I think MTV's recent handling of the Campus VJ Search at BallState University displayed a serious lack of professionalism. Theactual winner of the contest, Brad Oman, was apparentlydisqualified because he was a Purdue University student. Hehappened to be visiting a friend on the Ball State campus theweekend MTV was there and decided to audition for the Guest VJspot. Nothing in the materials distributed to the students whowaited in line for their audition indicated that you had to be aBall State student to participate, and Brad completed the sameapplication and process that everyone else participating in thecontest did. Only after the contest was over and MTV discoveredthat Brad was a Purdue student did MTV disqualify Brad and awardthe title to a Ball State student.
The truly unprofessional part of this is the failure of MTV toat least give Brad the decency of a phone call to apologize fortheir error and explain the situation. Brad only found out he wasdisqualified after it was published in the Ball State student paperand a friend from Ball State called to give him the bad news. Inaddition, Brad stayed an extra day on campus and made specialtransportation arrangements for his return to Purdue just toaccommodate MTV's request that he be present at the awardsevent.
In my view, Brad has been unfairly denied the opportunity tocompete further in MTV's Guest VJ contest due to MTV's failure toproperly screen applicants and limit the contest to Ball StateUniversity students (if that is what their intent was). I wouldthink the least MTV could do is give Brad a shot on the semifinalssince he was the legitimate winner of the Ball State contest anddid not participate under any kind of false pretense. I sincerelyhope MTV will do the right thing and give Brad the opportunity tocompete that he earned and deserves.
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