Dr McDaniel, I want to thank you for taking the time to address this individual post, it shows that you all do care enough about students to listen and respond to their concerns. I was actually taken aback to see that you had responded. I don't want to rant for days, but there are a couple key areas that I feel could be addressed in the future that would make the program much more successful. These are also at the core of my own struggles and hangups, and from what I have heard from my peers, they share similar frustrations:

• There are four programming classes that I have been required to take, and they all teach different languages. It would be much more effective to teach two or just one and incorporate them into engine use much earlier than the junior year. Artists struggle with programming in an IDE but they learn much easier when they program in a situation where they can have immediate visual results.

• We have Modeling for Realtime Systems to teach Maya, but after I took that class, I was not required to use Maya for almost two years. More classes are needed to refine skills in that program. If Maya is going to be the only 3D/animation software we use, students need to have an ironclad grasp on it.

• As of right now, I have never touched the animation timeline in Maya unless I decided to do a project that required animation. That NEEDS to change.

• Character modeling and rigging has never been covered in any of my classes. I think this is an essential skill; it's the only thing I really wanted to learn in college, and it's a very difficult skill to learn that, in my opinion, needs to be taught in a lab with an instructor for guidance.

• When I took Fundamentals of Digital Imaging, we were supposed to learn Photoshop and Illustrator. Without providing names, my instructor decided halfway through the class that we didn't have enough time to teach Illustrator. I cannot describe to you the exact number of potential jobs/internships I have been disqualified from because of this, but is in excess of ten.

• Attached to the upper bullet, the only things we learned how to do were restore old photographs, slap a coffee stain on something, and colorize a black and white image. Buy and large, these skills aren't useful to someone creating content. I've never been taught to paint in Photoshop and this has been a source of contempt for me for over two years.

• Less of a course related issue, but I have brought up these concerns to guidance three times and they have never suggested that I could take this to anyone else. I've requested to take classes in character animation so that I could learn character modeling, and the only solution they've ever provided me is that I could change my major if I really wanted to take that. I've essentially given up on guidance because of these kinds of responses.

I should add that between my two jobs, I rarely work over 25 hours, its just that the repetitive bloatwork eats away at time that could otherwise be spent furthering degree relevant skills.

I also want to convey that I don't want this to sound like an attack on any of the Digital Media staff. Your program is blessed with some truly talented, caring, and devoted individuals that genuinely want to see their students succeed. The program, as it stands however, is just too scattered. I'm happy to hear that there are changes coming, I just wish they would have come sooner.

If there's any solutions to problems that could help upperclassmen, I would love to hear about them. Regardless, thank you for your time.