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April 18, 2006
Journalism minor next logical curriculum step
Despite the presence of an award-winning student newspaper, the university lacks a formal journalism minor. The process should begin to erase this gap in the CLA curriculum.
While the Certificate of International Journalism (CIJ) is a step in the right direction, the program falls short in providing concrete technical skills on how to write with journalistic style.
The presence and popularity of the CIJ legitimizes the need for its next extension, that being the curriculum for a minor in journalism to further develop and flush the skills of interested students.
At the moment, students can craft their own journalism minor through courses taken within the ACTC system. However, on a graduate’s transcript, the indivdually created program does not mention journalism. Instead, it is called a minor in Professional Writing.
The 2006-08 bulletin allows students to generate their own flexible curriculum. However, the process requires a faculty adviser and the Academic Affairs Comittee to approve the student’s proposal. Instead, the university should develop a curriculum to standardize these flexible curricula.
At the Oracle, we are students who often lack formal training. We may not be considered full-time journalists, but the Oracle is never far from our minds. Most of us not only carry a full course load but work part-time, even full-time, and put in numerous hours in our office.
It is difficult to hold enough formalized training sessions to efficiently train staff members. Although most of our teaching is story by story, issue by issue, we have accumulated enough skill and talent to be able to take on positions at larger media institutions after graduation without additional schooling.
Professors could teach the methodologies that underlie journalistic principles while the Oracle could help interested and motivated students simultaneously put these skills into practice.
Having an additional program would be another academic option admissions could pitch to potential first-years, thus furthering the diverse student background of the university.
The program could start by continuing the adjunct professor status of G.R. Anderson, Jr. Backed by full-time professors, such as Suda Ishida and David Hudson, a five course minor could be developed. Gradually, more courses could be added, and special topics courses could become a permanent part of the curriculum. The 2006-08 bulletin says a special topics course can be offered twice before it must be approved by the CLA faculty to be added to the curriculum and given a course number. Through this development, the program could sprout into full-fledged major.
And we’d be quite happy with that.
Posted by dwright at April 18, 2006 01:39 PM
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