Summary of Activities
During 2023-2024, the college gained approval from the Academic Planning Committee for the new graduate certificate in Sports Promotion and an undergraduate certificate in esports. The college faculty approved the program proposals on March 10, 2023, and May 12, 2023. APC approval is required before approval by the Board of Regents and the Coordinating Commission on Post-secondary Education.
In fall 2023, the college launched a new Experience Lab program, Production House, with faculty liaison Kristian Anderson. The new lab provides photography, videography and livestreaming services to University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Lincoln community clients. The inaugural student lead was Marissa Lindemann, a sophomore broadcasting major.
In the fall of 2023, the college launched an undergraduate minor in advertising and public relations. During the fall of 2023, 52 students enrolled in the minor, which grew to 98 in the spring of 2024. Sixty-two percent of the spring 2024 minors were majors in the UNL College of Business.
In the fall of 2023, David Thiemann, marketing manager at McDonald Toyota, offered a pop-up class, Media Sales and Account Management. In the spring of 2024, Professor Frauke Hachtmann taught a pop-up class, Branding Yourself in Today’s Media Market, and Lauryn Higgins, a stringer for the New York Times, taught a pop-up class, Becoming a Freelance Journalist.
In the spring of 2024, the college launched a bid to renovate 90.3 KRNU, the campus student-led radio station. The renovation will provide students with industry-standard technology to experiment with in radio and audio production. The bid was awarded in July 2024. The renovation will proceed when project funding is secured.
The college also continued developing a potential interdisciplinary online degree completion program. Sufficient upper-level online courses exist within the college. The primary barrier to creating an interdisciplinary degree has been an online media law course option. However, Michael Park, an assistant professor who joined the college in January 2024, developed media law for online delivery in spring 2024.
Review of the Strategies
Strategy | Status | Year |
| Create a course and lecture series on “The Business of News,” inviting global leaders in new and innovative media ownership and business models as guest speakers | FINISHED | 2021-2022 |
| Identify and allocate funding for a full-time technical director and student production assistants to ensure quality and consistency of media products and increase capacity for media production courses | FINISHED | 2021-2022 |
| Redesign the advertising sales course as social influence and value proposition and offer experiential learning opportunities related to sales, fundraising and underwriting | IN PROGRESS | 2022-2023 |
| Create a pop-up course on freelancing and entrepreneurship in media and strategic communication | FINISHED | 2022-2023 |
| Establish a minor in strategic communication, particularly for business majors, to reduce the time to degree for students who will likely change to our majors in the future | FINISHED | 2022-2023 |
| Increase our course offerings and experiential learning opportunities related to sports promotion and media production to align with job demand | IN PROGRESS | 2023-2024 |
| Partner with the UNL entrepreneurship programs to assist our students in idea and product development and design | IN PROGRESS | 2023-2024 |
| Explore the creation of an interdisciplinary online degree completion program for working professionals | IN PROGRESS | 2023-2024 |
| Recruit community college transfers with an Associate of Applied Science in Electronics and major changes from computer science to pursue a broadcast major with a focus in media production | UNINITIATED | 2023-2024 |
| Establish an apprenticeship program through the Nebraska Broadcasters Association and Society of Broadcast Engineers for students interested in broadcast engineering and technical direction | UNINITIATED | 2023-2024 |
Proposed Amendments
- To change the target from moving the window of major changes in ADPR to “increase minors in advertising and public relations to 20 by 25-26.”
Review of the Targets
Target | 20-21 | 21-22 | 22-23 | 23-24 | 25-26 (Goal) |
| Increase broadcast majors in media production by 10%[i] | 83 | 86 | 90 | 88 | 91 |
| Increase broadcast minors by 30%[ii] | 33 | 41 | 32 | 33 | 42 |
| Increase minors in advertising and public relations to 20 by 25-36. [iii] | 52 | 20 |
[i] Data from the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Analytics Undergraduate Enrollment by College, Major, and Specialization Report for Fall 2023.
[ii] Data from The Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Analytics Major Count Report for Fall 2023.
[iii] Data from The Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Analytics Major Count Report for Fall 2023.
