wanted to throw a party, she thought of her alma mater and her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. That’s how 15 members of AU’s 11 sororities found themselves on ABC’s The View last week, live from AU, facing the camera, cheering wildly on cue, and asking questions of singer Neil Diamond and actress Teri Garr. What viewers saw was 15 poised sorority women, sipping sparkling water in a college lounge while watching The View and occasionally being joined by AU cheerleaders with blue pom-poms and bags of gifts. What they didn’t see were the lights and cameras just out of camera range. Or the producer who watched the television monitor, listened to her headphones, and periodically cued the women to cheer. Or the Media Relations and Office of Campus Life staff who had hunted and hauled colorful furniture into the room used for the filming. While the audience of The View got a view of AU sorority life, the sorority sisters got a view of the behind-the-scenes world of TV. It all came about through Jones, who graduated from the School of Public Affairs in 1983, bound for law school. She was an assistant district attorney when a stint as a commentator on Court TV led to a job as a legal commentator for the Today show and a new career as a television talk personality. She has been one of the hosts of The View since 1997. Shaun Conway ’06 was intrigued by the “intricate details” that happened behind the scenes. The women had arrived at 8:30 a.m. for the 11 a.m. broadcast, and had spent hours being told where to sit, doing voice checks, and otherwise preparing for their time in front of the nation. Senior Jayne Allen, of Phi Sigma Sigma, confessed that she’d be late to class. But her professor, she said, told her to go ahead, it was a great opportunity. —SA |
