As Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Mass Communications undergoes an entire curriculum revamp, both creative and strategic advertising students will be met with surprise when they no longer see the familiar titles of their required courses listed on their schedules. Classes that were once called “Art Direction” and “Media Graphics” will now be known as “Completeness” and “Technical Prowess.” Since the description of the courses will see just minor adjustments, if any at all, the only noticeable difference to the students will be the course names documented on their transcript.
The new course names are the brainchild of VCU’s Mass Communications department, and has stemmed from the belief of department heads that the university should, and needs to be able to keep pace with the rapidly changing advertising industry. VCU believes that the change is needed not only to comply with the ad industry’s growth of new technologies, new techniques and new mediums, but also to prevent a decline in advertising education.
Newly instated department objectives can also be deemed responsible for the replacement of the advertising course titles. The Advertising Department is now dedicated to offering a course load that personifies the essence advertising and will better prepare students for success in the ad industry after graduation. VCU Professor Bridget Camden would like to see the change emphasize the importance of a well-rounded advertising curriculum and distinguishes the new course names as being a step in the right direction. “We are trying to focus more on broadening the student’s overall understanding of the advertising industry. With the new brandcenter, we are trying to make the undergraduate program cohesive with the graduate,” Camden says. Camden, who will be teaching classes next semester such as Imagination and Invention, (which were once known as Advertising Art Direction and Advertising Portfolio Development respectively), believes that the new inventive names will also contribute to VCU’s aspiration of solidifying a place as a top advertising school. “Our graduate program is one of the best in the country and the world; and now we are striving to give our undergraduate program the same accolades.” Camden says.
For the university, the new names will provide the School of Mass Communications with the ability to supply integration of both undergraduate and graduate curriculums. However, for some students the new names just provide an obscure look into their future classes. While the conversion of the course names won’t officially be effective until the beginning of the 2008-2009 academic year, current advertising students have already begun vocalizing their opinions about it. Strategic advertising student, Benjamin Turner, 22, believes the names have been implemented solely so VCU can stand out among other advertising programs. “I think the department wanted to sound different, and wanted a way to lure in prospective students. They wanted to be like ‘Oh look, we offer classes like “empathy” and “judgment” you can’t get that anywhere else.’ They want to sound unique, but they really sound ridiculous. I don’t want to put that I took a class called ‘Truth and Honor,’ or ‘Imagination’ on my resume, it just sounds childish.” Creative Advertising student, Elizabeth Marshall, 21, agrees with Turner and believes the different names will not be beneficial to the advertising department, and will just discredit the validity of the class. “I think the new names are a load of crap. I think that they just make everything unnecessarily confusing. The names are not straightforward, and you don’t really get a good sense of what the class has to offer. I don’t know what ‘Completeness’ is, but I do know what ‘Campaigns’ is.”
Whereas students like Turner and Marshall look at their newly titled courses with disdain, others seem particularly indifferent to the change. Creative Advertising student Katherine Wright, 20, was initially surprised to see that her classes had different names, but later discovered that it wasn’t something she would worry about. “At first I was like whoa, what is this nonsense? But after I looked up the classes in the course description, I realized it wasn’t really any different then it is now. I don’t think changing the name of a class is that big of a deal, you still learn the same things you would if the class was called something else,” says Wright.
Despite the negative feedback from several students, the Advertising Department believes that changing the names of the courses will be an advantageous way to stay on top of the evolving ad industry, and cites that as another one of the school’s primary purposes for replacing the course names. The intention of the Mass Comm Department putting forth the course modifications is not to confuse or anger its students, but as an attempt to stay competitive among other universities and as a way to force the ad students to familiarize themselves with adjusting to new methods and techniques of business as they would in an ad agency.
Although the entire Mass Comm Department has undergone several curriculum changes, including the creation and implementation of brand new courses, and a set of strict and rigorous graduation requirements for each of the three sequences, no concentration has seen more change than VCU’s Advertising Department. While other concentrations have employed unique changes of their own, advertising has become the first concentration in the School of Mass Communications to begin completely restructuring its curriculum. The renaming of the courses and the addition of new courses are just some of the initiatives the Advertising Department has made in order to remain consistent with VCU’s current objective plan. According to VCU’s Mass Communications Department, it’s the school’s intention to revamp the entire Mass Comm. Department in order to maintain a modern program of study, and will only be a matter of time before the Journalism and Public Relations concentrations begin to go through a massive reconstruction of their own.
The ’08 fall semester will mark the beginning of the newly instituted curriculum for the Mass Comm Department. The department heads feel as though the changes will help the university acclimate its students to the changing world, and to ensure the students get the most up to date information so that they are equipped with the knowledge they need to succeed in the post graduation world.
For VCU’s Mass Comm. Department, especially advertising, the objective isn’t to make sure the school doesn’t fall behind; it’s to make sure they’re one step ahead.
SOURCES:
Benjamin Turner, Strategic Advertising, 22- turnerbw@vcu.edu
Elizabeth Marshall, Creative Advertising, 21- marshallec@vcu.edu
Katherine Wright, Creative Advertising, 20- wrightkt@vcu.edu
Bridget Camden, Advertising Professor- bkcamden@vcu.edu
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