but our independent study we
00:03
are looking at like the importance of
00:05
communication like not just as a major
00:07
but like also in like all of their
00:08
fields and just like
00:10
the importance of it for a university um
00:13
and that’s like our
00:14
main project that we’re working on that
00:16
will end up being our final
00:18
so there were some rumors like
00:21
circulating
00:22
about the possible end of the
00:24
communication department at metro
00:26
and then i know that dean weinman had
00:28
sent out that email to all of the
00:29
communication
00:30
students so it’s kind of wondering if
00:33
you could like
00:33
explain a little bit more about the
00:35
taking like an academic year off from
00:37
admitting people to the program and like
00:39
what went into this decision
00:42
yeah let me let me just talk a little
00:43
bit about uh you know first of all
00:46
what transpired and then what are what
00:48
our plans are and of course we
00:50
you know we always have to think these
00:51
things through and talk to a lot of
00:53
people to figure out what’s
00:55
the best next step but as you may know
00:57
um
00:58
two senior faculty members on the metro
01:01
campus in the communication
01:02
department uh decided to leave the
01:05
university
01:06
um uh one particular
01:09
with rather short notice so and
01:11
obviously in the middle of us dealing
01:13
with you know the pandemic and
01:14
everything else
01:16
um so it caused us to take a look
01:21
uh at the um at the program uh to take a
01:24
look at our enrollments what’s been
01:25
happening over
01:26
time and uh to make a plan
01:30
uh as to how to to go forward so
01:33
um unfortunately the enrollment has been
01:37
decreasing
01:38
year after year uh actually a little bit
01:40
on both campuses but especially at the
01:42
metro campus we
01:44
uh in 2008 had 102 students in the
01:47
program
01:48
uh and then that’s just dropped every
01:50
year now down to about 42.
01:53
um on the floor on campus we have about
01:55
100 students in the in the program
01:57
now so the question is why and i’m not
02:00
an expert in this particular field but
02:03
so we we talked to other people and i
02:04
think
02:05
you know we came to the conclusion or
02:07
they did and i agree actually
02:09
that uh we need to revamp the the
02:12
program a little bit on the metro campus
02:15
to cater for the future
02:16
right which is uh as you probably know
02:19
in digital communication in multimedia
02:21
journalism and broadcasting broadcasting
02:23
is very important also on the
02:26
metro campus so we’re planning to do
02:28
that but
02:29
obviously we have to hire a faculty
02:31
member in that
02:32
with that expertise we’re just working
02:35
on a job description right now actually
02:38
um you know uh hiring an academic
02:41
faculty member we have to get the right
02:42
person it takes a little time
02:44
uh and that person will be charged once
02:48
hired with
02:50
really re developing this curricula uh
02:52
so that we can really
02:54
support going in that direction and then
02:56
we’ll make a decision
02:58
is that enough obviously we’re hoping
03:00
that the enrollment starts to
03:02
increase and then we can sort of make
03:05
decisions about future faculty in that
03:07
area um
03:08
going forward because uh obviously we
03:10
need full-time
03:12
uh faculty at the university if we if we
03:14
want to support a strong
03:16
a strong major so in talking to the
03:19
enrollment
03:19
uh folks we said well we can’t really
03:22
take students into a program
03:25
that we haven’t yet developed but we
03:27
don’t want to lose students who might be
03:29
interested in communication
03:31
so certainly any students who express an
03:33
interest in communication we will have
03:36
a communication faculty talk to them and
03:38
and our enrollment people talk to them
03:40
and suggest you know that they can
03:42
definitely come to the university they
03:44
can either
03:45
come in as undeclared or exploring that
03:48
area
03:49
um and then transfer into the full major
03:51
in year two
03:52
once hopefully we’ve got this all up and
03:54
running and we’ve got the faculty member
03:56
hired
03:56
but we have to be uh transparent about
03:59
about the situation so we can’t say yes
04:00
sure we have this major right now
04:02
