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"Reality" Used Loosely for BET's "Reality" Show

Photo credit: John Amatucci/BET On "College Hill," the students share common living areas, but not at Langston University.

By Tonya Grant
Black College Wire

Have you ever wondered what's the real deal in a "reality" show?

When the cameras began recording the lives of eight Langston University students for BET's second season of "College Hill," we searched high and low to figure out just what was and what wasn't reality.

Here's a comparison:

On TV -- The students move miles off campus into a two-story ranch house, fully furnished, with sheets on the beds and pictures already hanging on the walls.

Reality -- The real deal is that most of Langston University's students stay on campus. Even if you were to rent the furnished campus apartments, you would receive only such items as a couch, a kitchen table and a mattress to sleep on -- nothing that could ever compare to the magnificence of the "College Hill" ranch.

On TV -- Students are chauffeured to and from their destinations, on campus and off.

Reality -- The majority of Langston University students don't have a car (or a driver).

On TV -- The eight Langston University students sleep under one roof, in a house with a floor plan that has members of opposite genders sharing bedrooms and common living areas. Two men shared one room. Two ladies stayed in another. Two guys and two girls shared one big room.

Reality -- This has never been allowed at the university. In fact, if you live in the dorm halls, you aren't allowed to have visitors of the opposite sex under any circumstance, not even family members. There is also an expectation that if you're renting a campus apartment with a member of the opposite sex, you are married.

On TV -- The cast had parties with a specific number of invited guests. The parties lasted until almost everyone was ready to go, as late as 4 a.m.

Reality -- All students staying on campus have a curfew. At 10 p.m., all visitors must leave, and by 1 a.m., you are no longer allowed to roam the campus.

On TV -- At some point in the taping, the cast members and their guests were told that they should not wear clothing printed with company or product-brand logos. Students wearing such clothing are ordered to turn the clothing inside out. As viewers saw during the season premiere Jan. 27, the other option for avoiding unwanted or unofficial promotions was to blur the brands off the students' clothes.

Reality -- According to Langston University's student handbook, students may wear whatever they want, as long as there is no profanity or sexually explicit image.

On TV -- The eight coeds had to ask permission to travel outside the house.

Reality -- When students go to college, they are considered to be adults. No one has to ask to go anywhere, not even to leave class early.

On TV -- On "College Hill," the refrigerator is always full because the cast had production assistants who would make food runs upon request.

Reality -- At Langston University's main campus, meals are provided by the cafeteria known to students as "The Cafe." Meal plans start at about $1,000 per semester. Food cannot be taken out of The Cafe, so there are no food runs for most students. The alternatives on campus include a small food court with some fast food.

On TV -- Although the cast members would not say whether the show is truly unscripted, they did say that the director placed them in certain settings in order to keep the dramatic flow rolling. They made group field trips chosen by "College Hill," including trips to a nightclub, a church and a radio station.

Reality -- If you go to Langston University and live at the main campus, you're in a pretty remote place. It's 11 miles east of Guthrie, Okla., and 40 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. There's a Dollar Store and a Subway nearby, but the reality is, there aren't a lot of places where a student is going to go without traveling to one of the cities. Campus is your main setting. Besides, the purpose of college is to gain a higher education, not to create drama.

On TV -- No television or radio is allowed in the household, seemingly to force the students to interact.

Reality -- At Langston, students are always free to bring extra electronic entertainment. In fact, it is encouraged. Lots of students listen to Langston University's own station, KALU 89.3 FM.

On TV -- Let's not forget the cameraman who follows the cast members' every move, and the hidden cameras inside the house in mysterious places, including the closets, trying to catch uncensored things for television.

Reality -- College students have to have privacy to stay sane. That's why students choose to move from dorm halls to campus apartments as they mature, to have rooms of their own.

Tonya Grant is a sophomore broadcast journalism student at Langston University.

Posted Jan. 31, 2005