Media Arts @ Chemeketa Community College

For those of you who don't know, for the past 2 years EOU faculty have been working with Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon to see how we might offer students there a 4 year degree in Media Arts. In the past 2 weeks much progress has been made. We met in Hood River to iron out some final details and work on the articulation of classes. A week later it looks like we have the program on paper. Classes have been organized and added to the program so students at Chemeketa will be able to get a 4 year Media Arts degree from Eastern Oregon University.

Why is this great for the Media Arts program here at EOU? I wrote a vision statement for the program in October that sums it up I think.

"With the deployment of the Media Arts program to Chemeketa comes a unique opportunity to quickly establish a prototype network, one facet that forms the program’s identity. Critical to new and future media innovation is remote collaboration and cooperation that utilizes the array of specialized network communication tools, some of which have been developed, Macromedia Contribute for example, and others that remain to be developed as customized solutions to fulfill the unique needs of the learning collective. A prototype network, initiated and maintained at EOU, which can scale to include outside learning environments, like Chemeketa, becomes valuable to the collaboration and propagation of ideas within our program and local culture. Initially, the network serves as a two-way bridge, joining Chemeketa and EOU, and ultimately connects our program to other entities that can participate, as need arises, in the learning collectives. Resources are invited to participate and strategic partnerships will form, local and/or remote, public and/or private, depending on the deficiencies that are recognized as the collectives form and begin to explore processes, topics, and project themes. This vision of a unified network, electronic exchange, and collaboration are only the partial ingredients that make up the Media Arts identity. Additionally, the discourse, traditions, and expertise that defines each participating discipline contributes to the identity of Media Arts without disruption to the inherent qualities and values of the disciplines."

Where do we stand now? Well it look's like we've got the program on paper. There are some things that need to happen on the administrative level such as signing the articulation agreement and approval of hiring faculty. If things go smoothly we could potentially be offering the degree in Fall 200.