Busting J-School Silos

I really liked Amy Gahran's article; I definitely think that there is too much emphasis put on certain things in journalism programs. Gahran says, "everything in academia 'takes time'--and lots of it." That is so true! Just the programs set in place take time for students to complete--let alone coming up with the programs in the first place and getting them into play. I also think that with the face of journalism changing rapidly, the courses in journalism should also change, and rapidly.
I know that U of I has that News-Gazette writing class now that is really neat, and a very good idea. But there is no way a lot of students have the time for that kind of a class with all of the other requirements that they have.
I also think that a lot of time is spent on dragging out courses, when students could get more information in and more done if they spent less time in class, and more time at home studying or working on their homework. Journalism school requirements here are somewhat repetitive, too, I thought. I took J200 and J400 at the same time, because I was a transfer, and it was basically the exact same class, except J400 just took a little more of my time. I know that there have to be some stepping stones, but when trying to get out of school on time and trying to encompass as much necessary knowledge as possible, it sometimes gets a little frustrating.
I think that departments getting together and sort of picking a minor through journalism, like journalism and business or journalism and political science, would be good things. It would also be nice if you could partner with the English department, and do some creative writing with journalism. A lot of journalists go on to become novelists, and I know that is something I'm interested in, and so are a lot of other people.