Communications

Comment

Comment by John Chetro Szivos on December 30, 2009 at 10:37am

Hello from Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg MA. Our department is 600 undergrads in concentrations of professional communication, film & video production, graphic design, web and game design, communication studies, and photography. We also have a MS and CAGS in Applied Communication with about 50 graduate students. Our emphasis is on merging theory and practice with an aggressive internship program. We love to boast about our 2 Academy Award winners and many Emmy Award winners.

While our students do take many production based courses all students are required to take an equal number of communication theory courses.

We have 18 full time faculty that are very active in their fields and we have worked hard to create a supportive environment where students and faculty work together.

I am looking forward to hearing about your departments as well and maybe sharing ideas of best practice.

Comment by Chris Blair, Ph.D. on December 11, 2009 at 11:19pm

Greetings from Union University in Jackson, Tennessee! We definitely enjoy the diversity that is communications at our place. Our Communication Arts department offers majors in: Advertising, Broadcast Journalism, Digital Media, Journalism, Media Communications, Public Relations, Speech, and Theatre. Being a relatively small, private university (3700 students) seems to have its benefits. Our department is housed in a College of Arts & Sciences, and we have been expanding our offerings over the past few years.

We have a long tradition in Theatre & Speech (1800s), and have offered courses in Broadcasting, Journalism and Public Relations since the early 1980s.

Interdisciplinary (I prefer to call it multidisciplinary) programs are huge on our campus. We are also encouraged to "branch out" and find ways to offer more with what we have. It is truly a mixed blessing. We have had successes with a multidisciplinary Digital Media Studies program, combining courses in Art, Communication Arts, and Computer Science. We have also created a Film Studies minor that combines courses from Communication Arts, English, Philosophy and Political Science.

In our core, either Public Communication or Interpersonal Communication is required of all undergraduate students, with a couple of small exceptions.

Definitely looking forward to discussions with fellow communicators.

Comment by Gloria P. Ruiz on November 26, 2009 at 1:44am

It amazes me how communications is such a diverse and comprehensive area of study that is so difficult to place within a particular unit yet it is what makes it so dynamic. We used to be a department of English, Communications and Humanities. Then our university restructured and we were placed in the School of Leadership Studies with Education and Professional Studies and Communications transformed into an Institute. (I am serving as the Interim Dean.) I like the focus as it allows for the curriculum to branch out creatively yet it is challenging because as we branch out we also find we need the collaboration of other schools and programs such as the School of Business for our graduate Arts Management specialization. In addition, being an institute puts greater burden on our limited resources as expectations have increased for this area's performance.

Comment by Laura Garcia on November 25, 2009 at 11:39am

Hi Donnell - I am sorry your course offerings were gutted. I hope that is not a trend.

When I started here at WSCC, we were mostly public speaking with some interpersonal. The theater teacher was the lead professor and we were in Liberal Arts.

Then, we ended up in Social Sciences with a lead professor that was a speech/philosophy guy, expanded interpersonal and did crosscultural once a year as a special topic class.

Now I am the lead - I have a background in communication studies. We are back in Liberal Arts due to some internal reshuffling to try to give the Arts & Sciences chairs equal divisions of disciplines

We now offer all three classes every quarter and teach face 2 face, online and blended.

Mass media, electronic media etc. are in our business technologies side of the college.

I personally think crosscultural and interpersonal belong with sociology and psychology in the social sciences division, but Liberal Arts seems to be the catch-all for a lot of disciplines that don't really have a home.

I am just glad they kept speech communication with a lead professor when the previous lead left. We don't have a lead professor in sociology anymore, for instance. The social sciences chair coordinates the classes with adjuncts as instructors.

Comment by Donnell King on November 24, 2009 at 7:33pm

Greetings! I teach at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, TN. Our communication classes used to include public speaking, business and professional speaking, and interpersonal communication until someone in Nashville gutted the program. Now we only have public speaking in the speech area, but we have an intro to mass media and a newswriting course for journalism/electronic media as well. Speech is a required course for all degree-seeking students. About 80% of our students are in university transfer courses, and the public speaking course transfers pretty much to any state four-year school.

Comment by Laura Garcia on November 24, 2009 at 5:58pm

Hi Gloria - I am part of the Liberal Arts Transfer program at Washington State Community College (Ohio) where one can transfer into a 4 year institution. My communication classes are TAG and/or Transfer module classes and also are Gen Ed classes. In short, our comm. classes transfer into any Ohio state-funded college.