Report of the Program Review Committee for
the Department of Communication,
GeorgiaStateUniversity
February 8-9, 2010
V. William Balthrop, Professor of Communication Studies, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Michael Renov, Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California
Wayne Wanta, Professor and Welch-Bridgewater Chair in Sports Journalism, Department of Journalism and Broadcasting, OklahomaStateUniversity
Introduction
Having read the Department of Communication’s self-study, we spent two days on the GeorgiaStateUniversity campus. Throughout that period, we met with Provost Palm, Dean of the College Anderson and representatives from their respective offices. Additionally, we spent considerable time meeting with faculty, staff, and students (both graduate and undergraduate) in the Department of Communication. We wish to recognize the thoughtful and detailed Self-Study prepared by the Department and to thank all whom we met for their candor and hospitality.
By virtually any relevant criterion, the Department today is healthy and significantly improved since its last review. The faculty, staff and students form an extremely diverse group. The faculty demonstrates very high quality in teaching, research and service. The staff, while clearly over-stretched, appears to provide excellent support. Students were bright and enthusiastic, though the level of enthusiasm varied.
While diverse faculty interests can often lead to turf wars, we found no indication of any tensions across the sequences. Rather, faculty members were extremely collegial. This is a testament to the efforts of the director and graduate director to ensure equity of resources as much as possible. The Department chair, David Cheshier, deserves considerable credit for the Department’s strengthened position. Support for his leadership among his colleagues is broad and deep. His perceived fairness and his broadly consultative leadership style are well appreciated.
The Department is now at a key moment in its history. Its decisions in the near future, we believe, may shape its identity and strategic position for some time to come. In what follows, we discuss those issues outlined in the GSU “External Reviewers’ Report Template,” but do want to highlight three areas that seem particularly important: issues relating to emerging media, departmental funding, and issues of communication within the department.
Emerging Media
All parties agree on the necessity and desirability of placing strategic focus on new and emerging media. This was a recurring theme in our discussions with senior administrators and is identified by the department as its most pressing concern (see Self-Study Report, 6). The need for greater new media expertise exists across all areas of the department. Both the entertainment and news-gathering industries have converted to digital tools almost exclusively. The future of journalism depends on embracing on-line resources and digital tools. And, rhetorical studies will increasingly study how new media formats are transforming global cultural expression and circulating within and across diverse publics. Still, it appears to this committee that new faculty resources are needed most acutely in the area of Moving Image production.
1) The new media hire
The department has identified developing a new MFA program and establishing closer contacts with regional media industries, non-profit organizations, and community based groups as a high priority. If such goals are to be accomplished, expertise and leadership are needed in the area of digital and interactive media-making.
Increasingly visual effects, digital compositing and motion capture dominate moving image production in both live action and animation. Graduates of both the undergraduate and graduate programs in Moving Image Production will be expected to have a fundamental literacy in the use of digital tools and computer-based imagery. Undergraduates enter the university already well-versed in the creation of low-end digital media (e.g., YouTube). The challenge will be to feed that interest, deepen the expertise and prepare students for the job market and for creative activities. It is important that new hires be made in this realm of digital media to provide a vision and leadership for the department.
But “new media” is a very broad term that encompasses a great deal. Without question, this is the way of the future. The MacArthur Foundation and other nonprofits have been deeply engaged of late supporting efforts to imagine the future of higher education in a digital world. Evolving best practices are being developed by groups such as HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory) [ a consortium of scholars and educational institutions engaged in imagining the future of knowledge production in a changing technological environment. Despite the wide range of possibilities, considerable thought should be given to making a targeted hire.
A growing cohort of interactive and digital media artists and theorists are being produced in graduate programs around the world providing a large pool of young candidates for the job. But the potential areas of specialization are many. The gaming industry now out-grosses the film industry. Short narrative projects produced for web distribution (mobisodes or webisodes) have become an increasingly viable cultural format and growth area. 3-D film and television production threaten to drive the entertainment industry. To remain on track with developments, Moving Image Production students will need to be trained in advanced image capture techniques, compositing and non-linear editing. A single hire will be the first and highly consequential first step.
