FMS Advising
Kayla Ciardi is the Academic Advisor for Film and Media Studies (FMS). She advises FMS majors and minors on a semester to semester basis to help students make progress on degree requirements, select courses, and find a variety of resources across campus. If you do not find the answer to your advising question in the FAQ’s below, you can contact Kayla at 405 325-2004 or email her at ciardi.k@ou.edu.
Please Note: If you have elected to have your directory information withheld through the Office of Academic Records, you may not be notified of important academic deadlines. It is your responsibility to be aware of such deadlines.
FMS is the discipline that studies and analyzes film, television, and new media. We think about media as an art form, an industry, and a creative practice. Courses in FMS cover media production as well as media history and theory. They tend to focus on fictional narrative film and media, as opposed to documentary or avant-garde traditions.
Sure. In fact, the FMS curriculum requires one Creative Skills course to be chosen from any of the production courses in FMS, ART, ATC, or JMC. Over half of the FMS curriculum consists of FMS Major Electives and Guided Electives. The FMS Core requirements are all film studies courses, like “Introduction to Film and Media Studies,” “Film and Media History to 1960” and “1960 to Present,” and “Media Theories and Methodologies,” but you can choose to take production courses to fulfill your elective requirements.
Please email the academic advisor to discuss declaring the major, or students can add or drop Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences majors/minors during business hours with the Academic Services office located on the first floor of Ellison Hall, room 124. A major change can only be requested by the student with a valid ID and confirmed by an academic advisor.
Kayla Ciardi is the FMS advisor. You can email her at ciardi.k@ou.edu
Advising for the Spring and Summer terms generally starts mid-October. Advising for the Fall term typically starts mid-March. You will receive an email during the Fall and Spring semesters prompting you to schedule an appointment with Kayla to get advised. Please also check the FMS Resources Canvas page for important advising information. If you do not have access to the FMS Resource Canvas page, please email Kayla Ciardi at ciardi.k@ou.edu to get added as soon as possible.
If you are a declared FMS major, you can log on to iAdvise to schedule an appointment. You will see Kayla's name there. If you have not declared the FMS major yet, you will not be able to schedule an appointment on iAdvise. In that case, contact the College of Arts & Sciences front office and ask to schedule an appointment, or email the advisor directly at ciardi.k@ou.edu. Please note: if iAdvise says the advisor's schedule is full, that does not indicate the schedule is full for the rest of the term. Please check for open appointments frequently (on business days). The advisor regularly opens up more appointments for future weeks on a weekly basis.
FMS is housed in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). All students in CAS must be advised to have their advising hold removed. It is CAS policy.
Advising for the Spring and Summer terms generally starts mid-October. Advising for the Fall term typically starts mid-March.
Regular semester advising appointments are 30 minutes in length.
As a Freshman, you must be advised in University College (or Honor’s College, if applicable). Only those advisors can lift your advising hold. However, if you would like to visit with Kayla about your classes, schedule, or graduation plan, you can email her at ciardi.k@ou.edu and she will be happy to answer questions via email or arrange a meeting with you if necessary.
New Transfer Students must be advised in the College of Arts and Sciences Academic Services office. Call them at 405 325-4411 to schedule an appointment.
No, you are not required to be advised for the minor. However, if you would like to speak with Kayla about the minor, you can email her to schedule an appointment or ask questions at ciardi.k@ou.edu. Be sure to consult the FMS Minor checksheet.
When you log on to https://one.ou.edu, on the front page, you will see a box for the semester in which you wish to enroll. Follow the links to where it tells you when your Enrollment Window opens.
| Hold Type | Who to contact |
|---|---|
| Admissions | Admissions Office, Buchanan Hall 127 |
| Alcohol Policy | Take required online training at onpoint.ou.edu |
| Academic Misconduct | Provost Office, Evans Hall 105 |
| College Academic Hold | CAS Academic Services, Ellison Hall 124 |
| Curricular Deficiency | CAS Academic Services, Ellison Hall 124 |
| Graduation Hold | Bursar's Office, Buchanan Hall 105 |
| Health Center | Goddard Health Center, Insurance counter |
| Immunization | Goddard Health Center, Insurance counter |
| Registrar | Registrar, Buchanan Hall 226 |
| Title IX | Take required online training at onpoint.ou.edu. |
Some departments are very strict about not over-enrolling classes. Those departments use the waiting list function on one.ou.edu to control enrollment.If there is a waiting list for a closed course, get on the list. You can get on more than one waiting list if there are multiple sections.
Only the instructor can decide if s/he can teach more students than allowed in a class. Email the instructor to ask permission. If permission is granted and the course is an FMS course, forward the email to Kayla and she will issue you an override. Please include your Sooner ID.
Only the instructor can decide if a student can be successful in a class if the student does not have the stated prerequisite. If you want to gain admittance to a class without having the stated prerequisite, email the instructor and make your case why you think you can succeed without having credit in the prerequisite required. If it is an FMS class and you are granted permission to take it by the instructor, forward that email to Kayla, the academic advisor, for the necessary override.
FMS majors do have access to introductory level production courses in ART and JMC. Those departments will waive their prerequisites for FMS majors knowing that FMS majors come with a knowledge of film language from FMS 1013. You need to email the instructor of the ART courses for permission. For JMC permissions, you can email the instructor or the JMC advisor, Joshua Kahoe (joshkahoe@ou.edu).
The first meeting time listed is the lecture period, which meets two or three times a week. The second meeting time is for the screening and meets only once a week. The room for the screening period is reserved for 2 hours and 15 minutes. However, if the film is only 90 minutes long, you will get out after the film is over. The third meeting time denotes the final exam and meets only on one day of the semester. Please note: the meeting times are not ordered in that format. They can actually appear in any order.
Many FMS professors are accommodating when it comes to screening time conflicts and will allow you to make up one of the screenings on your own time. Arrangements to see the missed film can be made through the FMS Media Lab. You will need to view the film before the next class lecture. To enroll when you have a screening time conflict, you will need written permission/email from one of the professors allowing you to make up the screening on your own time. You will need to bring that note/email to Enrollment Services (Buchannan Hall, 2nd Floor) for a Time-Conflict Override.
You can find information on FMS Internships on our website
On your enrollment screen, there are tabs above the list of your courses. Select the “Schedule and Options” tab. You will find a place there to change from 1 to 3 credit hours.
An independent study is direct one-on-one study with a professor about a topic not offered by FMS. For example, if you took “The Hollywood Musical” and were blown away by An American in Paris but had never even heard of Vincent Minnelli before, you may decide you want to learn more about this director and his work. You could ask your professor if you could take his/her section of FMS 4990. Together, you would develop a reading list and film list, decide on a focus, meet weekly to discuss your research, and then write a research paper. As implied by the title of the course, the student is expected to be able to work independently.
Before you begin your senior year, you need to get a degree check. A degree check provides an official accounting of the remaining requirements for graduation. You can make a Degree Check appointment with your major advisor via iAdvise.
Yes, as a summer graduate, you can participate in the May graduation and commencement ceremonies. You can order your gowns and regalia through Jostens at https://www.jostens.com/.
FMS Chair, Dr. Man Fung Yip, is a great resource to find out about the various graduate film programs and applying to graduate school in general. Other FMS faculty are available as well.
