Incoming freshmen will have new requirements and curricula to face at certain colleges and schools at Syracuse University, as well as the opportunity to try new majors and programs.

The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications has retooled its curriculum for all majors, while the School of Information Studies has made a few minor changes to the requirements for studentsí concentrations. The College of Arts and Sciences has added four new majors, and the College of Visual and Performing Arts has merged two majors, as well as eliminated the option to take some classes for zero credit.

The Martin J. Whitman School of Management, the School of Architecture, the School of Education, the College of Human Ecology and the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science could not be reached for comment.

Newhouse

In an effort to provide students with the skills they need for a changing media landscape, Newhouse is launching a new curriculum this year for all incoming freshmen, said Rosanna Grassi, associate dean for student affairs at Newhouse.

‘Every curriculum – even if we weren’t into digital and new media – every curriculum goes through periodic revision,’ she said.

The curriculum revision has been in the works and discussed by a faculty committee for a little over two years, Grassi said.

In addition to taking the already mandatory COM 107: Communications and Society in the first semester, incoming Newhouse freshmen will have to take a one-credit course called COM 101: Practical Grammar for Public Communications.

COM 101 is similar to the former Grammar Slammer component of COM 107, but because it is a separate course it will now require some additional work, Grassi said.

COM 200: Multimedia Storytelling, which has been offered as an experimental elective to all Newhouse students for the past year and a half, has morphed into COM 117, which is now a requirement for all first-semester Newhouse freshmen.

Much like COM 107, COM 117 will spread its focus to all majors to allow students to make an informed decision about what they want to major in.

The faculty committee in charge of the changes was concerned that six or seven Newhouse credits in the first semester, as opposed to the previous three credits required, would be too stressful, but it was ultimately decided the changes would work, Grassi said.

After freshman year, Newhouse students will have a global requirement and a diversity requirement. Because those are not required during freshman year, it is still being worked out which classes will fill those requirements, though it is a possibility that going abroad may fulfill the global requirement, Grassi said.

Another upper-division requirement will be collaborative coursework where students from one major work with the students of another. Again, because this will not immediately affect freshmen, the exact classes are still being worked out. It is likely a class like ICC 505: Web Journalism and

Innovation, where students from all majors create content for the NewsHouse website, would fulfill that requirement, Grassi said.

Some majors, like newspaper journalism, already require a capstone course, and now all Newhouse majors will require one.

To accommodate the added requirements, the credits needed to graduate have been raised from 120 to 122, with students being allowed to do up to 38 credits in Newhouse, Grass said.

To reflect the new curriculum, broadcast journalism will change its name to broadcast and digital journalism, and newspaper journalism will change its name to newspaper and online journalism.

Though these changes are definitely being put in place, Grassi said a curriculum is never static and further adjustments may be made after trial-and-error.

Arts & Sciences

Freshmen and undecided students in Arts and Sciences will have four new options for majors: biotechnology; as well as three integrated learning majors in forensic science, neuroscience and ethics. All core requirements are the same in Arts and Sciences

‘We’re hoping students will find (the integrated learning majors) very attractive as a way to see the connections between two separate majors, such as forensic science and a science like physics or chemistry,’ said George Langford, dean of Arts and Sciences.

An integrated learning major works similarly to a dual major, in that students combine it with a related, more traditional major and earn one degree for the two fields of study. The idea is to give students ‘T-shaped’ knowledge, Langford said. In other words, students will have broad-based knowledge across the disciplines, with a deeper understanding of a specific subject.

The subjects for the first three integrated majors were chosen because they are both topical and areas of strength within Arts and Sciences, Langford said. For instance, a minor and a masterís degree program already existed in forensic science.

‘We think (forensic science) is an area that has a lot of job potential,’ he said. ‘And ethics is an area of great interest because of issues on Wall Street, like business ethics, medical ethics, legal ethics. These are areas that are beginning to attract a lot of attention.’

If these first three integrated learning majors are well received, Arts and Sciences has more in the works, Langford said. Science journalism and global sustainability are two potential additional majors.

Biotechnology, which is not an integrated learning major, has also been added to Arts and Sciences. Langford said he thinks the major will appeal to students interested in the medical and pharmaceutical research fields.

‘We are excited about that because in the Northeast, we have the largest concentration of pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology start-up companies,’ he said. ‘It’s a growing industry. There are lots of jobs in that area.’

Because this is the first year the majors are being offered, students are not yet signed up for them, though focus groups during the planning stages showed students would be interested in enrolling in these majors, Langford said. To ensure incoming freshmen are aware of the new offerings, they will be discussed during the First Year Forum classes.

Visual and Performing Arts

As announced last year, VPA will be eliminating zero-credit courses, as well as combining the advertising design major with the communications design major.

Formerly zero-credit classes, such as marching band and music ensembles, will be made one-credit. Students in danger of exceeding the 19 credit-per-semester limit, however, will be able to petition to take the classes for no credit, said Martha Sutter, assistant dean of student affairs in VPA.

ART 101: First Year Colloquium is the only zero-credit class that has been completely eliminated from offerings, Sutter said. Other required classes, such as weekly convocations, are remaining zero-credit.

The change was announced in February, with some students saying they were upset VPA administration did not inform them earlier or incorporate them in the decision-making process.

‘I know a big deal was made about the one-credit thing, but I think in the long run it’s not really going to, certainly the intention is not to put people over their credits,’ Sutter said.

The change was made as a result of budgetary concerns, Sutter said. Schools and colleges receive a portion of their money from the university based on how many students are enrolled in credit classes. They do not receive any money for zero-credit classes.

VPA also combined the advertising design and communications design majors earlier this year. Students enrolled in advertising design will continue that curriculum, but incoming freshmen and last yearís freshman class will only be able to major in communications design.

Incoming freshmen were notified of this change as they were applying to SU, and there was little to no disappointment expressed, said Harriett Conti, assistant dean of recruitment and admissions at VPA.

To accommodate those still interested in advertising design, some of the communications design courses have been tweaked to include advertising elements, Sutter said, though she could not provide specific examples.

iSchool

As part of annual tweaking to its program, the iSchool has made the requirements for students’ concentrations more flexible, as well as changing some titles, said David Molta, the director of the undergraduate program at the iSchool.

The iSchool only has one undergraduate program, the bachelorís degree in information management and technology. The coursework changes occurred in the different concentrations within that major.

Previously, each concentration carried two required courses and one elective course. Starting with this yearís freshman class, the concentrations only have one required class, as well as two electives.

Though there were some administrative concerns prompting this change, such as low enrollment in certain required classes, the change was mainly made to give students more flexibility in planning their schedules, Molta said.

The change in required classes will only affect incoming freshmen, but as with all changes to iSchool curriculum, existing students can petition to have these changes apply to them if they would like.

‘In this case, because the changes give students more flexibility, I imagine a lot of our upper-division students will take advantage of this,’ Molta said.

The iSchool also changed the names of some of its concentrations to better reflect the blend of technology and management that they provide, Molta said. For example, information security is now called information security and management.

‘We have some students who are really strong technically. They’re real tech nuts,’ he said. ‘And then we have other students who are real focused on the management side of things, and technology is sort of complementary to them. So we try to be flexible enough in our program to accommodate both streams of students.’

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Published on August 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm