Ryerson may have turned 50 this year, but the school is proving it can stay hip with the trends.
Last Tuesday, academic council approved a multimedia minor for the faculty of applied arts .
Echoing the “convergence” trend in the media and entertainment industry, the seven departments of applied arts have banded together to create a new six-course multimedia minor.
Covering things like CD-ROM and website development, it will be phased in over the next four years.
Starting next fall, selected second year students in graphics communications management, radio and television arts and theatre technical production will be able to enroll in the minor as an alternative to an elective.
Lucie Hall, and RTA professor, said more and more, the different mediums are going to start looking the same, and the multimedia elective is the way of the future.
“Everyone is getting washed in this digital technology and you won’t be able to tell them apart,” she said.
“Eventually, it will be like trying to pull apart the white from the yellow in an egg that’s been scrambled.”
Journalism, fashion, interior design and image arts are still looking for ways to modify their curriculum to include the minor.
Ira Levine, dean of applied arts, said the challenge for the schools is deciding what current courses students don’t have to take to make room for the multimedia elective.
For the first two years the minor will work out of existing labs around campus, but there are plans for a multimedia computer lab.
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