JUSTINA KAISER | jakaiser@butler.edu | Contributing News Reporter
A basketball mishap left his leg in a cast.
Sports always dominated Mark Pearson’s life from five different high school activities to club basketball in college.
Three years after he entered Butler as a journalism major, Pearson had a chance to connect his education with his passion with the new sports media major.
Students can now begin to work toward four new majors: sports media, interactive media, astronomy and astrophysics and music instruction and performance.
“I’m looking forward to focusing in on exactly what I want to do later in life,” Pearson said.
Nine students have either switched their major or added one of the new sports media or interactive media majors. Seven freshmen have also signed up for the courses.
“When I came here, I didn’t know they were even trying to develop the sports media program, so it is kind of a blessing,” said sophomore McCarty Maxwell, an organizational communication and leadership and sports media double major.
Three incoming freshman and four current students in the physics and astronomy department have declared the astronomy and astrophysics major, Brian Murphy, professor of physics and astronomy said.
No students have chosen music instruction and performance yet.
Gary Edgerton, dean of the College of Communication, said these new majors are part of President James Danko’s 2020 vision’s first tenet – committing to distinguish the university amongst its peers. Butler offers its students more than 60 majors across six different schools, according to Butler’s website.
“Our goal isn’t just to build majors onto themselves,” Edgerton said. “Our goal is to find the best major for the student.”
Although the majors were announced last spring, admitted students were unable to sign up for them during last year’s registration. If a student were interested, he or she had to talk to an advisor separately to sign up for the new selections.
This year, admissions can fully advertise and offer the majors to incoming and current students.
“Butler is all about exploration, and we’re all about combining talents, strengths and interests,” said Aimee Scheuermann, director of admission. “It makes it feasible for our students to come in as one thing, discover something new, major in that area, and still manage to graduate in four years.”
