Students in a new School of Communication class covered the impact a new baseball stadium will have on Southeast D.C. through an array of techniques, from a documentary to public service announcements.
The goal of the class, Communication and Social Change, was to explore the effect of the proposed $585 million stadium on all residents using a variety of media, according to the course's professor, Charlene Gilbert.
"I wanted students to take their skills and see how they interact in the real world, and apply those skills to a substantive issue," Gilbert told American Weekly. "I wanted to show them how their fields interact with other fields."
The class' final project, a collection of media called "Operation Home Run: When They Build It, What Will Come?" drew attention from The Washington Post as well as NBC and CBS affiliates at a press conference held by students in early May.
Gilbert said the class' 14 students, a mix of graduates and undergraduates, looked into the implications of a stadium on an established neighborhood.
"A number of issues went back toward the theme of gentrification," Gilbert said. "We decided to use the baseball stadium to look at these issues. How will baseball affect affordable housing, jobs; how will it impact public education and public health?"
Residents like Ken Wyban, who was featured in the project's documentary, have been forced off their property as the government invokes eminent domain to make way for the stadium.
"My house wasn't for sale, and my dreams and aspirations weren't either, but unfortunately they're going to buy them and probably at a reduced rate," he said. "It caught us off guard and now we're stunned and reeling from the fact that at a moment's notice they can tell us we have 90 days to get out of our houses"
