University of Louisiana Lafayette Adds Versatile Academic Degree

I graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (USL). I had planned to go to Louisiana State University (LSU) like my brother and sister had done, but LSU had punch cards, and USL had a $6.5M Multics system. As a computer scientist, accepting the academic scholarship to USL was one of the best decisions of my life.

My alma mater has since changed its name to the University of Louisiana Lafayette (ULL). Most states have two primary colleges, e.g., Arizona State University and University of Arizona, and all non-LSU colleges in Louisiana are clamoring to be "the other school." The two universities approach is a federal recommendation so that academic programs are centralized and not duplicated which would be a waste of education resources. Despite that USL already offered a doctoral program in Computer Science, LSU created its own program years later as Computer Science gained in popularity ...and my brother and sister wonder why I root against LSU in sporting events.

From the University of Louisiana Lafayette alumni magazine, I learned that ULL has created a new bachelor's degree program in Moving Image Arts. Those who attain this degree can work in film, television, animation, advertising, video games, educational media, or the military. About 40 students are currently enrolled in this new major. A degree like this offers probable employment opportunities for graduates as Louisiana ranks third (only behind California and New York) in states where domestic films are produced.

As part of working towards their degrees, students take courses like Single Camera Production, Document Editing, Screenwriting, and Introduction to Animation. I can't help but think how the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite would be a natural fit. After all, we offer our software to students for free as part of our Student Community. There are even specific suites for education.

At this point, the interdisciplinary study of Moving Image Arts is the only one of its kind in the state. Give it a few years, but you can expect to see the same degree offered in the future at LSU ...probably using a stack of old punched cards for that moving effect. Actually this will be welcome news, as the more students we can help, the better we like it.

Singing "We hail thee alma mater..." is alive in the lab.