SUNY Plattsburgh Announces New Communication Majors
The Department of Communication Studies and the Center for Communication and Journalism at SUNY Plattsburgh will offer five new majors this spring.
Those offerings — public relations, TV-video production, broadcast journalism, audio-radio production and digital media production — are not entirely new to the campus. Most existed previously as concentrations, but the setup of those options sometimes caused confusion for both students and industries hiring program graduates, according to Communication Chair Peter Ensel.
Ensel gave the example of students who opted for the TV-video production/broadcast journalism concentration. Under it, they could have taken classes that focused on video production or broadcast journalism or both. As a result, the list of course requirements for graduation was complex and often confusing for students. Furthermore, employers were sometimes confused about the meaning of a degree, he said.
By turning the concentrations into full-fledged majors, the college hopes to avoid that confusion. In addition, the changes will allow faculty to provide greater depth to the curriculum in each field of study.
“The new structure will possibly allow us to offer more courses within specific areas,” Ensel said. “And it will give us greater flexibility.”
In the meantime, students enrolled under the previous degree structure will be able to opt into the new majors or finish out their college career under the old program.