My575

If anyone ever had a question about Professor Audra Diers, they would just have to send her a quick e-mail to get an idea of how friendly and helpful she is.

Diers signs off every e-mail she sends with the words, “Slàinte Mhath”, which is a Gaelic expression that means “good health to you”.

While a relatively new member to the staff of Marist College, Diers is making great leaps and bounds in revolutionizing the debate club and working with the Communications department.

Originally born and raised in Colorado, Diers attended many state schools. She has her BA in Communications from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, her MA in Communication and Mass Media from the University of Wyoming, and her PhD in Crisis Communication from the University of Texas at Austin. Diers’ experience and credentials make her an excellent addition to the Marist family.

“I spent three years at the US Air Force Academy where I had coached the Intercollegiate Speech and Debate team–throughout my BA I competed and then I had coached during my MA as well as a one-year position after that,” said Diers. “Though I really enjoy coaching, I decided that I wanted to pursue more traditional academic work focusing on teaching and research rather than coaching and traveling. That’s how I came to Marist.”

Diers has taken the position in the Communications department as a Public Relations and Organizational Communication Specialist. She has also had nothing but nice comments about the Marist students and the department.

“I am definitely enjoying teaching at Marist,” stated Diers. “Marist students are - this is most evident because the papers and the quality of projects - on average - probably the strongest compared to anywhere else I’ve taught. I’ve found the Marist students wonderfully reflective and really thoughtful in their work.”

Diers has also undertaken the job of working with the debate club and revamping the program to better suit the competitions and changing world of debate. After being contacted by the department chair, Professor Keith Strudler, Diers began working and helping out to “re-invigorate” the program.

New Communications professor Audra Diers is "re-invigorating" the debate club at Marist College. Pictured is the Lowell Thomas Communications Building. Image courtesy of unigo.com

Not only is Diers cultivating a debate program within the Marist community, she and the team members are reaching out into the communities around the school.

“Club members have worked very hard putting on an event in the fall, recruiting new participants, and working with the Liberty Partnerships Program to develop a new program for the LPP’s spring mentoring program,” said Diers. “We had the opportunity to work with about 20 middle schoolers over seven weeks to develop public speaking and argumentation skills.”

14 LPP students competed in a competition sponsored by the Marist School of Communication and received prizes and awards for their hard work.

Diers already has her sights set on next year. She explained that they are planning to continue to “work with the LPP, add a weekly radio broadcast in conjunction with WMAR, and sponsor a college-wide public speaking contest.”

“Our primary approach to drawing in new members is to develop activities - like the LPP Argumentation Program - that involve our students in public speaking and advocacy activities because the club’s mission is to invigorate public discourse at Marist and within the Poughkeepsie community,” said Diers.

As for the debate involvement that will be occurring off campus, Diers stated how they are switching the program into the National Forensics Association.

“This means that we will compete in ten events ranging from one-on-one policy debate, to limited preparation speaking, to traditional public address, and even to the interpretation of literature affording more Marist students a much more diverse range of events to compete in,” said Diers.

Diers’ excitement about the move is clear as she explained how different students with differing interests would manage to find a way to be involved. And this new format would take the debates from being just campus-wide to regional and national stages. They are even beginning to look for a new coach, who will be implemented by the 2010-2011 school year, for the club. As with any new program, growth is key and Diers has great hope that the club will grow and she has expressed excitement at continuing to work with it.

As the Communications Department and the debate club indicate the shifting nature of Marist College as the institution strives to keep up with the changing culture, Diers has advice for future students and really anyone in general.

“My best advice is that our students should not over commit themselves both academically and with their extra-curricular activities,” said Diers.

She instead suggested really using core classes to sample out what seems like a good fit. This also allows students to fit in study abroad options as they aren’t overloaded with double majors and multiple minors.

“That might mean that a student ends up with a minor or two…even a dual major/concentration; however, it also means that our students can really develop deep knowledge in the field of communication and take a number of classes that complement their particular concentration and their professional goals,” stated Diers.

Even with activities, instead of students completely immersing themselves in countless activities, Diers suggests finding activities that really strike a deep interest. It may take some searching around, but everyone eventually finds where they are happiest.

“That’s also a better model for how those activities can look on a resume as well - showing commitment and demonstrating excellence in a few areas is always better than a shotgun approach with very few actual accomplishments or contributions,” explained Diers.

College is meant for students to find out who they really are through fun, education, and experience. Diers offered advice that everyone can take into account.

“Work hard and commit to the things that are important, but leave time to live as well!”

Slàinte Mhath!

As technology continues to advance, shouldn’t the media classes that students are taking advance as well? Marist College answered this question with the approval of a new curriculum for the Journalism major offered for undergraduate students. The current Journalism curriculum will be drastically changed in order to keep students up-to-date with the knowledge and skills necessary to prepare them for a career in the field of journalism.

Photo Credit: pimm.wordpress.com

Beginning in the Fall semester of 2010, a new curriculum will be implemented for journalism students which will provide them with more options for their studies than ever before. The current curriculum, which has been in practice for over 15 years, offers a foundation in journalism, but not the freedom to declare a specific field in which to study. This is where the new curriculum will differ.

“This is a significant curriculum change,” Gerald McNulty said, the director of the Internship Program and a professor of Journalism at Marist College. “Students will now have a choice of specialties than can enhance their skill level.”

The specialties offered have been divided into three main fields: news, magazine and broadcast news. Students will still be required to complete three journalism foundation courses and over this time they can choose a specialty which will require three distinct courses. The first specialty class will serve as a writing class, the second will provide specialization in the chosen track, and the third will be a “workshop” class taken senior year which will require students to complete a project in their field. These courses may be taken while interspersed with the foundation classes.

The foundation courses, Introduction to Journalism, News Editing, and Mass Communication Law, will not necessarily have to be taken consecutively, so that students may spread them out throughout their four years at Marist. The specialization classes also work in a way that allows students to “double-dip,” McNulty said. They can have a dual specialty in which they complete courses in any two of the tracks offered. There are also new electives, such as Alternative Journalism and Journalism Praxis, which will be offered once per year or every three semesters or so.

The specialties, foundation courses and new electives all serve to advance the curriculum as well as accommodate the increase in technology and the shift from a newspaper model to more current models. These courses offer an “emphasis on digital publication,” McNulty said, such as online newspapers and blogs. The main concepts and principles have not changed; they have just been strengthened in different fields so that students are better prepared for the job market, Lyn Lepre said, associate professor at Marist College. Some people, however, hold concern that journalism is a dying profession due to the same new media that Marist is seeking to accommodate.

“It’s not dying, it’s changing,” Lepre said. “This is the mantra that was kept in mind during the changing of the curriculum. Technology doesn’t drive the bus, the writing does.”

This curriculum has been approximately three years in the making and first started out as a very conceptual idea in the Communications Department. Although the curriculum has been approved, courses will not be implemented all at once; they will gradually roll in so that the current journalism students are not inconvenienced. There are no major concerns from the faculty, they are just preparing themselves to be able to help and advise students throughout this transition. Marist College is focused on utilizing these courses to help students feel confident to adapt when they enter their field of choice after college. They did not want to create a program that would need to be completely recreated again in 10 to 15 years, instead they created one which could be constantly updated and changed as the world of news changes.

“The new curriculum strengthens our overall mission,” Lepre said. “I think the one thing that’s very important is that we offer students a curriculum that trains them not only for the news around today, but also trains them for what’s to come.”