Mike Pavlichko,’00, the broadcast administrator at WRSU, Rutgers University’s radio station, and SC&I part-time lecturer, has been named the recipient of the 2020 Jeff Tellis Outstanding Advisor Award by the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System.
According to the IBS website, the award “is given annually to a faculty advisor that shows outstanding leadership, dedication, and service.” Pavlichko received the award at the annual IBS conference held in New York City.
Winners of the Jeff Tellis Outstanding Advisor Award must be nominated by a colleague. This person must write a nomination letter to IBS describing the advisor’s responsibilities and why the person deserves the award.
The student who wrote Pavlichko’s nomination letter was Justin Sontupe, a senior at the Rutgers Business School, and the general manager of WRSU for the 2019-2020 academic year.
“There are obviously so many reasons why Pav won the award,” said Sontupe. “But I think the best way to put it is that everything he does—all his work, ideas, decisions—is to give the students of WRSU the best, most hands-on student radio experience we can possibly have.”
When asked about the award, Pavlichko said “I owe it to the students, this is what I’m doing all of this for.”
Pavlichko started working for WRSU the moment he arrived on campus in the Fall of 1996. As a student, he was actively involved as the Sports Director. In addition, he occasionally covered news and worked as a DJ. Upon graduation, he worked for WCTC 1450 in New Brunswick, where he began as a news reporter, and also covered high school and college sports.
In 2015, his former advisor at WRSU, SC&I part-time lecturer Tim Espar, retired. The timing worked out well for Pavlichko -- he left WCTC and returned to WRSU to take Espar’s position.
As the broadcast administrator, Pavlichko also acts as a faculty advisor, by assisting and teaching students— and ensuring they understand what to do and how to do it, conceptually and technically.
His other duties include communicating with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and handling the technical and engineering side of things to ensure everything is still running.
As a part-time faculty member at SC&I, he teaches the Broadcast News Writing and Reporting course in the Journalism and Media Studies Department. He says he enjoys working at SC&I as it gives him a stronger connection to students every semester. He often has students from WRSU take his classes, and students from his classes usually make their way to WRSU.
“I like to treat my students a little less like students and more like we’re all working on this together” said Pavlichko. “I treat them more like professionals because that is what they want to be."
Related article: "As Manager of 88.7 WRSU FM, Pavlichko Returns Home"
More information about the Journalism and Media Studies major at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information (SC&I) is available on the website.
Photo: Courtesy of Mike Pavlichko
