The reality series “College Hill” caused an uproar at its previous locations, but the Black Entertainment Television show provoked its greatest controversy to date at its most recent setting, the University of the Virgin Islands.
Alumni and parents sent e-mails and called the university. Radio shows aired discontent over the way the students portrayed themselves.
Members of the university’s Board of Trustees expressed their outrage over the cast members’ behavior and distanced themselves from the decision to allow the show to be filmed at UVI.
They advised President Laverne Ragster to apologize to both the university and Virgin Islands communities, which she did in full-page advertisements in the Virgin Islands Daily News and the St. Croix Avis.
However, the show brought in its highest-ever number of viewers, and Ragster also wrote a newspaper column saying some good came out of the experience.
“There’s no denying that ‘College Hill 4,’ to some extent, speaks the truth,” Ragster wrote. “The drinking, the sex, the serious anger management issues. All this and more are common among today’s college students, and we at UVI believe a ‘mirror’ function is at work as our UVI students see their classmates behaving badly.
“It’s all to the good when they experience a way to see themselves and make some positive changes as a result. The show also provides an opportunity to see how the institution assists students to face and surmount personal development challenges.”
