On Jan. 14, Harding introduced the first video in their new online series titled “2 Harding Minutes with Bruce McLarty” in which President Bruce McLarty reports on recent campus news. According to McLarty, the series was created to keep alumni and potential Harding students updated on major achievements and events that have happened around campus.
“I had seen that the president of the University of Arkansas had done a clip, and I’m thinking his was maybe a five or six minute thing, but I just thought it was really well done, and I thought that there was real possibility there,” McLarty said.
McLarty said after deciding the video series was something he was interested in doing, he contacted David Crouch, director of public relations, to find out his thoughts on the idea.
“It’s always nice that the president is on top of these technical ideas and wanting to participate and wanting to learn,” Crouch said. “He wants to be able to get the Harding message out, and he knows that social media and YouTube and these kinds of things are the way to get it out.”
In the first video, McLarty reports from the floor of the Rhodes Field House about the basketball teams’ recent success, enrollment numbers and the commencement ceremonies for both semesters. McLarty said the content in each video will be about different areas of campus each time.
“We want it to reflect all of campus,” McLarty said. “We don’t want it to be just sports or just academic or just late-breaking news.”
The entire process, from choosing topics to posting the completed video, is done with a team of five people. Crouch, McLarty, Multimedia Producer Tim Hamilton and Production Manager Mark Prior film and edit the videos with help from Hannah Owens, who directs news services for the public relations department.
“Everybody had a part in making it happen,” Hamilton said. “Everybody felt very at ease with Dr. McLarty in making suggestions, just because he said first thing ‘Hey, let me know if I can do something to make this better.’ He was just very open to our ideas.”
Alumni, potential students and friends of Harding can look forward to seeing the next video in early February. The videos are on Harding’s YouTube and Vimeo channels.
