UAM to Offer New Communication Major

Around Campus Editor

   Did you know the University of Arkansas at Monticello begins offering a new major this coming semester? 

   With preregistration beginning April 11 and ending April 22, students can declare a communication major and choose an emphasis constructed from the current speech and journalism offerings, as well as a new emphasis in performance. 

   The new course listing takes effect with the fall 2011 semester. The communication major requires 36 hours, 15 core hours and 21 from a specific emphasis. 

   The core requirements for the communication major require five courses: 

• COMM 2203 Interpersonal Communication 
• COMM 2223 Modern Media Literacy 
• COMM 2273 Argumentation and Debate 
• COMM 3XX3 Communication Writing 
• COMM 4653 Theories of Human Communication 

The Speech Emphasis 

   The speech emphasis comes from the speech major previously offered with subtle changes. Jim Evans, instructor of speech communication and the director of debate and forensics, will continue teaching courses similar to the speech courses. During the fall 2011 semester, he will teach three courses. 

   “There are subtle variations with what you have to take,” Evans said, but for the most part the speech emphasis closely follows the old speech major. 

   “The debate and forensics class is a competition class. It’s for the debate team,” he said. He teaches it every semester as a link to the debate team. The Argumentation and Debate course will be taught every fall and concentrates on persuasive communication. The Public Speaking course, which can be taken as a general education requirement, will also be offered this fall. 

   The speech emphasis requires 12 hours with: 

• COMM 3513 Introduction to Oral Interpretation or COMM 4663 Performance Studies 
• COMM 3483 Communication in Small Groups or COMM 3533 Communication in Organizations 
• COMM 3453 Persuasion 
• COMM 4623 Seminar: Rhetorical Theory 

   Students must also complete nine hours of elective COMM courses, of which at least three must be upper division courses. A supportive requirement of COMM 1023 Public Speaking, must also be completed. 

   “I think it will help students in any area that they want to go into," Evans said. "Communications is at the crossroads of a bunch of different disciplines and I think with any area you want to go in to being able to communicate gives you a leg up. It makes you a better manager, it makes you better in whatever you want to get in to. It’s a good, solid major that will help students in the future."

   Careers in human resources, business management, and other related fields can all benefit from the new major and emphasis. 

The Media Emphasis 

   Journalism, once its own major at UAM, will be integrated into the communication major as the media emphasis. The emphasis will focus on teaching students to be wise consumers of media, making sure the student controls how media influences them instead of letting the media control the students. 

   Students will also learn key aspects of the media industry, specifically how to determine the value of news, how to report it and how to edit it for mass consumption. 

   Ronald Sitton, associate professor of journalism, will teach COMM 2013 Modern Media Literacy, COMM 2211 Journalism Lab, COMM 3013 Newswriting, COMM 3033 Communication Writing and COMM 4033 News Editing for the fall 2011 semester. 

   “I am very happy we will be able to continue the journalistic track through the media emphasis in the new communications major,” Sitton said. “We worked really hard in order to bring it back.” 

   The media emphasis requires nine hours in the following courses: 

• COMM 3013 Reporting 
• COMM 4033 Editing 
• COMM 4623 Seminar: Law and Ethics 

   The emphasis also requires 12 additional COMM hours with at least six upper division hours. Supportive requirements include ART 1XX3 Digital Photography and COMM 2283 Business and Professional Speech. 

   “Considering the quality of work ‘The Voice’ put out as evidenced by the awards it continues to win on the state level, I am certain our future journalists will make our former journalism majors proud,” Sitton said. 

The Performance Emphasis 

   The final emphasis in the communication major comes will help students with the desire to perform drama and improve their acting skills. 

   Several classes will be offered during the fall semester for the performance emphasis. 

   Gary Marshall, professor of speech communication, will teach two courses under the new COMM structure. The tentative fall 2011 semester shows Marshall teaching three classes of COMM 2203 Interpersonal Communications as well as a course in COMM 4663 Performance Study. 

   Kay Walter, assistant professor of English, will also teach and help students work with the performance emphasis. 

   “This (emphasis plan) is really, as I understand it, sort of cutting edge. This is the sort of thing bigger schools do with their communications major,” Walter said. 

   Walter said students may have been able to study drama at UAM decades ago, but such a direction has not be available recently except for the musical performance aspect offered through the music department. But with the performance emphasis, students can now learn how to interpret drama pieces, perform and direct those performances for an audience. 

   “I am very interested in drama as a form of literature," Walter said. "Drama is a unique genre because it requires an audience—it invites an audience—and the emotionally and social interaction between the actors and the audience always affects the performance. In order to really perform a piece of drama, you have to not just read it, you have to understand it. Otherwise, nobody understands what you say,” she said. “When you understand the piece, it’s easier to help your audience gain meaning. Drama requires interaction that results in meaning.” 

   “This is inventive," she said. "Faculty members are trying really hard to think outside the box to bring an opportunity to our students that you can’t really couldn’t get in this way at other schools in Arkansas.”  

   The performance emphasis requires 12 hours in the following courses: 

• COMM 3513 Introduction to Oral Interpretation 
• COMM 3523 Acting 
• COMM 4643 Directing 
• COMM 4663 Performance Studies 

   The emphasis also requires nine additional of COMM courses as electives of which at least three must be upper division.

   Walter will offer a substitute course in the fall, ENGL 4723 Seminar: Drama as Literature. She said she had substantial interest when she offered it this past semester. 

   The class will study Oscar Wilde’s “The Important of Being Earnest” as well as some of Wilde’s other works. 

   “We’ll study his body of works, the time period in which he lived and wrote, what he was responding to socially and culturally, as well as the cutting-edge emphasis he brought to the comedy of the day,” Walter said. The class will culminate in a performance of the play. 

   The UAM Theater Club has kept performance drama alive on campus with its annual performance of the Shakespeare Festival. One of the club’s goals as a student organization “has been to keep nonmusical theater alive and interesting on campus until there’s a venue for studying it more formally,” Walter said. Now that goal has been realized. 

   If you have questions about the curriculum, the instructors mentioned will be glad to answer any questions. This new major and its emphases will help UAM provide students with more opportunity to expand their minds while learning to communicate better in different ways.

Have a comment? Please e-mail us.

©The Voice 2011