Bryant University: Communication
for the Real World
When Smithfield, R.I.,-based Bryant College officially became Bryant University in August 2004, it was the culmination of a five-year effort to position itself for a strong future. Two underlying objectives were essential to making this transition: developing new liberal arts programs with a broader appeal to prospective students and implementing a campus-wide technology infrastructure to support students in all aspects of their academic and social lives.
New liberal arts programs were needed to enrich the campus culture and expand on Bryant's traditional strength in business education, which had been Bryant's mainstay since its founding in 1863. "We're interested in students who want to go beyond business-specialty education," says David Lux, Dean of Bryant's College of Arts and Sciences. "While we wanted to continue to build on our strengths in business education, we knew we needed to do more. So we began looking at ways we could diversify our offerings. We did a 10-year strategic plan in 1999 and discussed the addition of new majors that would complement our strengths in business education. Those areas included applied psychology, information technology, and communication."
"We want our Communication majors to be capable of walking into any major corporation in the country at a business level - say the HR department at Fidelity - and be able to oversee the production of media."
- David Lux, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Building a Communication Program from the Ground Up
Bryant was not content with adding run-of-the-mill liberal arts programs. Instead, the school set its sights on building nationally recognized programs that would attract a larger pool of talented students and professors to its relaxed suburban setting approximately 30 miles from Providence. For the Communication program, this meant spinning off its existing Communication courses from the English and Cultural Studies department to establish a Communication department in 2001, and then adding this department to the newly established College of Arts and Sciences in 2004. Several seasoned professors with media-production experience were added to the department, which now boasts seven full-time faculty members and three adjunct professors. At the same time, a curriculum was developed to include concentrations in four core areas: interpersonal communication, mass communication, written communication, and production.
Ramping up a full Communication major in a matter of a few years, the department carefully developed goals for its graduates. "Communication is a broadly trained discipline here. We teach critical thinking and effective communication in writing and speaking, and students can apply those skills to all areas of the business world," explains Wendy Samter, professor and chair of the Communication department. "Our students go on to work in all kinds of areas: in human relations, in hospitals, as lobbyists on Capitol Hill, in public relations, in advertising, and at local television stations. Some go on to get advanced degrees [in communication] at places such as the University of Connecticut or Emerson."
Recognizing the burgeoning demand for video-based media in the global marketplace, Bryant decided it was essential to offer its communication students practical training in media production.
The school's goal in this area was to educate students who could combine the business acumen of a producer with the hands-on abilities of an editor. As a result, graduates would be able to manage any video project from start-to-finish with speed, efficiency, and creative know-how.
Lux explains this approach: "We want our Communication majors to be capable of walking into any major corporation in the country at a business level, say the HR department at Fidelity, and be able to oversee the production of media. We want them to understand all the elements it requires and to successfully manage the project."
"We always have to keep learning and implementing the latest technologies to stay ahead."
- Philip Lombardi, Director of Academic Computing and Media Services
Wired and Ready
Essential to this new and expansive Communication curriculum was a new Communication Complex: a state-of-the-art, on-campus facility for students to learn how to produce their own video-based media. Any production and postproduction equipment for the Communication program had to meet the university's already exacting standards for technology excellence - a key goal for Bryant.
As part of its transition from a college to a university, the staff at Bryant had already made great strides in creating a technology infrastructure that included all aspects of campus life - from academic affairs to student services. Media production specialist Daniel Greene, a 2005 Bryant graduate, believes that the school's investment in technology is key to the quality of the school's educational offerings. "Technology is one of the important facets of the university experience, and the technology at Bryant speaks volumes about what we put forth and the commitment of this university," says Greene. "As for whether it is important for students when they sit down and make a list of different qualities at different schools - dorm rooms, production studio, etc. - I think they understand that technology is an important part of life. They know if they don't have good exposure to it, they won't learn what they need to stay competitive."