when we’re really working on on
04:05
retooling it and
04:06
and building it up so that’s what we
04:08
plan to do
04:10
and that’s uh so whilst we’re not
04:13
accepting students directly into the
04:14
major this year that doesn’t mean to say
04:16
that we’re not at
04:17
metro it doesn’t mean to say that we’re
04:19
not encouraging those students to come
04:21
to fdu
04:22
giving them a pathway to that major uh
04:25
you know many many students as you
04:27
probably know
04:28
either don’t declare their major until
04:31
the end of their first year
04:32
or they transfer quite often during
04:36
during their first few semesters at the
04:38
university so that could still be
04:40
possible
04:41
but we just have to be honest about
04:42
where we are with this and that we don’t
04:44
have that faculty member yet
04:46
we’re going to do the search as quickly
04:48
as possible and uh
04:50
you know charge them immediately with
04:51
working on this curriculum but i think
04:53
this is what we need to do it’s the
04:55
right time to do it
04:57
to really make sure that we have you
04:59
know a 21st century
05:00
uh program that really
05:04
is geared up to the future of
05:06
communications and uh and multimedia
05:08
journalism and broadcasting
05:10
and the likes and that’s that’s what
05:13
we’re planning to do so
05:14
i’m happy to have this opportunity to
05:16
clarify that with you and uh
05:18
um you know we’re moving forward in that
05:22
direction
05:25
thank you and and when you’re
05:26
referencing the two
05:28
two full-time faculty like leaving the
05:31
university
05:32
in the email to students it was said the
05:33
one-year cut was just to get more
05:35
faculty
05:35
was this due to the loss of the two and
05:37
then how many new faculty
05:39
is the university looking to hire and
05:41
will they be full-time or adjunct
05:43
professors
05:44
yeah well as i said the faculty member
05:45
that we’ve done that we’re going to
05:46
start the search for now
05:48
will be a full-time professor um uh
05:52
and uh you know that that will enable us
05:56
to get the
05:57
uh the program um to start develop the
06:01
new program
06:02
and then obviously we always uh have to
06:05
monitor
06:06
what the enrollment looks like i mean
06:07
our whole hope and goal
06:09
is that it doesn’t keep declining like
06:11
this right is that it we turn that
06:13
around and
06:13
uh and increase the enrollment in which
06:16
case as i said we can look at um
06:18
you know adding another full-time
06:20
faculty member as and when
06:22
in in the um in the initial stage uh
06:25
obviously we
06:26
we as in many programs have uh
06:29
adjunct faculty but we don’t want to
06:31
rely clearly on a major that’s important
06:33
to
06:34
to the campus uh to rely on on
06:37
adjunct faculty is just not fair so
06:40
we’re getting one full-time uh faculty
06:43
member search now
06:44
and then we’ll monitor it as we go
06:46
forward and assuming we can
06:48
you know increase uh the enrollment and
06:52
stop
06:52
stop the decline and i’m pretty uh
06:55
optimistic that we can if we if we
06:57
withdraw in the way that i just
06:59
mentioned
07:00
um and then we’ll consider adding you
07:02
know another full-time faculty member as
07:04
as we get that enrollment to the
07:05
university
07:08
thank you how do you think this break
07:10
from admitting comm students will affect
07:12
other parts of the university such as
07:14
incoming athletes
07:15
communication organizations on campus
07:17
like the newspaper and radio station
07:20
i mean it really shouldn’t because as i
07:21
said you know it’s not like we’re
07:23
selling those students
07:24
you know no you can’t come there’s no
07:26
communication major at metro we’re
07:28
saying
07:28
absolutely you can come uh
07:32
you know i don’t know if you’re aware
07:33
but we have many students who come to
07:34
the university without declaring their
07:36
major
07:37
in the first year and we have areas you
07:40
know exploring
07:41
uh exploring the liberal arts and
07:43
sciences and different exploring the
07:45
sciences exploring this they
07:46
so they can get definitely come in under
07:49
that
07:49
auspices and um they will be guided
07:53
to take the right courses during their
07:55
first year so it will be a seamless
07:56
transition into
07:58
into this major if that’s what they
08:00
