Senior Kraig Koch does not plan on entering the film industry after graduation, but he decided to pick up the new film studies minor in his last year at Eastern anyway.

“I don’t know if I’ll use it for anything or not but I watch a lot of movies,” said the English major who tacked on the second minor to his resume this fall.

He learned the new film studies minor would be offered for the first time this fall after taking a film class with English professor Robin Murray last year.

“I really enjoyed the film class I took with her,” Koch said. “It really wasn’t a lot of extra work to pick up the minor.”

After working to get the minor approved and added to Eastern’s curriculum last year, Murray is now focusing on drawing more student attention to the minor, even though she’s on sabbatical this semester.

“It’s a good idea to put some energy in (the minor) right away,” Murray said. “(Being on sabbatical) gives me time to be supportive of the minor.”

The new focus on films was the result of trying to give some coherence to the film classes already being offered at Eastern, said Jeff Lynch, associate dean of the college of arts and humanities.

“Film has been an academic study for 60 years on American campuses,” Lynch said. “But we weren’t studying it in a coherent way.”

Film courses being taught in different departments like English, history and theater were attracting student interest individually and the college wanted to offer a way for students to learn about the different points-of-view each department was offering, Lynch said.

“It’s going to have students thinking seriously about film,” Lynch said. “I think it’ll attract a good audience.”

But that audience seems to be a little slow in showing up so far this fall. The number of students who have declared the new film studies minor will not be available until later in the year, but the film society Murray is organizing to help promote the minor has had meager attendance so far.

“It’s in its beginning stages but we have plans for the future,” Murray said. “We think creating a film culture is going to help expand the film minor.”

Koch is one of about 10 students who have shown up to the film societies first two meetings this year.

“I think as long as we can get the word out, hopefully people will get interested and start coming,” he said.

The film society plans to screen movies every Monday night in the Colman Hall auditorium.

“We choose films that you wouldn’t normally see and might not know about,” Koch said. “It’s a good way to get exposed to films that might go under the radar and that aren’t as well known to most students.”

Once the Doudna Fine Arts Center is completed, the courses and film viewings will be able to movie to the state-of-the-art facilities designed for film classes, Murray said.

For more information about the film studies minor or the film society, call Murray at 581-6985.