Recently retired Ball State University instructor James Shasky can add number 29 to his list of Emmy Awards on Sept. 8 when the lower great lakes chapter of the National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences of Cleveland will award Shasky the winner of the Board of Governors award for lifetime achievement.
"Jim has a lifelong track record of memorable TV production, from TV ads, to documentaries," Nancy Carlson, chairwoman for the Department of Telecommunications, said "He has raised the bar in digital storytelling."
Shasky spent 30 years working on professional TV productions in Los Angeles before coming to Ball State in 1997.
One of his more well-known experiences was directing live coverage of the Nixon impeachment and the annual Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon.
Shasky's past work in the professional realm have guided his teaching.
Fellow TCOM faculty member Tim Pollard refers to Shasky's teaching as an "L.A. way of doing things" that brought an industry view to the classroom and showed students how to produce in the real world.
Pollard worked with Shasky for nine years and credits him with putting Ball State's TCOM department on the map by coordinating with the Cleveland chapter of the television academy, he said.
"He's helped push our department forward to the point where we are a national brand," he said.
During his 10 years at Ball State, Shasky was faculty producer of the student magazine show "Connections Live" and worked closely with junior Todd Darroca, who hosted the show.
"Through his leadership he showed us what storytelling is," Darroca said.
Connections Live earned six regional Emmy Awards under Shasky's leadership, he said.
Shasky took his teaching outside the classroom as he incorporated students into his own professional work.
He asked three TCOM students to work production on "Cellblock Scholars," a documentary following the lives of prison inmates and their quests for higher education.
Ball State 2007 graduate student, Justin Gladis was one of the students who worked with Shasky on the project and said he gained a whole new impression of TV shooting he would not have gotten in the classroom.
"Cellblock Scholars" won Best in Category at the national Broadcast Education Association's media festival earlier this year.
Gladis spent four years working with Shasky, during which he said the instructor became a mentor and friend.
"He's an outstanding professor, and I'm sad Ball State lost him," he said.
Shasky is also known for his blunt and honest critiques, which prepared students for the real world, Darroca said.
While some students found his critiques too harsh, Darroca said Shasky's criticisms showed passion for what he does and were often the best part of working with him.
Of Shasky's interaction with students, Carlson said she recalls him driving students to the Emmy Awards where he lead them through the awards ceremony like a father figure.
"He loves students and treats them like his own children," she said.
At that same Emmy Awards, Carlson remembers Shasky's humble demeanor when accepting an award.
He talked about what he got out of Ball State instead of what Ball State got from him, she said.
His teaching did not stop when students left the classroom, and Shasky used his connections with professionals in the industry to help get his graduating students job interviews, Pollard said.
"He's everything a TCOM professional aspires to be someday," Gladis said.
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