Technology is already part of a student's daily life at Bryant. Incoming freshmen are given an IBM ThinkPad laptop to use in conjunction with their coursework, which is often available on the Web. In addition, approximately 460 computers running more than 100 software applications are available in classrooms and labs across campus for hands-on learning. All campus buildings are connected via fibre optic cable, and each residence hall room is equipped with a state-of-the-art phone with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for efficient digital networking and expanded wireless capabilities.
Large plasma screens are placed in the lobbies of academic buildings to keep students updated with video messages about the latest happenings around campus and to display PSAs created by students in the Communication program. Student Resident Computer Consultants (RCCs) provide support at Laptop Central for issues related to student IBM laptops, as well as for network technology issues in residence halls.
These wide-ranging technology initiatives helped place Bryant second in the nation in The Princeton Review's "Top 25 Most Connected Campuses," which cited the university for its "learning community that utilizes technology in a way that supports students" academic ambitions." "While we were ranked second in The Princeton Review for being one of the nation's "most connected" universities, we always have to keep learning and implementing the latest technologies to stay ahead," says Philip Lombardi, director of academic computing and media services, who recognized the need to extend the university's best IT practices to include the added demands of working with video-based media in the new Communication Complex.
Since Lombardi and the rest of the staff at Bryant had limited experience working with professional-quality, media-production systems, they relied on the expertise and advice of business partners to help them research and evaluate the type of media-production facility that would best meet student's needs. "We want to be early adopters, always addressing what's coming in the next year or two. Our partnerships are a way to leverage resources that allow us to be on the leading edge of a big wave," says Lux.
The facilities committee, led by professor and former Communication department chair Stan Baran, brought in a variety of consultants, including professionals working at local television stations and those who had set up studios at other universities, to provide input on what type of facility and equipment were required to provide students with the experience necessary to excel in careers as media producers. While the staff wanted to ensure that they had state-of-of-the-art technology, they also wanted "real-world" systems that could be found in major broadcast organizations and corporations. Their primary goal was to teach students to use mass media as part of effective business communications in a global economy and to be able to produce that media on their own.
"LANshare allows students to start creating commercials in the classroom and then go over to one of our advanced editing suites and keep working on the same project. Students love it."
- Philip Lombardi, Director of Academic Computing and Media Services
Implementing the Media Cycle: Start to Finish
After gathering information and visiting other colleges, the staff at Bryant decided to build a 3,000 square-foot Communication facility, complete with production, postproduction, and distribution capabilities that mimicked the same workflow found in professional broadcast environments. This full media-production model - with a media network dedicated to sharing and distributing video - enables students to gain valuable hands-on experience that is immediately applicable when students enter the workforce.
The Communication Complex includes a newly updated radio station, a television studio with professional lighting systems and Sony cameras, plus a full control room for producing original material. The postproduction setup includes three editing suites with Avid Xpress Studio systems and a multimedia classroom with 12 Avid Xpress Pro workstations. All of the Avid Xpress Pro seats are connected to the Avid Unity LANshare system with 3 terabytes of shared storage for the simultaneous sharing of projects and media. For distribution, the university uses digital files for transmission over the campus-wide closed-circuit television network and video message center, as well as various tape outputs and DVD masters, which can be produced directly from the Avid editing systems.
Scott Maiocchi, vice president and director of photography at A & M Productions, a corporate communications firm in Providence, consulted with the staff at Bryant on their digital setup. "My first question to them was what programs are you going to offer? Because the curriculum was evolving - and would probably continue to evolve during the next few years - my feeling was that they didn't want to limit themselves. They needed scalability in that environment and the ability to produce, edit, and distribute their work. Basically, they needed to train students with varying abilities to handle all aspects of media production. So, we looked at professional-level equipment that could be picked up by first-time users in a matter of days, not months, but could also be used by more experienced students, who were learning about advanced features."
Because Maiocchi believes that 90 percent of the media-production facilities in the country use Avid systems, he suggested that Bryant look at the Avid Xpress Pro and Avid Xpress Studio products for postproduction.
