Stony Brook University is hoping to build on the attention its baseball team is getting with its first-ever appearance in the College World Series by producing a television commercial that will air during the team's first-round game Friday against UCLA.
The school, which is part of the State University of New York, is spending $100,000 to produce and air the commercial, which boasts about its achievements in athletics and academics, said President Sam Stanley.
"We felt compelled to respond to the overwhelming demand for information on Stony Brook," Stanley said.
He said phones at the campus on eastern Long Island, about 60 miles from New York City, have been ringing non-stop since the baseball team upset perennial NCAA powerhouse LSU last Sunday to qualify for the College World Series.
The 30-second commercial is to air during Friday's opening round game against UCLA on ESPN2. It also will be posted on social media networks, Stanley said.
With an enrollment of more than 24,000, Stony Brook boasts on its website that it is listed in the top 1 percent of all universities in the world by the Times of London higher education world university rankings. Its science department is affiliated with Brookhaven National Laboratory and its faculty includes noted paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey, who runs the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya, where Stony Brook anthropology students travel to study.
In addition to the success of its baseball team, the Seawolves' men's basketball team came within one victory of qualifying for the NCAA basketball tournament last March.
Founded in 1957, notable alumni include Joe Nathan, a veteran relief pitcher with the Texas Rangers; Richard Gelfond, co-chairman and co-CEO of the IMAX Corp.; and Scott Higham an investigative journalist and winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize.
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