CID Changing to CMD at SUNY Poly
Recently, the Communication and Information Design (CID) program at SUNY Poly changed its name to Communications and Media Design (CMD). I recently discussed this change with Dr. Lizardi, an Associate Professor of Digital Media Design and Humanities at SUNY Poly.
There was one main reason as to why this change was implemented. Dr. Lizardi stated “As a program, we felt that the direction we were moving was toward an emphasis on content production and emerging technologies.” At SUNY Poly, there is a large emphasis on emerging technologies. It is interesting to think about all the new technologies that have not even been thought of yet. If you look back at all of the new technologies that have been introduced in the past decade, you will find that there are a plethora of new and exciting technologies. What groundbreaking technologies will be introduced in the next decade? This program focuses on answering that question.
One concern that comes with a program name change is whether or not the program was changed in a significant way. This is a legitimate concern. Dr. Lizardi stated “The changes to the actual program courses were minimal, with a few classes getting new descriptions that better reflected what was being taught, but the primary change was in the title.” It is comforting to know that the material taught in this program is still relevant and that the name was changed to better reflect the goals of the program.
The changes to the program name had significant meaning behind them. Dr. Lizardi stated, “The new title, Communications and Media Design (CMD), contains two changes from the previous title. First, the change from Information Design to Media Design is connected directly to the move towards more media content production in our courses. The second change was adding the "s" in Communications, which is an academic distinction that emphasizes mass communications (or media).” Both of these changes make a lot of sense, as the name of an academic program should accurately reflect the content being taught in the program.
A concern that comes with a program name change is the impact that it may have on current students enrolled in the program. To address this, Dr. Lizardi said “All current students are still CID majors unless they want to make the switch to CMD under the most current catalog, and all newly admitted students will be in the CMD program.” It is comforting to know that current students have the choice to continue as CID students or make the switch to becoming CMD students.
In summary, this program name change makes a lot of sense and will better reflect the program as a whole. It is very important for a program name to accurately reflect the material being taught in the program. It is comforting to know that SUNY Poly is reevaluating program names to ensure that they accurately represent the program as a whole.
