By Jennifer Balmforth
The Department of Communications has eliminated 30 percent of its required courses, allowing students to apply to a major earlier and graduate sooner.
The course reduction is a result of the new curriculum changes made to all communication majors, which will go into effect this fall.
The new curriculum will allow students to take intensive writing courses before being admitted to a specific major. The course, Comms 211, will be required before students apply for a major within the communications department and will act as a weeder class.
This change will hopefully help students self-select an appropriate major sooner, said Bobeta Powell, communications administration assistant.
'All of our majors are very writing intensive, so by allowing students to be exposed to this level of writing early on, it will help students decide at the beginning whether or not they like writing and want to pursue it,' Powell said.
By being able to take a number of required courses sooner, it will speed up the admittance and graduation process, Powell said.
Rich Long, a communications professor, said the changes will allow students to move efficiently through the programs.
'Students will be able to graduate sooner because the majors are more stream-lined now,' Long said.
Leslie Olson, 18, a junior from Augusta, Ga., majoring in print journalism, said she is frustrated with the new curriculum because the changes are not exactly clear.
'The handouts they give me say one thing and the communication Web page says another.' she said.
Olson said the staff in the Department of Communications seems confused as well.
Some of the requirement handouts haven''t been changed since 1999 and many changes have been made since then, Olson said.
Although some students may be negatively affected and caught in the middle of the transition, Long said the majority of communication students will see numerous benefits, Long said.
The curriculum changes will be published in the fall 2002 course catalog.