COLUMN: For years spent learning nothing

From Emily Lieff's, "Sassy Peach," Fall '99 From Emily Lieff's, "Sassy Peach," Fall '99Libraries are locations set aside specifically to store knowledge in an organized fashion. This knowledge can take the traditional form of printed books and journals on shelves or an 'electronic form' whereby research is stored and transmitted in nonprint form." Is this definition from a book for students of English as a second language? Aliens who have just arrived on Earth with no notion of book storage facilities? No, it's a passage from my communications textbook -- from a required class, no less. Of course, I am not the only disenchanted Comm major. Complaining is our common preoccupation. The most common complaint? That the Comm Department emphasizes the theoretical and ignores the practical. A common misconception is that Communications students are taught about TV, film and the Internet -- and are actually given the opportunity to use these technologies. In reality, undergraduates spend their time taking notes on obsolete 60-year-old theories of communications, while Comm students at other schools beat us out for jobs because their school actually taught them how to turn on the camera. Of course, the major has recently added one hands-on class, which I was shut out of. Sophomores and juniors were given priority over seniors because they happened to be in the room when the professor announced it. By the time the course guide came out, we seniors found ourselves only months away from graduation without ever having learned anything practical. Though the Comm Department is proud of its theoretical approach to communications, they have yet to realize that the vast majority of their students have no intention of moving on to theoretical careers -- we need to graduate with actual skills that will get us actual jobs that will pay us actual money. Most Comm students that I have met are planning careers in advertising, film, television and other visual media. But rather than adapt to the interests of its students, the major offers such pertinent courses as Classic Roman Rhetoric. Believe me, a student who can recite the works of Cicero but can't use a remote control impresses no television executive. I've tried. Last semester, when I asked the Comm advisor why there were so few classes of interest to students, his answer was "because we only have room for one Visual Communications professor." Perhaps it's time, then, to do some spring cleaning and make more room. Certainly the students would appreciate it. To the Comm Department as a whole, I look forward to hearing your response. (Especially from my two current Comm professors who have not yet graded my final exams.) Please, prove me wrong and show me that those professors in the hallowed halls of Annenberg are not out of touch. Show us that you care about what students think and be willing to make changes accordingly. Offer us more hands-on work, more modern subject matter (mention the Internet once in a while), more access to technology and, most importantly, look up from your notes once in a while and realize that there are a sea of faces in front of you willing to learn how to communicate, if only someone would teach us.