Future College of Communication and Information students will have to take one course from CCI’s four schools starting this fall.

“The idea was to bring the schools together for a common ground,” said Gregory Blase, associate director for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. “The intent is we are all linked together in the College of Communication and Information.”

The college is made up of the School of Visual Communication Design, School of Communication Studies, School of Library Information Science and School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Students are now required to take one introductory course from each school.

“We realized all of the things that journalism and mass communication, communication studies, visual communication design, library and information science were all talking about, and we’re really all in this together,” said LuEtt Hanson, CCI associate dean.

The idea for the requirement came about when the college was founded in 2002, Hanson said. The requirement was approved by every school’s curriculum committee, the college’s curriculum committee and the Educational Policy Council.

“I think that it’s a good idea because when you get into the profession they are all linked together, so you have to have knowledge of the different programs,” said Gabrielle Ryczek, freshman VCD major.

Students will not have more graduation hours because of the new requirement. The classes will fit into the students’ existing programs because they are counted as either Kent Core courses or electives, Hanson said.

“The main thing is that we just want to make sure that all of the CCI majors have an understanding not just of their own field but of each other’s fields so they can see how they work together,” Hanson said. “It’s really an enrichment program.”

Contact Taylor Titus at [email protected]