Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Broadcasting

at State University of New York College at Brockport USA

Computer Information Systems is the study of the use of computers for systematic organization of data that supports efficient and accurate collection, processing, analysis, and retrieval of information. An information system specialist applies existing technology to solve real-world problems. At SUNY Brockport, the Computer Information Systems (CIS) major trains students in state-of-the-art computing technology, applications, and business practices, with appropriate exposure to underlying fundamentals. The emphasis is on the use of computers in an organization to increase effectiveness and efficiency.

The Computer Information Systems major is accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET. This major is recommended for students with a strong interest in business applications of computing.

Useful information for students, such as career guidance, advisement, sample plans of study, student awards, and scholarships can be found at the department website.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Analyze a complex computing problem and to apply principles of computing and other relevant disciplines to identify solutions.
• Design, implement, and evaluate a computing-based solution to meet a given set of computing requirements in the context of the program's discipline.
• Communicate effectively in a variety of professional contexts.
• Recognize professional responsibilities and make informed judgments in computing practice based on legal and ethical principles.
• Function effectively as a member or leader of a team engaged in activities appropriate to the program's discipline.
• Support the delivery, use, and management of information systems within an information systems environment.

The English major is designed for students who wish to pursue a passion for reading and writing, and for those who seek a versatile education as they prepare for careers in education, law, business administration, public relations, advertising, government, or any field where analytical excellence and effective use of the English language are essential. English majors choose between a literature or creative writing concentration (outlined below), where their course work is designed to develop analytical, research, and creative skills.

Preparing for Business, Law and Public Service: Literature courses which emphasize psychological, social and verbal analysis provide a solid basis for the type of critical thinking needed in professional positions, while courses in writing, business communication, journalism/ publication, etc. provide a solid basis in communication skills central to these areas.

Student Life: The Writers Forum connects students with significant contemporary writers and critics. The English Club offers a variety of activities, including the publication of a student-run literary journal. Sigma Tau Delta, an international honor society, recognizes significant academic accomplishment. Awards are available for student scholarship and outstanding literary-critical, fiction, poetry and non-fiction writing.

Study Abroad: A variety of study abroad programs are available and encouraged. Our students have spent semesters abroad everywhere from England and Australia to France and Spain. Contact the Center for Global Education and Engagement to explore these opportunities.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the program,

Creative Writing Track students will be able to:

• Analyze the relationship between literary form and meaning, taking into consideration literary techniques and devices.
• Construct arguments about literary works using historical contexts.
• Apply basic elements of creative writing craft, including such elements as control of form and figurative language.
• Identify reputable and relevant sources, and incorporate the words and ideas of others without misrepresentation and with appropriate documentation practices.
• Write in conformity with standard usage and grammar.

Literature Track students will be able to:

• Analyze the relationship between literary form and meaning, taking into consideration literary techniques and devices.
• Construct arguments about literary works using historical contexts.
• Argue with a command of the rhetorical strategies, terms, and major interpretive methods characteristic of academic writing in the Humanities.
• Identify reputable and relevant sources, and incorporate the words and ideas of others without misrepresentation and with appropriate documentation practices.
• Write in conformity with standard usage and grammar.

The Communication Studies major explores human communication in a variety of contexts, including interpersonal, professional, public, mediated, and cross-cultural settings, and examines the social influence of language and media. Students investigate a variety of communication practices with learning experiences in theory, history, criticism, application, and performance.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the Communication Major, students will be able to:

• Speak well: Deliver an extemporaneous presentation that meets the needs of a given speaking situation and audience.
• Integrate multiple perspectives: Integrate multiple Communication theories/concepts to analyze and recommend multiple solutions for a socially significant communication problem, case, or situation.
• Advance quality arguments: Advance a sequence of evidence based arguments to support a given position.
• Write well: Write clearly and at a level appropriate to a given audience.
• Critically Evaluate: Critically evaluate a communication message using relevant theories/concepts.
• Demonstrate influence: Demonstrate influence strategies to address relevant social problems.

