Bob Costas, NBC sportscaster and Syracuse University alumnus, will host an on-campus question and answer session today.

Costas, who left the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1974 before graduation to work at WSYR-TV and Radio in Syracuse, will speak at 2:30 p.m. in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse III.

After multiple play-by-play announcing jobs, Costas joined NBC Sports in 1980. He currently hosts the network’s ‘Football Night in America’ and was the primetime host for NBC’s Olympic Games coverage.

Bob Lissit, an associate professor of broadcast journalism at SU, said Costas’ experiences in Beijing could serve to inspire students.

‘I think he had a marvelous opportunity to experience a major sporting event in a very unusual setting,’ Lissit said. ‘If I were a student anywhere on the SU campus, I think Bob Costas would be a wonderful person to come listen to.’

Lissit said what Costas might have to share about the Olympics spans across academic disciplines, not just communications. He mentioned architecture, economics and political science.

But the event was being promoted only to Newhouse students and not to the entire university. Newhouse e-mailed its faculty at the end of last week, asking them to notify students of the event.

Jean Brooks, Newhouse’s assistant director of donor relations, said the internal publicity in Newhouse isn’t meant to make the event exclusively for its students and faculty.

An announcement for Costas’ visit was posted on Newhouse’s Web site, but it was not put on SU’s events calendar or announced by SU News Services.

Kevin Morrow, director of SU News, said his office provides the vehicle for SU’s colleges to announce events. The choice of whether to publicize an event to the entire university is up to the event’s sponsor – in this case Newhouse.

‘I know that Newhouse brought him principally to speak to Newhouse students,’ Morrow said. ‘There’s a concern if it was widely publicized, the number of people wanting to get into the auditorium would exceed capacity.’

Brooks cited space limitations as the reason for not promoting to the whole university. The auditorium holds 350 people, and seating is on a first come, first serve basis. There will be overflow viewing in Newhouse II’s studio A and some designated classrooms.

Aamir Noorani, a sophomore television, radio and film major, said he’s looking forward to this year’s event, especially after hearing Costas speak last fall.

‘Because he was the main broadcaster for the Olympics, I definitely think he’ll get into the politics and free speech issues,’ Noorani said. ‘After all these years and all his success, he still comes back here to motivate students.’

Noorani said the fact that promotion is directed toward Newhouse students is unfair to the rest of the university.

‘He’s a guy of all cultures,’ Noorani said. ‘I would say he impacts a lot more people than just those going into the media.’

Some students said that his experience relates directly to what Newhouse students learn in their classes. Davis Reiter, a freshman broadcast journalism major, said she’ll be able to use what she learns from Costas in her first Communications in Society research project. Her assignment is to discuss how the media portrayed China during the summer Olympics.

‘I’ve heard his name so many times on campus,’ she said. ‘He’ll probably go into a lot of politics, but I’m really excited for him to talk about the culture aspect of the Olympics.’

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Published on September 23, 2008 at 12:00 pm