A Message from SMAD's Director

Welcome to the website of the James Madison University School of Media Arts & Design. Visitors to SMAD will encounter a first class facility, engaged faculty and energetic students who were competitively selected to be part of our program. We offer a dynamic (and popular) program with a long history of success in turning out graduates with both media smarts and hands-on skills who are in demand by employers. This is an exciting time for SMAD. Below is some information about our department and a few reasons why we are so excited about our future.

CURRICULUM
SMAD students learn how to gather, analyze and communicate information in a variety of media and corporate settings. All learn print layout, video production and web development, but choose to specialize in one of our concentrations; Corporate Communication, Digital Video & Cinema, Interactive Media or Journalism.

Our curriculum requires writing, law, management and theoretical/analytical classes that encourage students to think critically about media and their future roles in the industry. Concentration classes take students deep into content they'll find useful in their first job and later in their careers.

The buzzword in the industry today is “convergence” - the bringing together of media skills, industries and technologies - and students are encouraged to prepare for something other than a traditional career based on narrow skills, a specific medium and a single method of content delivery. For example, journalists now find they need to write for both the eye (print/online) and the ear (audio/video). They may need to shoot stills, acquire video and assemble audio/slide presentations for the web. Corporate communicators need to know which media to use for which messages and how to reach customers and users via their delivery platforms of choice.

SMAD is constantly assessing its curriculum and adjusting coursework and programs to meet the challenges of convergence. (More information on our curriculum can be found at: http://smad.jmu.edu/majorreq.html).

CAREERS
SMAD majors go on to work as journalists (print, broadcast and online), corporate communicators, media strategists, video professionals (videographers, editors and producers), filmmakers, graphic artists, interface designers, search engine optimizers and web developers. They work for newspapers, magazines, websites, corporations, public relations firms, advertising agencies, marketing companies, motion picture companies, broadcast televisions stations, cable networks, commercial production houses, interactive media companies, government agencies, non-profit organizations, talent agencies, and consulting firms. They may work on the creative side of media in the production of media messages or perhaps they develop communication/media strategies for corporations to help reach employees or the public. (More information on careers can be found at: http://smad.jmu.edu/resources.html).

STUDENTS
SMAD students are an exclusive group. Each year, we admit approximately two out of every three students who apply. To get in, a student designates SMAD-Declared for their major, enrolls in SMAD 101, takes an admission test and prepares a letter of application. (More information on the admission process can be found at: http://smad.jmu.edu/admiss.html).

Those admitted have good grades, write effectively, score well on our admissions test and are knowledgeable about our field. Many choose to double-major in diverse areas such as English, Art, Theatre, Business, Computer Science, Political Science and History. Complimentary minors in Creative Writing, Film Studies, Political Communication, Sport Communication and Telecommunications are also popular.

Students often work for the campus newspaper, The Breeze, or the campus radio station, WXJM. Many have gotten involved with our new student organization called SMAD Club. Our students have won many prestigious national and regional awards for magazine production, video productions, still photography and interactive websites. We, the SMAD faculty, find our students to be bright, responsible, articulate and driven - in short, a highly enjoyable group of unique individuals.

PROFESSORS
All professors have both academic and professional credentials. We are authors, writers, media historians, video producers, interactive developers, telecommunication policy analysts, corporate spokespersons and journalists who have received Emmy's and other major national and international awards. Many have worked for public television stations, large newspapers, major-market commercial television stations, web consulting firms and corporations. Such companies as the The Washington Post, The L.A. Times, Apple, The Learning Channel and Chrysler Corporation have employed us.

All professors in SMAD have achieved the terminal degree for their discipline. Some have a degree in the Arts (M.F.A.) while others chose the research route of a Ph.D. I can personally attest to our faculty's work ethic, commitment to students and interest in your success. This group spends long hours revising course material, meeting with students, advising and of course - writing, publishing and creating as well. To find out more about us, check out the “Faculty & Staff” link in the navigation bar at the top of this page.

FACILITIES
SMAD houses a new digital high-definition video production facility for both field and studio production. This is simply one of the finest video facilities among universities in the United States and the world. The studio is used for narrative/cinematic productions as well as informational and news related programming.

A 16-station Post-Production Lab is utilized for editing and compositing and is available for students in classes and after hours. Every student learns at a dual-monitor HD station using applications such as Final Cut Pro and Motion. The studio and editing lab are interconnected via fiber to a shared storage video server with 27 terabytes of storage.

We have labs for writing classes, interactive media production, magazine production and video editing with multiple stations that are available in classes and after hours.

Our SMAD Resource Room is an open lab for SMAD students who need access to video editing, photo printing, cross-platform web development and dubbing for class related projects. The room also provides meeting space with a conference table and computer projection. It's also a place for some downtime between classes. (More information on our facilities can be found at: http://smad.jmu.edu/facilities.html).

Three highly knowledgeable full-time professionals support our facilities. They work mainly behind the scenes, but provide SMAD with the best support possible. I hope you'll get to know John Hodges (Technology Manager) Burl Facemire (Chief Engineer) and John Gruver (Network and Lab Manager).

INTERNSHIPS
Many SMAD students choose to do internships, though they are not required. Dona Gilliam is our Internship Coordinator and she's a wonderful source of information about potential internships. She's also very good at helping navigate through the paperwork. Professor Gilliam manages the Jobs & Internships area of our website - regularly posting information from companies looking for interns.

THE FUTURE
Maintaining our position as a leader will require support and involvement from a number of individuals who feel connected to our program. To that aim, this fall we plan to establish two new advisory groups to help us prepare for the future.

An Alumni/Professional Advisory Committee (SMAD-APAC) will help advise us about current and future trends in the industry, as well as work on a capital campaign aimed at building our endowment. With the rising cost of a college degree, we hope to generate funds for more scholarships and student support. We also hope to increase faculty development funds to support professors in keeping abreast of changes in the industry. We hope to build even stronger connections to our extraordinary alumni through this new advisory committee.

We also intend to start a new Student Advisory Committee (SMAD-SAC) composed of SMAD majors. This group will provide feedback to the faculty about curriculum, facilities and areas of support we might better provide.

Finally, we are moving toward a new administrative structure as a School within a new College of Communication, Information and Media. (We are currently within a College of Arts & Letters). This is a truly exciting prospect as this would make us the first such college in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The first phase of this transition gets underway this fall as we combine with the School of Communication Studies and the School of Writing, Rhetoric & Technical Communication in a Division of Communication, Information and Media. This does not change SMAD. We will continue as a stand-alone department, but it does place us among other departments who share our disciplinary roots. The plan is to change from a division to a college as soon as possible. Achieving such college status within the university will give us greater stature and visibility.

Please feel free to contact the department if you have questions. Our program support technicians, Teresa May and Theresa Shifflett, are a good place to start. They know the inner workings of the department and are a helpful and cheerful presence in the SMAD office. We are located in 0276 Harrison Hall. The main office number is (540) 568-7007.

Steven D. Anderson, Ph.D.
Director and Professor
School of Media Arts & Design