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MCMA moves closer to curriculum, course overhaul

The College of Mass Communication and Media Arts is moving closer to overhauling its curriculum with new interdisciplinary courses, which has some students worried about how it will affect their degrees.

About 30 MCMA students attended an open meeting to ask questions about the ongoing curriculum reform Thursday.

Four discussions groups have been working to revise the college's 40-year-old curriculum since early September. Any permanent changes to the curriculum will not take effect until at least fall of 2006.

MCMA Associate Dean Gary Kolb said most of the groups' discussions have revolved around how to make the courses more interdisciplinary, but it has also evolved into how to make the degrees more flexible for students.

"Things have changed in the field," Kolb said. "One of the things we are looking at is how have things changed and how do we need to respond to that. If we don't respond to that, as educators, we are being irresponsible."

Some interdisciplinary possibilities could include media arts production students, those who work moving or still images, taking classes in the cinema and photography department as well as in the department of radio-television, Kolb said.

Meghan Currey, a sophomore studying cinema and photography from Chicago, and Doug Robinson, a senior studying radio-television from Du Quoin, expressed concern about the effects of increasing interdisciplinary work between departments. Currey asked the group leaders and administrators how it would affect her degree.

Kolb said defining degrees is still an obstacle the groups have to work through.

Don Jugenheimer, a professor in the School of Journalism and co-leader of the group focusing on media business, said allowing more interdisciplinary work can only benefit the students.

"Frankly, nobody knows which field they are going to work in anymore," Jugenheimer said. "It's better to learn it in school rather than leave people to their own devices later on."

Jugenheimer said the Internet has proved just how fast the face of mainstream media can change. It forced other media to adapt, and initially, many people feared the Internet would force other media out. But he said that hasn't been the case.

Robinson also asked how creating more interdisciplinary work would separate SIUC's mass communications program from the rest of the programs nationwide.

Jugenheimer, who has three degrees from the University of Illinois, said many other programs, including his alma mater, do not allow students to even begin taking classes in their major until their junior year. This limits the amount of hands-on training the student is able to receive, he said.

"They aren't doing what we are doing, and I'm not sure they are serving their students," Jugenheimer said. "The reason we are good is because we do some things well, but I don't see why we can't do it better."

Kolb said that opportunity is an important part of MCMA's long history, whether it came from its television stations, radio or student newspaper.

"All of those things are critical to what we do and we are not backing away from that," Kolb said.

Another student said she is worried that the interdisciplinary classes would increase the number of students using the photography lab and the already-scarce photography equipment.

Kolb said to he thinks many more students could use the laboratories before its capacity would become an issue.

Much of the discussion groups' work has focused on eliminating the college's two mandatory entry-level courses and replacing them with four smaller, more focused courses.

Preliminary proposals are due to Kolb in on Nov. 19. Kolb said he hopes to put the proposals on the curriculum reform website at www.mcma.siu.edu/proposal. The site will have a place for anonymous comments to be sent to the dean's office via email.

"We are going to be very proactive about getting feedback from students," Kolb said.

Students can register for a listserv that sends out occasional updates on the meetings or they can contact a student representative. Students can find a list of the representatives in the dean's office.

Kolb expects the next open meeting for students to be during the first week of December.

 

 

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