would like to do in the second year
08:02
i just you know in all transparency we
08:05
can’t say
08:06
come into this major right now because
08:08
we just don’t have the curriculum
08:10
built um yes and that’s what this new
08:13
faculty member will be charged with
08:15
doing immediately that they join the
08:16
university
08:18
i actually came into the university
08:20
undecided and then
08:22
um i admitted students day that was
08:23
whenever i realized that communication
08:25
was what i wanted to do
08:26
so i totally get a lot of students like
08:31
were like me and didn’t know what they
08:32
were right right
08:34
that happens and then we get a lot of
08:35
students actually my son is a uh
08:38
is a freshman in college this year at
08:40
another college and uh he’s been you
08:42
know obviously he’s
08:44
he’s actually doing remote at the moment
08:45
but um his high school friends
08:48
who all you know he was closely close
08:51
friends with and who discussed other
08:53
majors i think every one of them except
08:55
him has changed what they’re planning to
08:57
do after just a semester at the
08:58
university anyway this is very common
09:01
for our own students as well so um
09:04
you know that first year we just have to
09:06
make sure that the courses that you take
09:08
in the first year that any student takes
09:10
are flexible enough that if that’s what
09:12
their sort of interests show an interest
09:13
in
09:14
that those will be seamlessly
09:15
transferred into their major as they
09:17
as they decide and move into second year
09:20
so this is kind of like moving into more
09:23
of just like a general academic
09:24
standpoint
09:25
but i want to know what advice you have
09:27
for students who are
09:28
kind of struggling to fulfill
09:30
requirements within their degree audit
09:32
especially like students like me and jen
09:34
who will be graduating within the next
09:35
year i know
09:36
covid has kind of caused for a lot of
09:38
courses that like
09:39
i specifically need to take to like
09:41
finish my minor to like not be happening
09:43
because my mind is in speech
09:44
and like speech kind of has to be like
09:46
more in person besides like this the
09:47
general public speaking courses and
09:50
there’s also just like a lot that like
09:52
in the comm department we don’t really
09:53
have like as many like hands-on
09:55
classes right now because of being
09:58
online so i want to know like what
09:59
advice
09:59
you have for students that are like kind
10:01
of struggling to find classes to take to
10:03
like fulfill
10:04
their last few semesters yeah well look
10:08
uh first of all let me say you know
10:11
we are hoping and planning to be much
10:14
more
10:15
you know in person in the form um
10:20
you know that’s that’s uh very much our
10:22
hope and that’s the way we’re planning
10:24
it may be uh you know a new type of in
10:28
person where there will be
10:29
hybrid classes because we may still be i
10:32
fully expect
10:33
this to be wearing masks at some level i
10:35
fully expect that there’ll be some
10:37
social distancing still but we’re all
10:38
hopeful that things are much better in
10:40
the core
10:41
and we’re planning to have at the moment
10:44
as we’re planning out our classes before
10:46
we’re planning for them to be
10:48
uh in person for the most part you know
10:50
those ones that we can
10:52
um but we probably will have to call
10:54
most of them hybrid classes because
10:57
uh we just don’t have the capacity
10:59
unless
11:00
and again we’re all trying to predict
11:01
the future right and we don’t know
11:03
but at the moment the uh the capacity of
11:07
our rooms with social distancing
11:09
just don’t allow us to have a full class
11:11
for many of the classes
11:13
so even those classes that are taking
11:15
place this semester that are
11:17
in person they’re sort of in person
11:19
slash
11:21
so that’s you know some students are in
11:24
um in the room and some people are
11:27
joining
11:28
by by zoom uh as we’re talking now
11:31
so we have um outfitted with technology
11:34
many of our classrooms not all by any
11:36
means but many of them
11:37
uh with uh with the technology to allow
11:40
that so they’ve got built-in microphones
11:42
and they’ve got screens at the front and
11:43
back of the room so that the students
11:45
