Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150520013158/https://www.thewhitonline.com/profile-eckhardt/
March 4, 2015
The year is 1979. Glassboro State College is a small school off of Route 55 in a small farm town. The campus has a few academic buildings and dorms — the Chamberlain Student Center has just turned five years old.
A young professor, having tried to sell his hard-labored scripts with no buyer interest, sits in the basement of Savitz Hall. He ambitiously plans a program that, for the following 36 years, would win numerous awards and inspire generations of students to pursue a career in television.
Jokingly referring to himself as “Father of the TV,” Professor Ned Eckhardt reminisced over his past 36 years teaching at Rowan, as he nears closer to retirement. Years after creating the TV undergrad program when he was hired in 1979, he will be retiring from his position in the Radio/Television/Film department this May.
Coming from a background in TV program writing, Eckhardt first looked for producers to pick up his ideas. He stumbled across a New York Times advertisement for a teaching position at Brookdale Community College, in Monmouth County, where he would start the school’s first television program. To make ends meet, he worked as a freelance writer, television producer and film maker.
Several years later, after receiving tenure at Herkimer County Community College, Eckhardt left the school and responded to an offer for a faculty position at Glassboro State College.
Within three years students were producing music videos, talk shows, sports clips, and even TV shows under his guidance.
Eckhardt gained his knowledge and experience in the field from working full time at Rowan, while working part time with CBS-channel 10 in Philadelphia, and later working as part of “Odyssey of the Mind” educational program.
In a constantly evolving business, Eckhardt has taught and mentored thousands of students, he has not only advanced the department, but the university as well.
“One of my passions is I like to bring the real world to the classroom so the students can relate,” Eckhardt said in regards to his work ethos.
“Odyssey of the Mind”, a competitive educational program for students of all ages, that was first started at Glassboro State in 1978, changed Eckhardt’s whole approach to teaching. Every year he created a documentary about the program’s World Finals, where groups gathered from all over the world to compete in a variety of problem-solving activities. Before leaving the position in 1998, Eckhardt made a total of 14 documentaries.
In 1990, he took his growing passion and started Rowan’s first documentary filmmaking course. The inaugural class produced three films, which Eckhardt submitted, along with one of his own, to several film competitions. For every competition, the students’ films beat his.
“Wait a minute, that’s pretty cool!” Eckhardt said about the student’s win. “Students got a voice. Nowadays students have a voice because of social media. But in those days, students didn’t have a voice unless they were working for The Whit.”
In fact, one of the films had such a strong voice it won a Student Emmy award. The film documented the tragedy of Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old Lehigh University freshman who was raped and murdered in 1986. This film helped Clery’s parents in their campaign to raise awareness on university crime across the nation with the Clery Center for Security on Campus foundation.
The awareness garnered by the student documentary helped in part to establish the Clery Act in 1990. This act obligates universities to log crime and publish crime in efforts to raise security on campuses. These actions solidified a friendship and mutual support between Rowan and the Clery Center that is still ongoing today.
The RTF department hit its stride as the Clery Center continued to grow and use many student-made documentaries on social issues to help spread awareness to other universities and schools across the country. This led to many award-winning student documentaries under Eckhardt’s tutelage.
More recently, his direction led to the establishment of PACT 5, a national movement to prevent sexual assaults and rapes in colleges, that began with Rowan and four other universities contributing student produced documentaries to raise awareness and prevention.
“That’s kinda been my career. To nurture and prepare young people to go out into the world and make a living in this business. But be aware, documentaries are part of that,” Eckhardt said.
Students in his classrooms are attracted to his unique teaching style.
“He’s very energetic and he’s like a big hippy which makes him very fun to work with,” said junior RTF student Lauren Rauffer.
Admiration for the professor is not limited to just those in the RTF department.
“I really like his teaching style,” said journalism major Samantha Berenberg. “He always keeps me interested with what we’re learning. I feel like he really cares about what he’s teaching us and that we all know how to do it in the future. I think that’s really awesome.”
