THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE FACULTY SENATE Senate Document Number 1590S  Date of Senate Approval 2/8/90  Signature of Senate Chair _______________________ Date __________ Action of Vice Chancellor: Approval _______________________ Date ______________ Denied _______________________ Date ______________ Reasons for denial and suggested modifications: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Statement of Faculty Senate Action: APC Document #11: Catalog Changes in Mass Communication A. Effective Date: Fall, 1990 DELETE: 1989-1990 Catalog, page 167, Roman IV. ADD: 1989-1990 Catalog, page 167, Roman IV. IV. Other departmental requirements: All students must produce a senior thesis to satisfy the university's demonstration of competence requirement. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: None. RATIONALE: 1. The "C or better" requirement is no longer necessary as we have higher quality students emerging from the newswriting bottleneck. 2. The demonstration of competence has been a departmentally graded senior thesis for two years. The catalog should reflect this. B. Effective Date: Fall, 1990. DELETE: 1989-1990 Catalog, pgae 168. The course title 201 Thinking and Writing for the Media I (2). Page 2 ADD: 1989-1990 Catalog, page 168. The course title 201 Newswriting (2). ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: None. RATIONALE: The new title better reflects the nature and content of the course. C. Effective Date: Fall, 1990. DELETE: 1989-1990 Catalog, page 168. The course title 203 Thinking and Writing for the Media II (2). ADD: 1989-1990 Catalog, page 168. The course title 203 Opinion Writing (2). ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: None. RATIONALE: The new title better reflects the nature and content of the course. D. Effective Date: Fall, 1990. DELETE: Nothing Add: 1989-1990 Catalog, page 168, to the course description for MCOM 301 Desktop Publishing Workshop. Students may repeat this course for up to 3 hours credit. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: None. RATIONALE: The old equivalent COMM course (395, Newspaper Workshop) allowed this repetition in order to allow veterans to continue developing their newswriting skills. A clerical error left it off the new course description. E. Effective Date: Fall, 1990. DELETE: Nothing ADD: 1989-1990 Catalog, page 168, to the course description for MCOM 303 Electronic Media Workshop. Students may repeat this course for up to 3 hours credit. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: None. RATIONALE: The old equivalent COMM course (397, Television Workshop) allowed this repetition in order to allow veterans to continue Page 3 developing their electronic media skills. A clerical error left it off the new course description. F. Effective Date: Fall, 1990. DELETE: 1989-1990 Catalog, page 170, the course description for MCOM 494, Senior Seminar. ADD: 1989-1990 Catalog, page 170, the following course description for MCOM 494, Senior Seminar. Capstone course in the mass communication major in which students undertake the writing of the senior thesis. Discussions focus on the integration of mass communication history, law, theory and research. Prerequisite: Completion of MCOM 490 or 492. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: None. RATIONALE: This new description tells more about what happens in the course than the old description. G. Effective Date: Fall, 1990. DELETE: 1989-1990 Catalog, page 167, Roman I. ADD: 1989-1990 Catalog, page 167, Roman I: Required courses in the major - 36 hours distributed as follows: 190, 201, 203, 301, 303, 390, 486, 490, 492, 494; plus six hours elected from odd numbered Mass Communication courses and six hours elected from even numbered Mass Communication courses at the 300 or 400 level. (MCOM 451 cannot be used to fulfill this requirement.) SUBSTANCE OF THE CHANGE: This changes adds the MCOM 486, Undergraduate research in mass communication, to the list of required courses. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: None. RATIONALE: The Mass Communication faculty want students in the program doing senior research of greater depth than they are currently producing. The undergraduate research course will provide the necessary framework and guidance for conducting time-consuming media studies. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of mass communication research, projects of even moderate sophistication need a more formal organizational structure, such as that provided by this course. The research course requirement is one of the recommendations of the recent American Communication Association Task Force on Undergraduate Research in Communication Studies. This group has as its aim the liberalization of the mass communication curriculum. The Task Force also recommended the requirement of communication theory, the theoretical grounding of all courses in the major, and the incorporation Page 4 of extensive research and writing assignments in all upper level courses. The Mass Communication Program at UNCA has been doing these things for nearly a decade, which perhaps suggests why this program is so well regarded among educators in the field. The addition of the research course as a requirement will round out the major as strong Liberal Arts program. H. Effective Date: Fall, 1990. DELETE: Nothing. ADD: 1989-1990 Catalog, page 170, to the course description for MCOM 486, Undergraduate Research in Mass Communication. Prerequisite: Completion of MCOM 490 or 492. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: None. RATIONALE: This prerequisite will cause the student to take the course having had appropriate theoretical grounding.