This is the first article in a two-part series that will examine the increasingly popular communications and media studies minor at Tufts. The first installment will focus on the dissatisfaction that some students have with the program's lack of marketing-related classes, while the second part, to run in tomorrow's issue, will take a look at the role of the ExCollege and internships in the minor, as well as some of its limitations the program has as a résumé builder for students' futures.
Victoria Alberini wishes to enter into the field of marketing when she graduates from Tufts, but in terms of courses she can take to cater to this interest, her options are limited. Alberini, a senior who is majoring in sociology, chose to minor in Tufts' communications and media studies (CMS) program, partially with the hope of getting her foot in the door of the business world.
"We don't have a marketing minor, and so I wanted to at least do something that would give me some kind of exposure to that and to a more business-like area of study," she said. "I chose to do communications because to me it kind of fit into that, and it was also a little broader. The other reason is that I was really interested in media studies in my sociology major and so the communications minor went really well with that."
The CMS minor offers credit through a wide variety of mediums, including many classes with the Experimental College (ExCollege) and internships, but the university's offered courses focus mostly on film or media studies.
Alberini explained that she finds the lack of a marketing focus to be frustrating. "[The CMS minor is] rather limiting to media like film, and I don't see as much availability in classes about advertising or marketing that are more applicable in the real world ... to the profession that I'm looking into," she said. "I think the ExCollege classes start to get into that, and they have more variety, but in terms of the actual core curriculum for the minor, it's very hard to find a substantial amount of classes that can be applicable in an advertising or marketing setting."
These limitations may pose problems for students wishing to enter into fields such as advertising, marketing and business after graduating.
"I'd like to see an equal emphasis on the various modes of communication that are out there in the professional world. ... There's a pretty strong interest from a lot of people at the university who are enrolled in the liberal arts college and would still like to get some of that exposure ... to things like advertising and marketing ... upon graduation," Alberini said. "It can be slightly detrimental when we're competing with schools like Bentley and Babson for people to not have that."
CMS Program Director Julie Dobrow, however, has a different take on how the program ties into a future in a business vocation.
"What I hear from alums who are successful executives in major advertising [and] marketing firms is that the single best preparation you can have for a career in one of those fields is an excellent liberal arts education, some courses in media, internship experiences and a ton of experience writing," Dobrow said in an e-mail to the Daily.
Dobrow added that although the university does offer some classes related more specifically to marketing, the department's hands are somewhat tied in terms of offering a wider range of classes.
"We try to offer a variety of courses ... we have given a Marketing for Social Change class each year for the past few years since it's been in such demand," she said. "[But] we have limited resources with which to offer classes and change our offerings with some frequency."
The CMS minor, which is not offered as a major, consists of three areas of study: mass communications, film studies and multimedia arts. Students choose from among these focuses when completing their minor. An increasingly popular option, the CMS program saw 71 students graduate last year with one of the three minors, and there are 83 students in the senior class pursuing them now.
But despite student interest, the program directors do not expect to see it turn into a major any time soon, primarily because there are not enough faculty members to support a major, according to Dobrow.
"We've talked about it," Dobrow said. "Unfortunately, this isn't a time for us to be talking very seriously about adding on something that would require a lot of new resources."
Senior psychology major and CMS minor Christine Attura said that if there was a communications major, she would likely choose to double major in it, but that she doesn't think it should be offered as a standalone concentration.
"I think they would probably have it like the community health major where you have to double major," Attura said. "It is good to have a liberal arts background because most of the stuff you learn in communications classes [is] more trade-based."
She continued that she doesn't find the fact that the program is exclusively offered as a minor to be a problem.
"Some people might consider the fact that it's only a minor as a limitation, but I think that the good thing ... is that it means that Tufts is sticking to the liberal arts promise," Attura said. "The classes you take for CMS are more vocational ... so it's nice to have that opportunity, but they still keep you on track with the liberal arts, which gives you a broader sense of what you can learn and of what you can know to apply to jobs."
