Each semester, anxious students stalk ISIS for an open seat in Reporting, a make-or-break class in UF's College of Journalism and Communications.
But this summer there are plenty of empty seats.
While some attribute this to challenges in the journalism industry, others say the struggling economy is to blame.
The class is run by Master Lecturer Mike Foley, who said about 80 students registered for the 100 seats in the class.
Although the college is offering the traditional five Reporting sections, Helga Williams, an office assistant in the college, said enrollment is down this summer.
"I'm thinking students just don't have the money to be here," she said.
According to UF's Web site, the three-credit course costs $377.73 and an additional $18.67 for lab supplies.
April Shapiro, who advises freshmen and sophomores in the college, said she is surprised that the number of declared journalism majors is strong despite the struggling newspaper industry.
"I would think they would be shying away from going into journalism, but we're still getting people coming out of high school who are interested," she said.
Shapiro added that many people are learning how to manage online news content instead of print.
"[News] is never going to go away," she said. "It's just changing and evolving."
Sandra Storr, a program assistant in the Office of Student Services, said that Applied Fact Finding and Newspaper Editing, courses for third-year journalism majors, were not being offered this summer. She said the fact that the college is offering Problems and Ethics in Journalism in Society may explain the change.
Like Shapiro, Storr said she hadn't seen a decrease in interest for a journalism degree, adding that students may have to apply the skills learned for print journalism elsewhere.
"Based on what I've seen, I don't see any panic," Storr said.
