Clayton Rye, who taught courses in the television digital and media production program, is retiring after 23 years of teaching at Ferris.
Rye came to Ferris in 1988 originally to teach film production in order to teach students how to make movies.
Rye said film production used to be a big part of Ferris, but it is not anymore. Now he is looking forward to participating in different activities and getting involved in different hobbies as his chapter at Ferris comes to a close.
Although Ferris at first hired Rye for film production, the media took a different direction and the teachings of television and digital media began to take film production’s place.
Rye said there were multiple reasons he chose to retire. One of those particular reasons was the change in technology over the past few decades.
Since the signal for television has transitioned from analog to digital, the constant changes and editing of television is a complicated matter.
“It gets hard to keep up with it,” Rye said of the changes that had been taking place.
Rye said one of the things he is most looking forward to as a retired professor is traveling and visiting different places. Rye also plans to pursue real estate fix-up projects. He is also looking forward to doing some pleasure reading in place of reading scripts from students over the years. He said he misses his students’ creativity.
Though he enjoyed reading scripts written by a variety of Ferris students with different ideas and projects, Rye is glad he now has spare for the hobbies he enjoys.
There is a lot Rye is going to miss as he leaves Ferris. For two decades, he has taught many students about television media production, while adjusting to all of the changes that occurred in the media and television business.
Most of all, Rye is going to miss teaching his students and his Ferris colleagues.
Rye said not coming back in the fall to teach new and familiar faces, as well as seeing his co-workers, may be the most difficult aspect of his retirement.
“I am going to miss developing friendships with the students,” said Rye.
However, Rye is not going to completely leave his enjoyment of media and television behind. He said he might eventually work on some video projects.
“I do have a script or two that I started and want to finish up,” said Rye.