In honor of his contributions to the students and the university, the Ned Eckhardt Television Production Scholarship is to be established later this year. The scholarship will help support one outstanding film student each year and be a small piece of Eckhardt’s legacy.
“It’s all ‘pay it forward,'” Eckhardt said. “I help you, maybe you learn a little bit from me and then I push you more than you were pushed before.”
“I raise the bar for you and you go ‘man the bar is up there, but I can do it.’ Then you graduate and go off into your life and maybe I was a part of a little bit of your development, but now you pay it forward. You have kids and do whatever [job] and reach out to them. You give back to them.”
Kurt Beadling, a junior RTF major, has bittersweet feelings about one of his favorite professors leaving.
“I am sad to see him go,” Beadling said. “He’s been here for so long and he’s helped make so many great things happen such as. It’s going to be really sad to see someone with that much commitment to the students leave campus.”
Eckhardt said that his plans are wide open when his retirement is official.
“I think in relationships with people you’re always teaching each other, but I don’t think I’m going to teach anymore,” he said. I think I’m going to move on, do something. Make a documentary, write a book, The Usual Suspects.”
Don’t be surprised to find him at a local diner either.
“Maybe find a diner to hang out in. I don’t know, I’ll find something, I always do.”
Source: https://www.facebook.com/RowanUniversityRtfAlumni/photos/a.483228081696876/963726786980334
April 20, 2015
A jumbotron seemed necessary to proclaim how much Ned Eckhardt means to the Rowan RTF community. Ned stands with him family before his retirement/scholarship dinner this past Friday.
Rowan University - Ned Eckhardt Scholarship & Retirement Celebration
Source: https://www.alumni.rowan.edu/s/1653/02-alumni/index.aspx?sid=1653&pgid=688&gid=2&cid=1574&ecid=1574&post_id=0
Join alumni, faculty and staff from the College of Communication & Creative Arts and the Radio/TV/Film department as longtime professor and mentor, Ned Eckhardt, is honored. Alumni and friends from the past three decades will be on hand to celebrate Ned and his impact on students and the industry.
Contact Information
Primary Contact
Secondary Contact
Date & Location
Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Rowan Professor Ned Eckhardt with Joyce Kavitsky'98 at the Ned Eckhardt Retirement & Scholarship Event on April 17, 2015
Joyce Kavitsky'98 with Gena Lawless Krug'99, Pauline McAuley'99 and Heather Patterson'99 at the Ned Eckhardt Retirement & Scholarship Event on April 17, 2015Source: https://cineluci.wordpress.com/scholarship/
This scholarship, in honor of Professor Ned Eckhardt, recognizes the academic achievements of a student who exhibits exceptional skills in video production, including documentaries, episodic television, music based work, journalistic works, narrative stories, and new media video.
One scholarship will be given per academic year.
Requirements for Application
- Students must be RTF majors with a production specialization
- Overall GPA of 2.75 or above
- Full-time matriculated status in the academic year for which application is being submitted
- Junior or senior status in the academic year for which application is being submitted
Process of Application
Applications should be submitted via email to Diana Nicolae (nicolae@rowan.edu). Please use the subject line “Ned Eckhardt Scholarship Application.” The annual application period is December 1st through February 1st. Please submit the following materials.
- Current resume, highlighting academic and creative accomplishments
- A short portfolio of applicants video/film work. Work may have been produced in a class, for a club, or independently. Links to projects are preferred
- A 1-2 page statement of why video production and storytelling are important to the candidate
- Interviews with finalists will also be scheduled
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/19991112145848/http://www.rowan.edu/elan/communic/neckh.htm
Ned Eckhardt has been teaching in the Rowan Communications Department since 1979. He holds degrees from Colgate University and Case-Western Reserve University. His specialties are television production and writing for television.
The television production courses are a dynamic mixture of technical and creative learning. Students have an opportunity to experience all of the jobs involved in quality productions. Rowan students have won many local and national television production awards, including student Emmys.