can
11:46
see what’s going on and actually i was
11:47
talking to a faculty member
11:50
late last week two faculties actually
11:53
one who said i got a class of 18 14 were
11:56
in the room and four joined by zoo
11:58
and then another faculty member said i
12:00
think he said i had about
12:02
i think 16 17 students in the class and
12:05
three were in the room
12:06
and everybody else had joined by zoom so
12:08
there’s very there’s a lot of different
12:09
reasons why why
12:11
students would do you know some students
12:13
are not ready to come back
12:15
to in person yet some students may have
12:18
tested positive or have
12:19
contact traced uh to have been somebody
12:22
so they can’t come
12:23
so we’re trying to be flexible for all
12:25
of those
12:26
scenarios but it means that we do have
12:29
the technology in many of the classrooms
12:32
uh so that it doesn’t have to it doesn’t
12:34
you know we can do it in a number of
12:35
different ways some faculty are doing
12:37
their hybrid courses
12:38
such that half the class is in the room
12:41
for the first time the class meets in a
12:43
week and the other
12:45
half uh they may be doing something else
12:47
asynchronously
12:49
but then it switched with the second
12:50
class so that that half that we’re not
12:52
in the room come
12:52
in person and the other half do
12:54
something asynchronously
12:56
or it may be that i’ve come in person
12:58
and the other half joined by
12:59
by zoom so we’ve really left that
13:01
flexibility to the
13:02
faculty members because as you say
13:05
different
13:06
uh disciplines and different subject
13:09
areas blend better to joining in zoom
13:11
than others right so
13:13
uh we’ve left that flexibility of the
13:15
faculty members so i’m hoping
13:16
it’s a long way of answering your
13:18
question i’m hoping that in the fall
13:19
you’ll be able to get the classes that
13:21
you want
13:22
in the way that uh you know in the uh
13:25
modality that uh
13:26
that best suits those classes which is
13:28
in person for many of them
13:30
if there are any students who have not
13:33
been able to get a class that they need
13:35
uh they need to let uh you know their uh
13:39
advisor or dean or school director or or
13:42
whoever they talk with know that
13:45
uh especially if they need you know to
13:46
graduate because that we don’t want to
13:48
happen with them
13:50
uh we are offering a number of summer
13:51
courses uh at a discount uh if you take
13:54
more than one
13:55
um to try and help some students who
13:58
need to catch up
13:59
or who who want to get ahead uh
14:02
at a reasonable cost to them so we’re
14:05
trying to do as many things as we can
14:07
we’ll do the same thing i think
14:09
in the winter session we did it last
14:10
winter session and we’ll probably do it
14:12
again in the winter session to really
14:14
again help students
14:15
to catch up so if there are specific
14:17
courses that you’re concerned
14:19
or any student is concerned hasn’t been
14:22
offered
14:23
and that they starting to worry well
14:25
will it be offered before i have to
14:26
graduate
14:27
they should really have that
14:28
conversation because uh the sooner
14:31
um you know people who are scheduling
14:33
the classes know about it the more we
14:35
can sort of
14:35
work to get those courses uh to make
14:38
sure that they’re they’re offered
14:40
we don’t want to delay students from
14:41
graduating because they can’t find
14:44
the courses they need to do so
14:48
thank you for now we kind of want to
14:50
take it
14:51
just back to com communications just a
14:53
little bit but
14:54
in terms of why do you feel
14:56
communication is fundamental not just
14:58
for communication majors
14:59
but for the and minors but for the
15:01
entire university population
15:05
well uh look um
15:06
[Music]
15:08
i was just driving over here this
15:11
morning and listening to
15:13
npr which is my one to them
15:17
excuse me
15:21
good job you’re not in the room with me
15:22
um uh
15:24
and and they were talking about um
15:28
just the way anything is communicated
15:30
these days actually they were talking
15:32
you know a lot about conspiracy theories
15:34
but it’s and how much they’ve grown
15:36
through communication and through
15:38
multimedia and through
15:40
uh online platforms but i mean it’s just
