New Courses at the Ateneo?

[zimdude]

I surely didn't stick around long enough to have these courses around:

AB Creative Writing
AB Theater Arts
AB European Studies
BS Electronics and Communications Engineering
BS Applied Mathematics Major in Computational Science
BS Communications Technology Management
BS Management of Applied Chemistry

Your thoughts on these?

[[alco]]

those are good courses i think..
creative writing and theater arts are under the new fine arts program..so
BFA Creative Writing
BFA Theater Arts
The new BS Courses are really good. Popular ang BS MCT and ECE...a couple of students for BS AMC and MAC...

:) ;) :) ;) :)

[virgo14]

personally, i'm not convinced the ateneo was ready to add to its number of 'arts' degree programs, let alone venture into fine arts. there was a lot of room for improvement among the existing programs and i think they should have worked on those a little bit more before turning their attention towards creating 3 more. while the course description for the European Studies program looks impressive on paper, i have deep reservations regarding its curriculum and the actual demand for something like this. in the past, the ateneo hasn't had much success in attracting top talents to join its 'arts' faculties. this makes me wonder as to who was chosen to spearhead the fine arts department. as [alco] correctly points out, the Creative Writing and Theater Arts are BFA programs. the distinction lies in the fact that these are supposed to be highly specialized 'professional' degrees as opposed to 'liberal arts'. the future of these programs remains to be seen.

on the other hand, i think it was about time they expanded their science program in response to the changing times. i've always had a high regard for the faculties of both the natural and social sciences, especially that of the (business) management programs.

[[alco]]

virgo14...
from what i know, the ateneo is really going to improve the other courses. that is the primary reason for the development of 4 schools of ateneo (science and engineering, management, social sciences, humanities). hopefully, they will improve the courses before i leave the ateneo. :)

:) ;) :) ;) :)

[ingwe]

virgo14: the program head of Fine Arts is Dr. Ricky Abad. He's also the coordinator of the Theater Arts Program. Dr. Rofel Brion coordinates the Creative Writing Track. I think they're planning to offer a BFA in Visual Arts (emphasis on computer-based visual arts) sometime soon.

zimdude: I think that most of the new courses are too narrow in scope.

[ollagram_12]

virgo14:alco is right. :D

[virgo14]

BFA in Visual Arts? i understand that they are trying to develop a good fine arts department but i still think they're spreading themselves too thin. the individual programs have to be built up slowly, with carefully laid foundations. and i don't think that having a full-fledged fine arts department over a couple of years is going to do it. like i said, you have to carefully aportion the resources, which in this case happens to be the faculty. faculty, whom they seem to have taken from the other departments. while there is nothing wrong with electing the new heads from their own ranks, i'm concerned about the condition of the departments they vacated. like i said, i think they should have worked on strengthening the existing programs before venturing forth to put up others. it doesn't make sense to divide the number of capable faculty members among even more programs.

increasing the number of program offerings won't add prestige to the school. only the quality of its graduates can. and that is only going to happen with careful planning and attention to detail of all the aspects of a good program.