The Moving Image Studies faculty, as well as their colleagues in communication and journalism, should be encouraged to participate actively in the hire given the impact of technological innovation in all aspects of communication and media as well as the important convergences of theory and practice in this evolving sector. The wall that divides scholars and practitioners has never been as porous as it is in the realm of emergent digital media.
But no single faculty hire will be sufficient without a broader commitment to the infrastructure that will support teaching and research in this domain. The staff, equipment and computing capacity of the department are already spread very thin, a problem that will only deepen with the creation of a new MFA program.
2) The Digital Arts and Entertainment Laboratory (DAEL)
DAEL is a unique entity that exists with and alongside the Department of Communication. It is clear that DAEL has a three-fold mission, only one part of which pertains to the educational goals of (specifically) graduate instruction in Moving Image Production. Nevertheless DAEL is a unique asset whose potential is currently being under-realized by the department and University. DAEL currently has desirable studio space as well as a small but elegant exhibition venue, both of which could be used more extensively for graduate screenings and special events. Additional opportunities to introduce the Atlanta entertainment community to the University, to view the best student work and learn more about GSU’s mission to train the next generation of media practitioners should be pursued. DAEL can help raise the profile of the department among the local media elite.
Kay Beck’s professional contacts in Atlanta and the region could be usefully deployed to draw attention to the department’s efforts and, perhaps more importantly, to contribute to a broader development campaign, bringing industry leaders to campus to meet talented and diverse students and create new partnerships. Elizabeth Strickler is a polished professional and experienced producer who could be an even more important partner for the proposed MFA program.
It would be important to involve the DAEL team in the new media hire thus encouraging greater integration and continuing close ties. It is crucial that the department’s future digital endeavors be coordinated with and take advantage of its most sophisticated production unit.
3) The new MFA program in Moving Image Production & Screenwriting
The creation of an MFA program as a terminal degree in film and digital production makes a good deal of sense in many ways. The department has done its research: there appears to be robust demand for a relatively low-cost MFA that could train media professionals for Atlanta and the region’s news and entertainment industries. Students with whom the committee met were very clear in their preference for a clearly articulated MFA program. At the moment, the MA combines a minority who seek graduate training in critical theory with a larger group hoping to have a meaningful graduate production experience. The latter group serves as graduate assistants or instructors for the current undergraduate production offerings, an arrangement that the new MFA, as proposed, would expand upon. It would be a mistake, however, to offload the majority of production-based teaching to graduate students, a concern to be addressed further below.
The faculty are certainly up to the task of the new MFA. Recent hires in the production area have been very strong. They are a young and energetic group, already quite accomplished, collegial and diverse in their interests and creative outputs. The Moving Image Studies faculty mesh well with their production counterparts and can provide instruction in history and theory, benefiting the students greatly and rounding out the MFA curriculum.
But there should be no mistaking the fact that the MFA constitutes a serious expansion of the current curriculum while creating considerable strain on the facilities, technical support and staff. The department claims it will enroll no more than 10 MFAs per cohort which is a relatively modest number. It suggests, however, that these students will serve as GTAs for the undergraduate production classes allowing them to “increase the capacity of the department to teach the undergraduate production courses,” producing perhaps “4 to 5 times the number of undergraduates served in some of the most highly-demanded courses among undergrad film majors.” The review committee heard complaints from current undergraduates that access to production classes was frustratingly limited. There is every reason to believe that the department’s assessment is accurate. They hope to be able to offer many more sections of production classes to meet the demand.
The department’s draft proposal for the new MFA program does not broach the question of capacity for these additional undergraduate production classes. (This point speaks to the department’s capacity rather than to the academic merits of the proposed MFA program.) Indeed the pressure on the facilities, technical and computer support and professional staff has been altogether ignored in the proposal document. With the greater number of undergraduate production sections comes serious wear-and-tear on the physical plant, professional staff (offering hands-on instruction, minor equipment repair, etc.), classrooms and stages as well as camera and editing equipment. The department is, taken as a whole, already woefully thin in its staffing. Based on our interviews, the staff appears to be dedicated and highly competent but there are simply too few of them. The larger volume of undergraduate production classes will take its toll even without an increase in raw numbers of majors. Additional budgeting for purchase and maintenance of equipment as well as staff will be necessary.
