TOLEDO, Ohio — As the University of Toledo continues to deal with struggling finances, the school is planning to cut or merge 48 programs in the fall of 2024.
The university's media communications program is listed as one of the many degrees that will disappear next fall when it becomes a concentration in the communication studies major.
In response to WTOL 11's coverage, W. Benjamin Myers, the chair of the communications department reached out to us on Wednesday to say that while the name of the program will be gone, all of the opportunities will remain the same.
"Nothing that we're teaching is going away," he said. "The classes, the content, all of the opportunities are still going to be there."
It's a sigh of relief for the future journalists and public relations representatives pursuing higher education at UToledo.
Myers said while suspensions and mergers are happening all across the school in the name of the budget, the end of the media communications program is not one of them.
"It coincided with it, but it's not driven by the program prioritization," he said. "We're a large, thriving department, we're doing exciting things. I mean, communications jobs are the future of jobs."
So, what is changing?
Media communication is currently its own separate degree, but starting next fall, it will become a concentration within the regular communications bachelor's program.
But if it's so important, why the change? Jamie Ward, one of the professors who designed the curriculum change, said it's to give students more opportunities.
"A well-rounded program that gives students that expertise in a multitude of areas will give them more flexibility to change careers if they choose to do so," Ward said.
There will still be student broadcast news, radio station, ESPN opportunities and everything else that has been previously offered. But they won't specialize a communications student to be a journalist, PR representative or social media strategist. They will be trained in all three fields.
"It gives them the skills to apply to different industries and to apply really well," Ward said.
At first, the change came as a shock for some of the current media comms students.
"The initial reaction was kind of surprise," said junior Logan McCory.
But students said the department heads held a meeting with them to explain the changes and they walked away reassured.
"It's not so much an elimination, as much as an assimilation," said senior Allen Woodson III.
So while McCory and Woodson III will be some of the last students to receive a media communications degree at UToledo, they have high hopes for the future of the comms program as a whole.
"Everything that we got to experience, it's still going to be here for the generations to come," McCory said. "So that really eased our mindsets."
The new modified communications program will be available for prospective students starting next fall.