These systems offer the industry-standard Avid interface, are easy to learn, and are surprisingly more affordable than many other products. Plus, they can be easily upgraded as the needs of the Communication department evolve. "Once students learn the Avid Xpress Pro interface, that knowledge transfers to any Avid product. You can easily go from Avid Xpress Pro to an Adrenaline or Symphony editing suite," says Maiocchi.
Initially, Bryant considered using only three Avid editing suites, while building out a large television production studio and control room. However, Maiocchi made the case that in the real world of business communication graduates needed post skills far more frequently than production skills. "Postproduction is often overshadowed by the glitz and glamour of production," says Maiocchi. "But these kids are not going to be doing many shows in a studio or working at CNN. They are going to be running their own businesses or working in marketing or corporate communication departments. They are going to find themselves in editing suites; it's guaranteed. If they pick up skills working in an editing suite, it will put them light years ahead of the crowd. Because if you are in an editing suite, you had better be on the ball - there are so many decisions you have to make as a post supervisor.
And sometimes, when a shoot goes badly, you have to make something out of nothing in the editing suite, so you'd better know how to be creative. If you have the abilities of an editor combined with the strong business background of someone who knows how to stay on budget, then you have a one-two punch. When these kids go out into the business world and are tasked with a project, right off the bat, they'll have the business knowledge and the technical savvy to know what to do."
"Bryant is setting the standard for what business communicators can do and providing students with the tools to achieve those goals."
- Scott Maiocchi, Vice President and Director of Photography, A & M Productions
Finding the Right Workflow
To gain needed proficiency in editing, Maiocchi suggested that Bryant build a multimedia lab with editing workstations for each student. This way, students would avoid huddling around a single workstation in a cramped editing suite. Instead, they would have a comfortable environment in which to learn post skills. Maiocchi suggested equipping the lab with 12 Avid Xpress Pro editing systems connected to the LANshare shared-storage system to support a hands-on classroom environment in which students could simultaneously work on the same projects and media.
In addition, he recommended using three separate editing suites equipped with the more fully featured Avid Xpress Studio to leverage its integrated video, audio, effects, 3D, and DVD tools for more advanced project work.
The LANshare system, which uses economical Ethernet connections to individual workstations in the classroom and editing suites, is the media-networking solution that Bryant used to complement its campus-wide networking setup. This shared-storage network offers a fast, seamless workflow for students working at any editing station. "Not only can multiple students use the same media at the same time, LANshare also allows students to start creating commercials in the classroom and then go over to one of our advanced editing suites and keep working on the same project," says Lombardi. "Students love it."
The LANshare system is also easy to use and administer, says Greene, who provides technical support for the Communication Complex. "As we've learned to use the system, we've figured out some new ways to do things, and it is very easy to make changes. For example, we had four workspaces set up originally: one for projects and one for media in the multimedia lab, and one for projects and one for media shared among the editing suites. As we grow, we can easily move that around so that there are many more layers and levels of security."
Currently, storage space is utilized in equal increments among the various workspaces, but Greene intends to take full advantage of the LANshare system's flexibility to re-allocate storage space "on the fly." "As each new group of students comes in, we'll learn more about how to use storage most efficiently. It will be easy to do any tweaking we need," he says.
This scalable, professional technology setup provides the underpinnings for the Communication department to help students achieve their career goals. "I think Bryant is setting a standard that other schools should follow," says Maiocchi. "Sometimes with technology in place you don't realize what you have until a couple of years down the line. There is such great potential at Bryant. Bryant graduates will be able to apply their media-production knowledge to virtually everything they do on the Web, in films, in video - in their professional or personal lives. Producing, editing, shooting - I guarantee that this background will be big. Bryant is setting the standard for what business communicators can do and providing students with the tools to achieve those goals."
