A New Era of Academic Support

The Center for Communication and Digital Media is Open!

Jillian Preite Correspondent

Students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University can now acquire help for written, spoken, and digital communication all in one place with the opening of the Center for Communication and Digital Media (CCDM), located on the fourth floor of the Mori Hosseini Student Union, inside the Hunt Library, room 431.

There was a great turnout at the Grand Opening of the CCDM that took place Jan. 18. Attendees were able to connect with tutors and learn more about what the CCDM offers and how it can benefit them. Alongside the food and beverages, there were multiple activity stations to demonstrate the types of assistance that can be provided to students, faculty, and staff.

Stations highlighted previous work done by students and tutors and showcased the CCDM’s state-of-the-art audio and video recording equipment. Several events were also advertised at the Grand Opening, including an upcoming Speech competition and an ongoing digital storytelling project.

Dr. Cassandra Branham, the Director at the CCDM, says that the Grand Opening was a ‘great success’, and that she hopes it helped spread the word about the CCDM to the campus community.

Attendees were able to interact with tutors and were very pleased with the services available at the CCDM and are excited to have a place to obtain communicationoriented skills.

The Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Peter Hoffmann, who attended the Grand Opening says it was very beneficial to show off the new center to students, faculty, and staff. “The Grand Opening was very well attended by students, faculty and staff, showing the interest and support for the new center,” Hoffman said. “The CCDM is located in a beautiful space and has excellent tutors on hand to help students with a variety of projects.”

Interim Chair and Associate Professor of Humanities and Communication at the university, Steven Master, also attended the event and said that it was a great way to display what the CCDM offers to students. “The cool thing about the Grand Opening is how it reflected what the CCDM aspires to be and will be — a warm, collaborative, upbeat space where students have fun working with our great tutors to improve their communication skills.” Master said. Master added that he looks forward to a ‘new era’ of academic support for communication skills at Embry-Riddle.

The CCDM came about after the Writing Center and Digital Studio decided to merge in order to benefit students with all the communication based tutoring they need in one spot. This includes resumes, cover letters, reports, recording podcasts, filming, editing videos and pictures, and much more. e Roar Before the Rolex 24 is a weekend that locals have come to know as fairly normal, yet it seems that lots of people don’t actually know what happens during this weekend of high-speed events preceding the famous Rolex 24. In reality, the Roar Before the Rolex 24 is a weekend lled with practices, testing, qualifying, and a variety of di erent races all divided between three racing series; with eight di erent classes of cars! is year, over the weekend of Jan. 2022, there was a hum that lled the speedway. Both the teams and the fans were in uncharted territory, as this year was the debut of the new Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class. is new class of hybrid car is replacing the well-loved Daytona Prototype International (DPI) class for this season and those moving forward. e 2023 Rolex 24 is sure to be an exciting race this year, check it out if you can!

“We think it makes sense to meld the two together so students can come in while working on a digital communication project or a written communication project and benefit from both someone with expertise in writing as well as someone with expertise in design,” Branham said.

Jacob Welch, a writing tutor, says that the merge is a great opportunity for both students and tutors. “I think it gives an opportunity for all the different tutors to gain new skills and be educated in a more holistic way,” Welch said.

Branham added that as far as digital media goes, support is also available for faculty and staff who are interested in developing their digital literacies.

A website is currently in development, which will include tutor biographies, resources, and projects. Tutoring sessions for written communication are limited to 45-minutes per session, while digital appointments are bootable in 30-minute increments but can be extended for the amount of time needed.

Hours of operation for the CCDM are Monday-Thursday 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 12 p.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday 12 p.m.-9 p.m..