As the MFA evolves, greater attentionwill need to be given to the exhibition and dissemination of MFA projects. Students deserve to have their thesis projects screened for the public, promoted to and submitted to festivals around the world. We have elsewhere suggested that DAEL can be utilized as an attractive and appropriate venue for such screenings. Even with the fine production faculty, the MFA cohort will require additional attention, targeted internship opportunities and staff support.
The decision to focus the MFA curriculum on directing and the requisite crafts (sound, editing, cinematography) makes sense given the inability to do all things. Yet it seems worth considering additional attention to the place of creative producing which might include marketing and distribution as well as instruction in thebusiness of entertainment. These curricular areas will help prepare students for the media world they will shortly inhabit.
The screenwriting component of the proposed MFA is relatively underdeveloped but, given the institutional limitations, this makes sense. More attention might be given writing in the near future, however, as ideation skills and the ability to write and pitch projects are invaluable tools, the most reliable entrée into the entertainment industry.
Departmental Funding Issues
While we recognize that both the Department and University will continue to operate under constant fiscal constraints for the immediate future, we also believe that there are three areas to which attention must be directed.
1).External Funding through Grants for Research and Creative Activities
While the department has been successful in some respects in obtaining externally funded grants and contracts (nearly $3.5 million), most of that has been related to three specific activities: The Urban Debate & Anti-Gang Initiative ($1.7 million), CIME ($1.2 million), and DAEL ($0.5 million). We believe that the potential exists to enhance external funding in significant ways.
Thus far, CIME’s primary focus has been on working with US AID to coordinate journalism and NGO training workshops throughout the mid-East and now in Asia. The department should explore possibilities for more collaborative efforts between CIME and individual faculty that concentrate on research projects. The “no-smoking” project in China is one that might provide a model for other endeavors. Areas that appear particularly promising might be additional research projects in health communication and in the Rhetoric & Religion effort considering the role of new media in social change.
Opportunities also exist for additional research efforts by DAEL, particularly in continuing to provide high-end media content for regional film and new media industries. Additionally, however, DAEL and department faculty should collaborate to identify research-based projects relating to media reception and to push collaborative efforts with RCB on research focusing on “culture and creativity.”
Bringing such efforts to fruition will require, however, additional commitments of staff resources to help faculty identify, develop, and manage funding proposals. We understand that some of those resources are available through University Research Services & Administration, but those resources appear to be underutilized by departmental faculty. Whether this is because of a lack of knowledge about those services or whether support from that office is insufficient to cover the demands of University faculty is unclear. It may also be most cost effective to provide additional staff support in the department to assist with these efforts.
We also note that the department can increase the effectiveness of its faculty mentoring program. Some faculty are given high praise for their efforts in working to develop the capabilities of identifying and obtaining external support by their colleagues, but the extent of this effort is described as inconsistent.
2).Departmental Development Efforts
The department appears to have significant potential in development. It is located in a major media center and has created and maintained contacts with a variety of corporations and individuals. We believe that those efforts can be expanded with reasonable investment of resources. Additionally, the department has many alumni/alumnae who might be invited to participate in these efforts.
Perhaps the first effort would be to identify individuals with connections to the department—either graduates or others interested in the department’s mission—and to build a list of contacts, working with the University’s development office to identify potential donors. Relationships could then be cultivated by redesigning the department’s web site and creating a place that highlights the accomplishments of recent (and not-so-recent) graduates. Developing an electronic newsletter that could be emailed to potential donors on a regular basis that highlights student and faculty activities would contribute to the cultivation of on-going relationships. And, creating an alumni board would provide advice and assistance in development efforts. Again, we recognize that these activities will take time, but the potential results of a sustained development effort could be an important source of support for departmental activities.
3).Graduate Student Support
One of the most critical issues facing the department’s efforts to enhance the strength of its graduate program is the issue of graduate student stipends and support. While most of the graduate students with whom we spoke indicated that they would still select this graduate program again, they also expressed dissatisfaction and frustration with overall level of financial support, but most specifically with what many described as excessive service requirements.