Water resources majors must earn a minimum of 42 credits in required core courses. Additional requirements are two semesters each of calculus, college chemistry with lab, and college physics with lab. This major prepares students for careers in hydrology, resource management, and pollution control; the course of study includes courses recommended for federal employment as a hydrologist. The major is offered to meet the growing demand for hydrologists and other water resources professionals by federal, state and local government agencies; private sector environmental and consulting firms; and industrial and educational institutions.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Explain the manner with which variables and data, relevant for water resources, are properly collected using discipline appropriate methodology (fieldwork, instrumentation, remote sensing, or derived products from models).
• Properly interpret water resources data using discipline-accepted qualitative analysis.
• Properly interpret water resources data using discipline-accepted quantitative analysis.
• Define a scientific question and develop a methodology for answering it.
• Locate, evaluate and interpret primary source scientific literature.
• Effectively express water resources concepts and research results following the accepted written format for the discipline
• Explain water resources concepts and communicate research results following the accepted oral format for the discipline.

The studio art major is designed to provide a well-rounded, multi-disciplinary education in the appreciation and creation of visual art and design, encompassing two-dimensional and three-dimensional media, art and design history and criticism, and a four-course disciplinary concentration in one area such as Ceramics, Drawing, Graphic Design, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, and Sculpture. Students majoring in art are encouraged to explore other knowledge areas through a double major and/or minors. NOTE: For GRAPHIC DESIGN CONCENTRATION requirements, scroll further down the page.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Apply technical skills and the elements of art and principles of design to achieve basic visual communication and expression in one or more media.
• Identify and holistically discuss major works of art through formal and conceptual analysis, socio-historical contextualization, and interpretation.
• Identify and demonstrate ways to utilize and apply their skills and abilities to postgraduate professional practices.
• Make viable connections between concept and form/media.
• Create works of art and/or design that respond to contemporary, relevant issues inside and/or outside of the discipline.

Anthropologists study human behavior and thought in both the past and the present with the goal of improving our world. We holistically draw on sociocultural, archaeological, and biological approaches to engage with humanity’s current challenges: the outcomes of the humanity-environment relationship; human rights abuses and the need for social justice; and the complexities of human heritage and identities. Whether through ethnographic fieldwork, archaeological excavation, biological lab work, or visual and material cultural analysis, our students and faculty collaborate closely to learn and improve our knowledge of human variation. This is an invaluable resource for our students as they prepare for a more complex future.

The Anthropology Major consists of 24 required course credits plus 12 elective credits that allow students to augment their education with a dual major or minor in another field applicable to their goals and needs.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Knowledge base. Students gain an understanding of the broad knowledge base of human biocultural diversity through time and across cultures, as provided through archaeology, biological and cultural anthropology.
• Methods. Students gain knowledge and skills in the different anthropological research methods used in the sub-fields of archaeology, biological or cultural anthropology.
• Theory. Students learn to define and describe anthropological theory as used in current and past practice by anthropologists, in archaeology, biological and/or cultural anthropology.
• Critical Thinking. Students develop the ability to question, reflect and critique the data and arguments upon which evaluations of human diversity, behavior and change are made.
• Analysis. Students learn to apply theories and methods to explain or interpret anthropological problems, including cross-cultural patterns of social behavior, human evolution, and social change over time and space.
• Ethics. Students learn the appropriate procedures and protocols for obtaining informed consent or access permissions, in order to avoid harm or wrong to one’s human or non-human subjects and descendants.

The Department of Dance at SUNY Brockport seeks to provide a rigorous and nurturing environment for the development of artists, scholars, choreographers, and educators. We support creativity through conceptualization and performance. The Department of Dance comprises artists, scholars, and educators who train dancers on the graduate and undergraduate level for a wide variety of careers in the arts.

