The University of Denver will undergo strategic academic restructuring for multiple departments, including the combination of the departments of Media, Film and Journalism Studies (MFJS) and Communication Studies, throughout the 2026-27 academic school year.
This combination will create opportunities for students to take different classes, pursue new majors and network with professors and students they wouldn’t previously work with
“This is not duct taping two old things together and calling it something new,” said Derigan Silver, the department chair of Media, Film and Journalism Studies. “This is truly creating something new and exciting and interesting.”
Mary Claire Loftus, the department chair of Communication Studies at DU is equally as excited about the opportunities that will come with this merger.
“Anything new that we develop with the curriculum will give students more options and different faculty to work with,” said Loftus.
The current departments of Media, Film and Journalism Studies and Communication Studies cover similar topics, and many students double major across the two departments, according to Silver and Loftus.
Though this merger will have a large impact on what classes are taught in these two departments, popular classes in these departments will not be affected. Silver and Loftus emphasized that instead, there will be increased opportunities to take more interesting classes while earning their degrees at DU.
There’s currently some uncertainty on the specifics of this merger. The primary uncertainty for Silver and Loftus is a clear-cut curriculum for the new unit. The curriculum for this new unit is still under development. The name for the merged department is also being developed. Though Loftus and Silver are experimenting with “Communication and Media Arts” as a moniker.
“It’s a little bit piecemeal right now,” said Silver. “We’re kind of walking the line. We’re not quite sure on a lot of things. Once we sort of get those in line, then we’ll do a big announcement, probably in the winter or maybe the spring, and really explain what this means and what our identity going forward is going to be.”
“We’re letting current students know it’s happening, we’re working on it, and we’re going to keep [students] updated as things become more defined,” Loftus said.
With these uncertainties looming over the merger, Loftus and Silver are using input from the student body through surveys done in MFJS and Communication Studies classes between Sept. 28 and Sept. 29 to guide them towards a curriculum that would be best for students in this merger. Additionally, surveys were held last year in MFJS and Communication Studies classes to gain some initial insight on what departments would be best to combine and why.
“We’re very much interested in getting input from students, what their interests are and what excites them about possible combinations between the two departments,” Loftus said.
Loftus and Silver began analyzing data last year about what departments and majors students are transferring to and from to gain a sense of what redundancies can be eliminated by combining the two departments. Eliminating these redundancies creates more robust learning opportunities for students. This data also provided insight into what majors and departments excited students in particular.
Another significant concern regarding this combination for Loftus and Silver is how these two departments are going to communicate this transition to both current and incoming students without creating mass concern about degree requirements
“I worry about students who are worried that something that they came to DU for is going away,” Silver stated. “That’s one of the things we really want to communicate to people. If you’re at DU and you love your major, you can keep it.”
Loftus added that their communication with the student body regarding these changes is going to have to be very intentional to avoid confusing current and incoming students.
According to Silver and Loftus, staff and faculty members—particularly in admissions—are optimistic about the potential of the proposed merger. The opportunity to network with other staff members and create new relationships between these two departments is beneficial all around.
“The initial feedback we have from staff at admissions is that they’re very excited because they think this is going to attract more students,” Silver said.
“We have a lot of support through staff and administration in the college just to make sure this process goes really smoothly and works well for everybody involved,” Loftus stated.
Clearly defined goals for this merger have had a tremendous impact on where this merger is going in the future—uncertainties and all.
“One of our major goals is to attract new students and to make our students happier,” Silver said.
There is still much to be done about the logistics of this merger. Particularly how the curriculum will look and operate as these two departments come together. As Loftus and Silver work towards a clearly defined curriculum that provides new opportunities to build connections between these two departments, current students won’t have to worry about following this new curriculum if they’re already invested in their current curriculum. Any incoming students will be required to follow the new curriculum.
Many questions remain regarding the specifics of this merger. Combining the departments of MFJS and Communication Studies has the potential to provide several new and exciting opportunities for new and current students studying majors specific to these departments.