15:42
a way of life
15:43
so that’s number one people need to
15:45
understand uh
15:47
some of these issues and uh
15:50
i will also tell you that um
15:54
when we talk to folks in industry or in
15:58
business or in
15:59
incumbents who employ our students
16:02
we ask them what they’re looking for in
16:05
graduates that they’re
16:06
hoping to uh to employ and obviously
16:10
they want
16:10
you know depending on what area it is
16:12
they want students to know about those
16:14
areas
16:15
but the number one and number two is
16:17
always we need people to be able to
16:19
speak um and interact clearly
16:22
and we need people to be able to write
16:24
and communicate clearly
16:26
so these are just two fundamentals of
16:28
whatever you’re going into
16:31
um in order to be successful you know uh
16:34
i trained in the sciences and and part
16:37
of the reason when i was younger at
16:38
least you might find this hard to
16:40
believe now but when i was younger it
16:41
was like i thought i didn’t want to
16:43
interact with people that much and uh
16:45
i was going to be in the lab and work
16:47
with you know experiments and things
16:48
like that but
16:49
you very quickly find out that in
16:51
science you need to be able to
16:52
communicate you need to be able to write
16:54
manuscripts you need to be able to write
16:56
grant proposals
16:57
and you need to be able to communicate
16:59
your science
17:00
i mean this pandemic is um
17:04
a prime example of that i think
17:06
communications because
17:08
i talk to a lot of people and they say
17:09
oh why don’t they get their guidance
17:11
straight why don’t they tell us what we
17:12
need to do first they say you don’t need
17:13
to
17:14
wear masks then they say you do need to
17:15
make a mask then they say if you’re
17:17
vaccinated you just don’t need to
17:18
why don’t they get it straight and i’m
17:20
saying well you know
17:22
it’s because the the research is still
17:24
coming out this is a new virus people
17:26
don’t know about it the more research
17:28
that’s done
17:28
the um the more clear they can be with
17:32
the guidelines but
17:34
uh people need to be able to communicate
17:37
this so that people understand it and i
17:39
think part of the frustration was
17:40
sometimes
17:41
the lack of understanding of the
17:43
communications that are going out
17:45
so uh it’s become very important
17:49
in the science fields as well as many
17:51
other fields that
17:52
you know to be able to communicate
17:54
clearly and concisely
17:56
uh to the general public is critical
18:00
so um i i think it’s just in every
18:03
discipline
18:03
i’m sure you agree yes
18:06
thank you um so kind of just i know you
18:09
talked about this a little bit but i was
18:10
wondering if the university has like a
18:12
specific
18:13
vision for the future of the
18:14
communication department metro i know
18:16
you spoke more about like
18:17
moving towards that multimedia type of
18:20
um discipline which i know that with the
18:22
restructuring there are like new
18:24
concentrations compared to like whenever
18:26
i was admitted to the university but i
18:27
was wondering
18:28
like what the exact vision is and like
18:30
hopes for the future
18:31
as far as like classes being offered and
18:35
just what a comm major should come out
18:37
of fdu
18:39
knowing and how that would like be
18:42
different from like any other university
18:45
well i said sure thank you i look i’m
18:47
not claiming to be the expert in this
18:49
area so i i refer to the experts right
18:51
to get um
18:52
to work on the curriculum and to work on
18:55
uh
18:56
the the learning outcomes what should
18:57
the student know and but
18:59
but i did refer to the fact that i think
19:03
um going forward i think uh
19:06
you know digital communication and
19:09
multimedia journalism broadcasting
19:12
are the areas that we will concentrate
19:14
on at the metro campus
19:16
i think that’s exciting i think it is
19:17
the future
19:19
i think um you know all too often
19:22
uh in academia
19:25
um people you know don’t look at the
19:29
uh the makeup of different programs as
19:33
as regular as regulars as lee as perhaps
19:37
they should and this is not just you
19:38
know at fdu in universities in general
19:40
we can’t keep
19:41
redoing uh uh the curriculum the majors
19:44
