A proposal to reorganize and combine the news-editorial and broadcast journalism majors was approved at the Urbana-Champaign Senate meeting Monday.

Students currently enrolled in news-editorial and broadcast journalism will be able to choose the unified major or graduate under the current distinctions according to the new proposal.

The single new major would be a Bachelor of Science in Journalism, without distinction between news-editorial and broadcast. According to the proposal, the reorganization will create flexibility for the journalism program and “give the program a name unencumbered by the outdated media labels and concepts.” This proposal follows other changes by universities such as Northwestern University, the University of Wisconsin and Ohio University in the journalism program.  

John Paul, lecturer in journalism, said he supports the proposal. 

“I think it is good to give students choices,” he said. “I think it makes their degree stronger.”

The change is aimed at giving journalism students greater latitude in course planning. Students will no longer have some of the course restrictions required under the current majors.  

However, concentrations within the journalism major will continue. Allowing students more flexibility to take courses in both concentrations, the journalism department hopes to better prepare students for “a rapidly changing journalism profession,” according to the proposal.

“I feel combining broadcast and print is better in the long run,” said Molly Nagle, sophomore in Media. “However, since I’m on the broadcast side of things, it would be hard to share the same enthusiasm for print.”

Eric Meyer, associate professor of journalism, teaches the Graphics and Design class, which next semester will be renamed Multimedia Editing and Design.  

“Most changes have already happened in the class,” Meyer said. “The names of the classes have existed for a long time, but the subject matter has changed over time. The class has gradually put more emphasis on certain things due to changing requirements.” 

Besides renaming and renumbering certain classes to give students a more systematic approach to building their course schedule, the new curriculum would require journalism students to take six hours of economics classes. The proposal suggests Micro and Macroeconomics for all majors, which currently only news-editorial majors are required to take. It was estimated that, after combining the majors, about 25 additional students would enroll in Macro and Microeconomics each semester, according to a letter included in the proposal.

Colleen Schultz, director of undergraduate studies in the economics department, wrote in the letter that the influx of journalism students would not be a problem for the department of economics and the department anticipates being able to handle the additional demand on a regular basis.

Megan can be reached at [email protected].