Department of Communication

The Department of Communication

Vision:
We embrace communication as the foundation of the human experience. We value education and scholarship that fosters critical thinking and communicative understandings necessary for creatively engaging contemporary social life.

Mission:
We provide quality education in the theory and practice of human communication. In particular:
1. We explore the ways communication produces and reproduces our social world.
2. We promote critical thinking, creativity, innovation, and communicative competency.
3. We encourage active personal, organizational, and civic engagement.
4. We foster engaged learning environments, quality research, and creative endeavors.

Department Statement:
The communication discipline looks at how theories, philosophies, and the roles people assume, operate in personal and public arenas. We study how people articulate their ideas, create and interpret meaning, interact, and produce and analyze messages both face to face and through the media. All programs emphasize critical thinking, problem-solving, research, and independent scholarship. Issues of specific concern are cultural perception, social ethics, creativity, and freedom of expression. Most classes are speaking and/or writing-intensive, and all focus on the interdependence of theory and practice.