The student newspaper at Florida Gulf Coast University
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Find out on www.eaglenews.org in the multimedia section 9lj`e\jj [\Xe j\XiZ_ fe^f`e^ 9lk Zfcc\^\ dfm\j fe X]k\i ]fle[\iËj i\k`i\d\ek% >\k Xe lg[Xk\ fe k_\ jlZZ\jjfi j\XiZ_% g% 8+ 55
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Museum major and minor coming 9p JXdXek_X C\X^l\ 8jj`jkXek DXeX^`e^ \[`kfi Xe[ E\nj \[`kfi
Future FGCU students may find themselves working with museum artifacts for college credits. On March 31, FGCU announced a partnership with the Holocaust Museum and Education Center of SWFL, which will lead to the development of a new minor and major: museum studies. FGCU and the Holocaust Museum and Education Center of SWFL have successfully worked on projects over the past few years and believe this new museum studies program will be a great opportunity to form a mutually beneficial and formal partnership, according to an FGCU news release. The university also received a gift of $60,000 from Charles Dauray and the College of Life Foundation, which will help the program get on its feet, according to the news release.
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The program will be an interdisciplinary studies program, incorporating anthropology, science and economics, according to a report in The News-Press. The minor will be implemented first and is expected to start fall 2012. A major will be offered in fall 2013 at the earliest, according to President Wilson Bradshaw. John Cox, assistant professor of history and director of FGCU’s Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Human Rights Studies, is honored the Holocaust Museum is the “ground floor” of this new program. “Naturally, the Holocaust will not be the principal focus of Museum Studies at FGCU — it will encompass training in a wide variety of topics and disciplines — but it is gratifying that this new program helps to consolidate our partnership with the local Holocaust museum, which is such a wonderful institution,” Cox said.
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Journalism major making strides 9p BXk`\ <^Xe J\e`fi jkX]] ni`k\i
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Professor Lyn Millner says she hears angel music in her head when she thinks about the Audio and Video Journalism class she’ll be teaching next fall with world-renowned Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute. The long-awaited journalism major will be given the go-ahead or be sent back to the drawing board at the Board of Trustees meeting April 19. “I think the university has wanted to give students the journalism major, but it had to set priorities when state budgets got cut,” said Millner, head of the Journalism department. “Now they’re just able to act on it.” Like many other institutions, FGCU fell victim to the declining economy and had to put the journalism major on hold, said Donna Henry, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. But in the meantime, FGCU instituted the minor. “Now the university has sufficient funds and we’re able to get the technology and hire the faculty we need,” Henry said. “We’re in good shape to get the major up and running once it’s approved at the Board of
Trustees meeting.” Millner thinks the journalism major at FGCU really stands out among other universities in the state of Florida because of its multimedia focus. “We want to create something completely realistic based on what employers actually need,” Millner said. Henry also thinks the journalism program will stand out among other universities because it’s focusing on new media. “Journalism is no longer about print publications in newspapers and magazines,” Dean Henry said. “It’s about web and video.” Students will be trained how to use the technology, be sent out to do live reporting, put videos on the web and get a ton of hands-on experience, Henry said. Associate Professor Rick Kenney, Poynter’s Tompkins, adjunct professors and news professionals from the area will team up with Millner to give students the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the world of journalism.
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The statewide Florida Student Association is working toward providing students with an opportunity to avoid paying tax on their fall semester textbooks. Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate that would create a three-day, tax-free holiday during the second weekend in August. So far, however, the bills do not include textbooks on the list of tax-exempt items. FGCU’s Student Government is joining the statewide Florida Student Association to appeal to legislators, asking them to include textbooks in the typical list of items that will be exempt from tax during the holiday. The cost of textbooks each semester is a huge burden on students, often totaling as much as $500 and sometimes costing even more. Single textbooks can cost more than $200. At that rate, not having to pay taxes on textbooks could mean savings of $20 to $30 for many students if they purchased textbooks during the holiday. In 2010, 18 states had tax-free holidays around the time that most students return from summer vacation. This year, 14 states are planning tax-free holidays for August that generally include clothing and school supplies. During Florida’s tax-free weekend last year, books less than $50 were exempt from tax. The majority of textbooks, however, greatly exceed that price. According to the Federation of Tax Administrators’ website, taxadmin.org, only North Carolina is currently planning on including textbooks in their tax-free holiday. North Carolina also included all “instructional material” costing $300 or less on its list of tax-exempt items last year. A Government Accounting Office inquiry conducted in 2005 found that textbook prices had almost tripled from December 1986 to December 2004, which indicates an increase of about 6 percent in textbook prices each year. For that same period of time, tuition and fees increased by 240 percent, and overall inflation was 72 percent. The fact that the rate of textbook price increase exceeds the rate of tuition increase indicates that the cost of books each semester is becoming more and more daunting for students. Aaron Nevins, a legislative aide to Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, the sponsor of the Senate bill, said that the issue of textbooks was not introduced during the formation of the bill. “Nobody’s approached us on that issue, so until somebody does, obviously, that would have to weigh against the cost,” Nevins told Naples Daily News. Kim Diaz, former SG president, could not be reached for comment about FGCU’s support for the bills.