"We want students to be comfortable with technology, but to go beyond technology - to know how to read a balance sheet or how to construct a business plan."
- David Lux, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Educating Media Producers
The technology and engineering costs for the Communication Complex were funded through a successful capital campaign project and supplemented by a technology grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Groundbreaking for the new Communication Complex took place in May 2004, the equipment was installed in a matter of weeks by HB Communications of North Haven, Conn., and the first students began using the new facility in January 2005.
Today, the Communication Complex is used by students in basic and advanced television production courses. More specialized courses, for example on editing, are in the planning stages.
The facility has three primary purposes, explains Tom Dooley, who teaches the basic television production course and a six-week certification course for anyone who wants to learn and run the systems. "First, it has a purely educational function for students to learn how to produce media. Second, it supports the entire Bryant Community, providing a place for clubs and groups to produce their own work. Finally, it is designed to entice outside producers to shoot here, edit here, and employ our student crews, which gives students the opportunity to earn professional credits without having to leave campus," he says.
With its equal emphasis on production, postproduction, and distribution processes, students at Bryant learn how to produce projects from creative inception through to the delivery of masters. Classes typically begin with some in-class time during which students learn how to conduct an interview, compose an effective shot, and build a script. Up until last year, that's as far as the students could take their work. Now, with the Communication Complex in place, students can proceed to hands-on skills building by shooting, editing, and distributing their own pieces.
As part of their coursework, students typically produce 10-minute videos as their final projects. "They do promotional pieces for student clubs and activities on campus," says Dooley. "They bring someone in from the club, interview them in the TV studio, add field-produced footage, and edit it on Avid [systems], adding graphics and music."
"We have an amazing set of systems and equipment," says Greene about the professional setup, which includes Sony cameras in the studio and for field work, and a Barbizon stage lighting and control system. "We can record from VHS to DVCPro. We also have the ability to burn to DVD in the post rooms with Avid Xpress Studio. We can also encode QuickTime or Windows Media Player files for posting on our Web site for the message center or closed-circuit TV."
Essential to this workflow is the all-in-one Avid Xpress Studio suite with its integrated set of professional editing, finishing, and distribution tools, including Avid Xpress Pro video editing, Avid Pro Tools LE audio production, Avid 3D animation, Avid FX compositing and titling, Avid DVD authoring, and the Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite for Web encoding.
"The new facility is phenomenal - more than we ever thought it would be. The studio alone makes a terrific recruiting tool."
- Wendy Samter, Communication Professor and Chair of the Communication Department
Using a single system for such a wide range of functions offers a cost-effective way to expose students to every aspect of postproduction so they see how editing fits into the context of a broader production environment.
For students who want to explore additional editing functions, both the Avid Xpress Pro workstations in the multimedia lab and the Avid Xpress Studio suites offer sophisticated and easy-to-use features such as One-Touch and NaturalMatch automatic color correction, image stabilization with auto-zoom, and pan and zoom of oversized stills. The exposure to various advanced functions - which also include multicamera clip grouping and ganging, script-based editing, real-time animated alpha channels, and MetaSync for advanced metadata management on the timeline - provides a comprehensive overview of the postproduction area, enabling students to more fully understand how projects can be shaped in post.
Bryant also offers another added benefit: plenty of access to the Communication Complex. "What is great about Bryant is you can just hang out after class or join a club, and use the equipment. No one is going to kick you out. You can learn as much as you want, and people are always here to help you," says Greene.
Well Rounded and Fully Prepared
While hands-on production and postproduction skills are a requirement for Communication majors in the production track, it is just one part of the total educational experience in communication at Bryant, where the objective is to prepare well-rounded students who can enter the job market as effective and efficient producers of media in all industries.
"We want students to be comfortable with technology, but to go beyond technology - to know how to read a balance sheet or how to construct a business plan. We don't want them to have a major in media production so they can only run a camera or do lighting; we want them to understand what it takes to produce media," says Lux.
