SU Prepares for New Esports Majors | News Live at 6
By Cora Mayer-Costa
Syracuse University will offer an eSports major to undergraduate students this fall. The major has been built in combination with Falk and Newhouse, combining the core of both programs.
Each eSport major student will be able to choose one of three tracks to specialize in. There will be eSports communications, business and management, plus eSports design offered. Newhouse alone created 11 new courses for the major, each focusing on eSports in conjunction with broadcasting. Current sport courses are being used as a model to be adapted for the new major. Students will learn how to produce live eSport events and delve into the story-telling aspect through courses created by the visual communications department.
Even though the New York Senate approved a set core curriculum for the major, the courses offered for the eSports major will change with the industry. Olivia Stomski, director of the Newhouse Sports Media Center, sees eSports as a constantly developing industry. “We’re finding that out on a month-by-month basis as the industry grows. So those classes will be added, but the actual core curriculum will not change,” said Stomski.
Syracuse University eSports team captain, Braeden Cheverie, is excited for these new concrete developments after working with faculty to refine the concept of the major. “Get involved while you can,” said Cheverie. “We’re seeing tournaments hosted at Madison Square Garden and other big name places, like typical sports venues.”
Syracuse University already has plans to build two new eSports facilities. One will be located in the Schine Student Center, while the other will be placed in the newly acquired Marley building.
Cecilia Chien, the president of the eSports club at SU, sees this new major as an opportunity to recruit new talent. Chien says she is hopeful the eSports major “will really bring legitimacy to the eSports scene here at school.”
SU will be the first of its size, as a R-1 institution, to adopt an eSports major. Students who major in eSports can expect to have the majority of their core major classes inside of the Marley building.