The department has some of the best dance facilities in the country, including its own fully equipped proscenium dance theater, a large-space studio theater, five studios, a body-conditioning lab, costume and scene shops, and computerized music and design studios. Faculty and professional staff are nationally and internationally recognized in their areas of expertise and are leaders in professional organizations such as CORD, NASD and NDEO.

Undergraduates with a strong foundation of dance training are invited to participate in the program by auditioning to enroll as dance majors or minors in the BA or BS programs, and are eligible to apply to the BFA program in the second semester. Additionally, the department offers three graduate degrees, and serves a large number of students through courses that fulfill General Education requirements.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Apply artistry through qualitative and rhythmic phrasing, dynamic range & individual expressivity.
• Embody consistently clear physical knowledge, movement accuracy and technical expertise of contemporary dance idioms.
• Create choreography that integrates imaginative and structural concepts.
• Articulate an understanding of aesthetics through dance-making and/or oral and written forms.
• Analyze human movement from varied theoretical and experiential perspectives.
• Identify individual interests and abilities in order to situate within the larger dance field.
• Exhibit appropriate professional conduct throughout choreographic process, performance, collaboration, and production.

The undergraduate Interdisciplinary Arts for Children major is committed to teaching, scholarship, creative expression, and service related to the education of children in and through the arts. This interdisciplinary major is unique to the SUNY system and the nation. It fulfills a major need in providing substantive arts-in-education training to prospective classroom teachers and others interested in the arts. Research shows that arts integration has perhaps the greatest potential to positively affect learning across academic disciplines. An interdisciplinary approach to learning helps students leverage new understandings that could not be obtained through singular discipline studies alone. 

From asylum-seekers at our nation’s borders to concerns about police-community relations, and fears over active shooters, our local communities and nation rely upon law enforcement and human rights professionals to deal with society’s complex problems, many originating systematically from macro process of globalization and economic restructuring.

Our Community Justice majors will be instructed in cultural competency, anthropological research methodologies (including forensics), the principles of the criminal justice system and the complexities of ethics and justice.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ predictions, by 2026, one can expect the addition of new jobs in the following occupations: 800 new jobs for emergency management directors, 8,200 for police, fire and ambulance dispatchers, 53,400 for police and detectives, and 65,000 for lawyers. Certain occupations relevant to this new major are forecasted to experience faster than average growth (7%), such as the following: Arbitrators and Mediators at 10%, private detectives and investigators at 11%, and community and service managers at 18%.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this major, students should be able to do the following:

• To articulate the discursive and theoretical complexities concerning what is community and what is justice and how these two concepts intersect.
• To demonstrate cultural competency and knowledge of human biodiversity through time and across cultures.
• To develop effective arguments using sound cross-cultural critical thinking when evaluating issues related to social control, crime prevention, community development, punishment, adjudication and human rights.
• To collect, analyze and present data (in oral and written language), in accordance with related ethical standards.

African and African-American Studies offers students a broader and deeper understanding of our world. We promote global and inclusive perspectives—drawing from history, literature, the arts and the social sciences—to explore the realities and life experiences of Africans and African Americans. For students of any ethnic background, a major in AAS offers a uniquely rounded liberal arts education that can lead to a wide variety of career options or further studies.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Articulate the purpose and history of the field of African and African-African American Studies, and its proclivity to offer a corrective to mainstream representations of Africa and Africans.
• Interpret the Africana experience by applying methodologies and perspectives in African and African American studies.
• Identify key themes on how race, ethnicity, class and gender impact issues in African and African American Studies from a variety of disciplinary approaches.
• Analyze the historical experiences of African people on the continent of Africa and in the Diaspora, underscoring crucial themes relevant to their experiences.
• Analyze the literary expressions and contributions of African people on the continent of Africa or in the Diaspora, including analysis of seminal literary treatises from ancient times to the present.
• Analyze the experience of African people on the continent of Africa or in the Diaspora from the perspective of the social sciences.
• Apply the skills and knowledge acquired in their studies to practical use, such as going on for further study or serving as agents of change in their own settings and communities.