The Media Studies major has reinstated an application to deal with ballooning student interest but a limited number of faculty.
There are currently 362 Media Studies majors at the University and 11 faculty members in the department.
In October, the University announced longtime CBS correspondent Wyatt Andrews will join the Media Studies department this spring.
Media Studies Prof. Jennifer Petersen said fewer majors would allow the department to provide each student with a better quality of education, increased time with faculty members and more choices for course selection. The department hopes to move the number of majors down to a little more than 300, Petersen said.
The transition to an application process for the major will also be beneficial for students who are pursuing other majors but are interested in taking a Media Studies class, Petersen said.
“Students were finishing the major by taking whatever courses were available; they had no ability to choose the courses that were most interesting to them,” Petersen said.
Second-year students interested in declaring a Media Studies major will now need to apply this spring.
The application will consist of GPA, both overall and for courses towards the Media Studies major, an essay and a reference, Petersen said. Students must have taken or currently be in enrolled in a Media Studies class to apply.
Second-year students who are not accepted into the Media Studies major are able to apply again in their third year. Transfer students will be able to apply for the major in the fall of their transfer year.
The Media Studies department has used an application process in the past, but stopped doing so in 2013 because the major was considered too small and overly selective.
“We wanted to be more inclusive,” Petersen said. “It was a small major and very competitive, so we opened it up because we knew there [were] more people interested.”
This led to an increase in the number of students majoring in Media Studies.
Although the application process is being reinstated, the department aims to avoid returning to the small size and hyper-selectivity of the program prior to 2013.
“This is not to go back to a small, selective major,” Petersen said. “This is just to control our numbers and to give our majors a better quality of education.”
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