To prepare students to apply their production skills in different industries, Bryant provides various opportunities to produce media, including those that have social significance in the community. "My own research has turned to foster parenting, specifically recruiting and retention," says Samter. "We've found a way to work with the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Family.
Our students will soon be shooting footage for them in our own studio. Not only will they learn about how to use a camera, they will learn about the foster program too," she says.
To support the distribution of media, plasma screens are used in buildings around campus to display messages and air PSAs. For example, a safe driving PSA was created in one of the classes and broadcast on the plasma screens across campus. Students can send files directly from the Avid systems to a Web server for approval and distribution over the campus wide closed-circuit network.
This year, the university has formed a Media Production club for any student interested in producing their own projects. The club currently has 35 members who can take certification classes to learn how to use the media-production equipment. In addition, the facility is open to outside organizations and companies that can shoot their own pieces in the studio and use the editing facilities, or even employ students in their projects.
"We want this facility to be used as much as possible," says Lux. "What students and faculty want is to interact with each other and with the professional world. Rather than have a closed group with its own separate facility, we want a true interdisciplinary resource."
"Our goal is that in five to 10 years, we will have a Communication program here that is recognized as one of the best in the country."
- David Lux, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
A New Improved University
For the 2005-2006 school year, the number of declared Communication majors at Bryant doubled from the previous year, and Communication is one of the most popular minors on campus, giving the Communication department a strong start. "We have achieved all of our goals and objectives so far - to get the facility up and running, attract more students, and add faculty. Our first four-year class just graduated, and we have very successful career placement. As of today, we have 130 Communication majors and our classrooms are full," says Lux.
Not only full, Bryant classrooms are filled with more qualified students than ever before, and some of them are choosing Bryant over more well-known Communication programs. "I spoke with one incoming freshman who had been accepted at other top institutions and asked why she chose Bryant," says Lux. "She said, "It wasn't just the facilities, it was the attitude. Bryant just doesn't talk about communication in the same kind of way.""
It's likely that no one will be talking the same way about Bryant as it sets its sights on becoming a premier Communication program - especially one that offers a cost advantage when compared to other private institutions with similar programs. "We are not competing with Emerson or Syracuse. But we have something unique, something you just don't find anywhere else between Boston and New York. We really feel that if you take the very best of what you get at any Communication program in the country, that's what students get here. Then they get an extra layer that is informed by a business background, which puts them on a strong career path."
By all accounts, Byant's strategy to expand its liberal arts programs and provide top-notch technical resources has been successful. The university, with approximately 3,000 undergraduate students and nearly 500 graduate students, is currently enjoying some of the most impressive rankings in its history. In addition to placing second in the nation in The Princeton Review's "Top 25 Most Connected Campuses," it placed number 20 in the Masters 1 College/University Category (North) in U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges."
There is little doubt that the Communication Complex has been a terrific tool for attracting higher quality students and setting the stage for Bryant's thriving Communication program. "The new facility is phenomenal - more than we ever thought it would be. The studio alone makes a terrific recruiting tool," says Samter. "But it is the meshing of business and communication that gives graduates of Bryant a huge advantage over traditional communication students. It is another way for them to market themselves. With their strong business background, they have another body of knowledge that distinguishes them from others. It is one of the best selling points we have to attract students. It gives us a real leg up on a lot of Communication programs."
This competitive edge will likely help Bryant join the ranks of the most elite Communication programs in the U.S. and build on its already enviable record of placing 97 percent of its graduates in jobs or graduate school within six months of commencement. "Our goal is that in five to 10 years, we will have a Communication program here that is recognized as one of the best in the country. We are small enough that there are few hindrances in developing such a program and large enough to have the resources to do it right," says Lux. "As I look at the future, I'd like to see us double the size of the program to 200 or 300 students in the next five years and to add Communication courses at the graduate level. We've created an organizational framework to move in that direction. We want to be a leader in communications."
* Credit: Courtesy of Bryant University