Eckhardt has been a producer for WCAU-TV, Philadelphia, where his productions have won an AP Broadcaster's Award and have been Emmy and Iris award nominees. Currently, he is the video director for Odyssey of the Mind, an international educational association.
Odyssey of the Mind (OM) is a non-profit organization that sponsors creative problem-solving activities and competitions for young people between the ages of 8 and 22. Currently there are 14,000 schools in the United States that participate in the Odyssey of the Mind experience.
Worldwide, over 30 countries have schools participating in the OM program. Approximately 500,000 kids, from kindergarten through college, participate in the Odyssey of the Mind creative problem-solving program every year.
As their video consultant and producer, Ned Eckhardt has created many videos to promote Odyssey of the Mind and train OM teams, coaches and teachers in how to help kids tap into their creative potential. His video productions have won over 25 national and International awards, including a Silver Award from the Chicago International Film and Video festival, 3 Tellys, 2 Cindys, and Awards of Distinction from The American Communicator Association, the International Television Association, The Educational Press Association, and the American Corporate Video Awards.
For a 7 day period in late May, 1998, Ned Eckhardt got a chance to get up close and personal with the imagineers at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. He was there to shoot a video documentary of a unique, 4-day event: The Odyssey of the Mind 1998 World Finals competition.
The Event involved over 750 teams from 25 countries. The 16,000 people who attended the OM World Finals represented the largest single Event in the history of Walt Disney World. The competition sites were located at MGM Studios, Epcot, Magic Kingdom and the Wide World of Sports Complex.
The 35 minute documentary has been distributed worldwide by the OM Association and has won two prestigious awards.
A Distinguished Silver Award from the American Communicator's Association. This is the largest association of non-broadcast film and video producers in the world. In 1998 award competition there were over 3,200 entries.
A Silver Award from the International Television Association in the category of Special Events. ITVA is a professional film and video association that has members in 50 US States and over 30 countries.
Updated February 1999
Ned Eckhardt Course Descriptions, Etc.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20000307153310/http://www.rowan.edu/elan/communic/ned2.htm
The Rowan television studios and field production systems feature state-of-the-art production and post-production equipment. Field shooting is done with our new DVCPro digital cameras. Editing is done on DVCPro and Sony linear systems and AVID non-linear systems. Computer graphics are created on two Inscriber computers that produce broadcast level graphics. Digital FX are created on a DVE (Digital Video Effects) machine using a computer assisted production switcher or in the digital editing programs.
These are some of the courses that professor Eckhardt teaches......
This course introduces students to the principles and techniques of TV production. Students work in production teams within a professional television studio setting. Students gain experience in all phases of production, including conception of ideas, scripting, directing, editing, graphics and operation of equipment to produce television programming that airs on Channel 5, the university cable channel. This course is required of all R/TV/F Majors Course Objectives and Weekly Activities
This hands-on course provides experience in advanced television production. Students work in production teams that create, research, script, shoot and edit 28 minute programs for weekly airing on Rowan's cable Channel 5 and other New Jersey cable stations. Students work in the studio and the field, using top-level production and post-production equipment in preparation for professional career work in television. Programming segments are edited on analog and digital edit systems. Many of these programs have won local, regional and national awards. Course Objectives
This advanced production course combines extensive research and scriptwriting skills with sophisticated field production techniques. Students select subjects of local interest to feature in high-quality, 20 minute documentaries.
The documentaries are edited on analog and digital edit systems.Many of the documentaries have won prestigious awards, including a student EMMY. Course Objectives and Weekly Activities
This research and writing course focuses on the specialized field of TV program creation. Students study the structure and content of a wide variety of TV programs, analyzing target audiences, and examining the marketing structure of program selling and distribution. Students prepare a complete, original television program proposal as a required activity. In 1998 a student-created, prime-time program won the University Film and Video Association's Writing competition. Objectives
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