School of Journalism
The University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812-1067
Phone: (406) 243-4001
Fax: (406) 243-5369
09-21-12
Proposed Course Changes / Journalism Graduate Program / Summary
Dear members of the Graduate Council:
I’m herewith requesting a number of course changes, to bring the Master’s program in Environmental
Science and Natural Resource Journalism fully in line with council’s co-convening course guidelines
(Procedure Number 301.20).
Specifically, we are planning to set up a series of graduate-level Independent Study sections that will
allow our graduate students to gain essential skills pertinent to their particular Master’s work.
Enrolling in one of these sections will give them access to lectures and instruction in 300-level
intermediate journalism skills courses. In addition, they will receive special face-time with the
instructors, and will be allowed to submit assignments focusing on their area of expertise.
We are glad that Graduate Council is allowing this last-resort option of creating atypical Independent
Study courses. For our graduate students, access to 300-level intermediate skills courses is essential,
so they can acquire skills based on individual background and career plans. For example, a writer may
choose to add intermediate photojournalism skills, to be able to complement his Master’s project
print story with photos. Or, a photographer might want to brush up on his/her copy-editing skills to
land a Dow Jones News Fund internship. These are individual choices, guided by close advising, that
wouldn’t warrant full-fledged graduate courses in a small program like ours. We expect no more than
1-2 students to enroll in each of these Independent Study sections each year.
Here’s a list of the sections we are asking your permission to create:
JRNL 592-01 Independent Study: Feature
JRNL 592-02 Independent Study: Editing
JRNL 592-03 Independent Study: Photo
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JRNL 592-04 Independent Study: Audio
JRNL 592-05 Independent Study: Video Production
JRNL 592-06 Independent Study: Video News
JRNL 592-07 Independent Study: Design
Please note that, for consistency and transparency, we are adopting the new journalism course prefix
JRNL mandated by common course numbering.
Upon approval of the above JRNL 592 sections, the following graduate courses, which co-convened
with 300-level courses in the past, will be deleted from the catalog:
JOUR 527 Color and Lighting Techniques
JOUR 551 Graduate Newscast Production
JOUR 580 News Editing
RTV 550 Graduate Television Production and Direction
RTV 560 Graduate Advanced Broadcast Reporting
RTV 650 Graduate Broadcast Newsroom-Production
Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Henriette Lowisch
Graduate Program Director
The University of Montana School of Journalism
Don Anderson Hall 431
406-243-2227
Henriette.Lowisch@umontana.edu
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