Posted August 25, 2017
If campus seems like it’s teeming with new faces this fall, that’s because it is. This year’s freshman class is the biggest to date, and the College of Information and Communications is taking steps to make sure its newest Gamecocks feel right at home.
More than 400 freshmen and transfer students joined the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, a school record. To kick off the fall semester, the SJMC hosted Welcome Wednesday on the eve of the first day of class. Promising free pizza and school T-shirts, the event drew more than 200 students. It showcased the various journalism-related student organizations and gave students a chance to meet faculty, staff and fellow classmates.
Student organizations, including the Student Ad Federation, PRSSA, and the Association for Black Journalists, hosted information booths at Welcome Wednesday. And Campus Media pitched opportunities with the Daily Gamecock, Garnet & Black magazine, WUSC Radio and SGTV.
“It’s definitely enriching to meet new people and to experience this school for the first time,” said broadcast journalism student Trey Martin. “I’m excited for the next four years.”
At the School of Library and Information Science, more than two dozen students turned out for the BSIS Kickoff, an impressive showing for the small — but rapidly expanding — major. About a third of the program’s students enrolled this fall.
The event, open to information science majors and minors, was an opportunity for classmates to connect over pizza. Afterward, attendees posed for photos with Cocky. Students met their professors and learned what to expect from the program. The afternoon closed with a session on the multitude of careers available to students after graduation.
Freshman LeAnne Davison attended the kickoff. The Greenville native sees information science as the perfect foundation for a future lawyer.
“I think technology is going to have a big role in the field of law,” Davison says. “I think it will give me an advantage when I apply to law school because it’s not necessarily a common thing that people have.”