Shannanigan's Search for More...

Last semester, a bunch of camera crews and girls holding giant microphones crawled like roaches all over my campus, following 8 students for a show called "College Hill" which aired on BET Tuesday night.

Now, my impression of reality shows such as "College Hill" is, to put it lightly, unflattering. As much as BET would LIKE for us all to think that "College Hill" is a show about what it is like being a black college student attending a historically black university...we all know that once BET buys a house to put the strangers all in together that we've got an MTV "Real World" in the making.

What's worse, is that they didn't even bother pretending for this season as if the show was about the black students' experience at a HBCU...this season, they picked 4 students from the University of the Virgin Islands, and 4 students from California, and said it was a show "about how students from two different cultures learn to get along." Riiiiiiight.

Of course, within the first episode, drinking is rampant and a Cali guy has already cheated on his girlfriend back home with a VI girl who lifted her shirt in front of him while he was on the phone with said girlfriend.

It's creating a HUGE uproar on St. Thomas. Some students say that this is what all the College Hill shows are like (totally believe that) and that this show is good for exposure and making people aware that the University of the Virgin Islands exists. My take is...sure...they know we exist, but what do they think of us now? The VI people they picked for the show are loud and throwing themselves at the Cali people...the veiwers are going to think of VI girls as "easy" or "loose," ...is that really who we want coming to this university? People looking for easy sex?

Another topic is the fact that one part of the show was obviously scripted, or at least pre-planned. As the VI girl is giving the Cali guy a lap dance, the phone rings, and for some reason everyone tells the guy to answer it. Why him? He's busy getting a lap dance, and there's a bunch of students much closer to the phone than he. He picks up the phone, and of course it's his girlfriend, and she is already angry. Why is she already mad? Why no hello and a straight skip to "What are you doing?" in an angry tone. To me, that just says that someone in the production crew saw the lap dance, called the girlfriend, and told her to call the house. She knew something was up, and apparently everyone on the cast knew it was her who was calling, or else they wouldn't have told the boyfriend to answer the phone.

"Unscripted reality" my butt...