thursday, august. 29, 2024
celebrating 120 years
By Samantha Olander, Claire Samstag
Newhouse hile scrolling on the students social media platform Yik Yak, Chloe Kaiser said share mixed she came across a post about the “death of BDJ She initially thought it was a joke, perspectives majors.” but after looking it up, she saw that it was true: University’s S.I. Newhouse School on BDJ, MND Syracuse of Public Communications is merging its two majors into one degree program degree merger journalism next year. the daily orange
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Photo By Lars Jendruschewitz
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, it actually is real,’” Kaiser, a sophomore advertising student, said. “Things are changing, which I think is really exciting.” Newhouse, which currently offers broadcast and digital journalism and magazine, news and digital journalism as two separate degrees, will merge the two into one bachelor of science program starting in fall 2025. While students who are currently enrolled in either major will not be impacted by this change, SU students expressed a range of support and frustration with the school’s decision. Dean Mark Lodato and other Newhouse leaders said the merger follows years of discussion with faculty, alumni and other stakeholders about the best ways to
free
prepare students for the multiple forms of storytelling and evolving demands of the journalism workforce. He said he expects the change will result in a rise of admissions and interest in journalism. Many students, however, disagreed with this. Jillian Ward, a junior studying public relations, said maintaining targeted majors is critical for Newhouse’s reputation and appeal to prospective students. She also suggested that a lack of diversity in programs may deter students from attending the school. “It’s very special that Newhouse has set niche courses and topics that are taught within the individual major programs,” Ward said. “If this is their attempt at trying to keep up, I feel like it just honestly is taking a step back … people won’t be as prepared to enter the industry and (students) not having a specialization won’t make them stick out.” Ward said that Newhouse’s foundational courses, such as COM 107: Communications and Society and COM 117: Multimedia Storytelling, already provide journalism students with the diverse range of communication skills and knowledge that Newhouse aims to expand through the merger. She said there are distinctions between the two majors and combining them takes away from students’ passions.
Under the new degree framework, students majoring in journalism will keep several introductory courses common to both majors, with each of the separate tracks including three mandatory courses. A secondary track, sports media, will also be available for the BDJ and MND tracks. Sophomore Daisy Polowetzky, who said she chose Newhouse over other universities for its tailored MND curriculum, was similarly disappointed by the merger. “I feel like for future students, having two combined majors of journalism kind of takes away from how special Newhouse is and can also make people in MND and BDJ feel like they are being clumped together and they’re not really as unique,” Polowetzky said. She also said the merger could undermine the history of alumni accomplishments in the BDJ field specifically. Some students saw potential benefits in offering broader exploratory courses for prospective and undecided students. Tommy Marquardt, a fourth-year student, said the way the majors are marketed isn’t always indicative of their subsequent academic experiences, so combining the majors could allow students flexibility to switch their major. see merger page 6
on campus
SU Plastic Reduction Plan employs multi-year phaseout approach By Zaara Malik
asst. digital editor
Syracuse University is in the implementation phase of its 2024-28 Plastic Reduction Plan, an outline of SU’s “phased approach” to reduce the use of single-use plastics on campus. The plan coincides with the broader efforts outlined in the university’s ongoing sustainability goals. The plan, released publicly in mid-May, includes a multi-step
phaseout schedule — presenting by what percentage the university plans to reduce a given single-use plastic product in each of the next four years. By the 2027-28 academic year, SU will have completely halted its use of six different types of single-use products, including plastic to-go containers and straws. SU’s office of Energy Systems and Sustainability Management drafted the plan following a university audit on plastic usage, completed in
spring 2024. Prior to publishing, the office also received input from the Sustainability Oversight Council — a group of student leaders, faculty members and administrators charged with overseeing sustainability policy changes. “The Plastic Reduction Plan was written and developed by the Sustainability Management team, with the agreement and input of the Sustainability Oversight Council. The collaboration ensured that the plan
was comprehensive and aligned with our broader sustainability goals,” SU Sustainability Coordinator Melissa Cadwell said. Its release came approximately one year after the university published new sustainability goals, updates to its original Climate Action Plan. The new sustainability goals came as a result of the publication of the Student Association’s December 2022 sustainability report, which called on the university to reduce its
carbon emissions and introduce more sustainable practices. Olivia Curreri, a 2024 SU graduate and SA’s former vice president of university affairs, was one of the original authors of the association’s initial Sustainability Report. She said she believes the decision to develop and release a concrete Plastic Reduction Plan is evidence of the university’s commitment to its 2023 sustainability goals. see plastic page 6