Clarkson adds new liberal arts offering

POTSDAM — Clarkson University is taking a step away from its traditional offerings in the sciences and math to expand its liberal arts program.

The college recently announced a new double major program, combining the social sciences with communications and new media.

"Before we even had the major, there were students doing this kind of thing, taking video cameras out into the community and making films, with mixed results," said Stephen D. Farina, chairman of the communications and media department. "Our traditional communications majors are going to start, I hope, to have a more global outlook."

Though the program is created mostly out of existing courses, a few new ones will be added to synthesize the components of both majors. In their senior year, for example, students will have an opportunity to storyboard and film a documentary.

There are only a handful of students so far who have declared a major in social documentation, but faculty members said they could see it growing to about 50 students within the next few years.

"We think they could get into TV, also Web-based media — that sector is growing," program director Frances Weller Bailey said. "The new media is everywhere, and we do get a lot of interest in the liberal arts."

The program is one of the few, if not the only, like it in the country, according to humanities and social sciences Professor Rick Welsh. There are several similar master's degree programs, however.

"If students are interested in this, they can go somewhere else and create it, but here, they can find coordination between the two," Ms. Bailey said. "There are courses dedicated to social documentation. There is advising coordinated."

The degree could lead students to a career in activism, nonprofits or media. Even though none of those industries is growing, the skills students learn in taking the courses could give them better insight and expand their perspectives.

"This is going to bring these students into social and political issues," Mr. Farina said. "I hope we're broadening their horizons for their future."