but this is very timely because i think
19:46
this is um
19:47
this is an area that has changed you
19:50
know in our lifetimes
19:51
right uh certainly in my lifetime uh
19:55
given that i’m uh significantly older
19:57
than
19:58
you guys i i’ve seen these changes but
20:01
the trajectory of the change has been
20:04
enormous in the last i would say 10
20:06
years and we we do need to pivot
20:10
and make sure that we offer an exciting
20:13
curriculum but also a curriculum that
20:16
will
20:18
train our students for these rapid
20:20
changes and i think
20:22
uh if we encompass uh those areas
20:25
digital communication multimedia
20:28
um tied in with broadcasting which
20:31
which we want to continue to to work on
20:34
the metro campus that will be the focus
20:37
of the metro campus
20:38
not necessarily at the floral campus
20:40
because um
20:42
you know they have a a different type of
20:44
program that’s fine
20:46
we need to to look at that as well as i
20:48
said the enrollment has
20:50
uh dipped on that campus as well but not
20:53
as
20:54
uh significantly as on the metro campus
20:57
um for reasons i i don’t really
21:00
understand but let’s try
21:01
this you know new area that you know if
21:04
you
21:04
if you google those areas you’ll see
21:07
that uh
21:09
um that that this is the future i think
21:12
of
21:13
of communications for uh for many
21:16
students but
21:17
students definitely um
21:20
who want to to go into those areas and
21:23
and be part of
21:24
um digital um communications and uh
21:28
and broadcasting so
21:30
[Music]
21:32
that’s the goal for for for the metro
21:34
campus at least i think it’s a good one
21:36
um i hope you you agree and i think
21:40
you know we’ll try to excite um students
21:43
will not once we have their curriculum
21:44
and even before that we’ll start
21:46
marketing this
21:47
um uh as as the uh
21:50
as the program concentration at the
21:53
metro campus and hopefully we can
21:55
build the program up again which is i
21:58
think uh
21:59
their goal of course everyone
22:03
thank you um i just want to say thank
22:04
you so much for coming on and like
22:06
speaking with us today
22:07
and i will let you guys know if we have
22:09
any follow-up questions
22:10
we just kind of wanted to get like a
22:11
broader sense of what exactly like the
22:13
future of the university looks like for
22:15
the comm department
22:16
that way we can relate it to how um
22:18
communication is looking like nationally
22:20
something that we’re like looking into
22:22
is the job market and like what skills
22:24
do
22:25
like people who want to go into
22:26
communication need now versus like
22:28
five ten years ago so sure that sounds
22:31
great
22:32
and we i look forward to seeing what you
22:34
uh
22:35
what you uh your final family
22:38
produced because you know it’ll all help
22:40
in our
22:41
in our preparing for for the program for
22:43
the future so
22:44
i’m always happy to talk to you i i know
22:47
rumors are scammed and
22:48
uh and uh you know ever if ever you’re
22:51
concerned about
22:52
things that you’re hearing it’s always
22:53
best to come to the source and sometimes
22:55
we’ll say things that you
22:56
perhaps don’t want to hear sometimes
22:57
you’ll say things that you want to hear
22:59
but it’s better
23:00
that we tell you and i will say that you
23:02
know we had to decide what to do so we
23:04
were a little undecided to begin with
23:07
as we as we looked at the uh
23:10
the enrollments going down and the
23:12
faculty leaving um
23:14
but a very clear decision has now been
23:15
made and that’s the trajectory that
23:17
we’re moving forward
23:19
i’m really excited to see what the
23:21
future of comm looks like at fdu
23:23
especially for like
23:24
you know i’m the editor-in-chief of the
23:26
equinox now and we’ve only been going up
23:28
since um i joined the newspaper so i’m
23:31
really hoping that if the implement goes
23:33
up the
23:33
newspaper can do even greater things in
23:36
the future
23:38
well i wish you both luck for the rest
23:40
of the semester stay stay and
23:42
stay safe and healthy and uh let’s hope
23:45
um
23:46
the summer and the floor bring uh bring
23:48
a new normal
23:50
hopefully thank you have a great day
23:53
thank you ladies take care
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