Higher Ed Utah

(Lisa Riley Roche, Deseret News) — For years, Utah’s governor has fielded questions from local reporters during an unedited televised monthly press conference.

Now it’s the Legislature’s turn.

Salt Lake Community College is launching a new program, “Capitol Voices,” on Wednesday featuring Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, and House Speaker Becky Lockhart, R-Provo.

Their half-hour exchange with reporters will be televised on SLCCTV, which can be viewed online and on Comcast Ch. 17 throughout the county, except in Kearns and Salt Lake City. The broadcast will be livestreamed at 9 a.m.Wednesday.

The format is similar to KUED Channel 7′s long-running program, “The Governor’s Monthly News Conference,” broadcast from the public television studios on the University of Utah campus.

“We have some great resources at the college similar to what KUED does,” said Tim Sheehan, SLCC vice president of institutional advancement. “We thought maybe we should do the same thing.”

Sheehan said the intent is to reach out to the community with programming that has a broader appeal than the typical fare of classroom lectures, campus events and city council meetings.

“We think this is one that makes sense,” Sheehan said. “People want to hear from their legislative leaders.”

He said for now, only the Senate president and House speaker will participate, meaning viewers won’t hear from the minority Democratic leadership.

“It seems to us the speaker and president may bring the highest profile,” Sheehan said. “It’s a logistics issue as well, who will draw the most attention and who will reporters be most interested in.” More…