The Nebraska Department of Communication Studies Story: There are Happy Endings that Go Beyond Football and a Good Crop Year

This article discusses a proposed targeting of the Department of Communication Studies of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for total elimination, as of September 1995. The department, housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, offers courses of study leading to the bachelor\u27s, master\u27s and doctoral degrees. The Nebraska State Legislature mandated that the university system budget cut 3 percent, or $3.8 million from its budget, over two years. The financial situation in the state at the time of the budget mandate was generally good in comparison to other states. It is important to know that the university campus was under an interim leadership team during the budget crisis. At the time of the proposed budget cuts instead of eleven full-time faculty the department had ten of its eleven full-time faculty

Envisioning a Capstone Course in Communication: The View from a Departmental Armchair

For many departments, the need to develop an assessment package has been the driving force in the consideration of adding a capstone course to their communication curricula. But there are other reasons to justify the creation of such a course. In general, the capstone course has been described by some as a course in which students are required to integrate diverse bodies of knowledge to solve a problem or formulate a policy of societal importance. The dictionary describes a capstone as the “final or crowning part.” That may be a bit presumptuous, but it illustrates the notion of what most educators think of when they speak of a capstone course—a course that allows students to put closure on what they have learned. I conceptualize the capstone as a required course at the end of a series of courses within a given major that allows students to synthesize, research, and demonstrate what they have learned. While the capstone serves as an important assessment outlet for faculty within a department, giving them clear indications of what students have been taught, what they have learned, how well they have learned it, what skills they have developed as a result of taking courses in the major, what gaps exist in either the curriculum or in individual course content, it also serves as a “check” for students. Students not only inventory what they know but they also receive a synthesizing experience, one which challenges them to discover overlaps, inconsistencies, and prevailing trends within a discipline. A capstone course exposes, like no other type of course, students’ critical thinking abilities. Yet, given all of the pluses related to offering a capstone course, there are many pragmatic decisions to make when faculty actually sit down and start discussing the potential for such a course. Before I begin my list of “important decisions,” let me offer the caveat that there is little or no research that I am aware of that has been conducted on capstone courses, their place in a curriculum, their function as assessment opportunities, etc. Thus, much of the information provided here is anecdotal or “armchair” thinking from an administrator’s point of view, drawn from discussions with my own faculty about capstone courses in communication

An Investigation into the Communication Needs and Concerns of Asian Students in Speech Communication Performance Classes

The University of Nebraska is one of the many institutions of higher education in the United States with a growing foreign student enrollment. Consequently, the numbers of foreign students enrolled in speech communication classes has been increasing. There, however, is currently a lack of systematic investigation into the needs and concerns of foreign students in speech performance classes. This study investigates the needs and concerns of Asian students in speech performance classes. The study uses three methods to determine the needs of Asian students: (1) participant observation, (2) survey and (3) focus group interviews. The findings show that Asian students are extremely anxious about speaking in public. Their anxiety it appears stems from two sources: (1) an insecurity about their linguistic fluency and (2) their instructor\u27s expectations of them. Guidelines are suggested for instructors of Asian students

What We Know about the Basic Course: What Has the Research Told Us?

Research in the basic speech communication course is vital to our understanding of what we know about it, how it is administered and taught. The paper examines theoretical as well as empirical literature relevant to the basic course. Our examination suggests that the literature is deplete of a consistent base of knowledge on which to design the basic course. The paper concludes by discussing a proposal for systematic research to help provide a foundation for teaching and administering the basic course

Learning Style Preferences and Academic Achievement Within the Basic Communication Course

Students enrolled in a basic communication course taught using the personalized system of instruction (PSI) were studied to determine the influence of learning style preferences on academic achievement. The twenty measures of the Canfield Learning Style Inventory (CLSI) were regressed with three measures of student academic achievement. Eight of the twenty were significant in at least one of the three equations. Two of the learning style measures (class organization and performance expectations) were significant with all three measures of achievement. Two applications of the findings for basic course instructors are presented

The Comparative Effectiveness of Systematic Desensitization and an Integrative Approach in Treating Public Speaking Anxiety: A Literature Review and a Preliminary Investigation

An analysis of the literature related to public speaking anxiety (PSA) and various treatments of it are discussed. PSA is a state or situational type of anxiety which can have tremendous effects on those who suffer from it. Two of the major treatments—systematic desensitization (SD) and the integrative approach (IA)—are reviewed and then experimentally tested to determine which is the more effective in treating PSA. The results are somewhat inclusive, but there is strong evidence to suggest that both SD and IA reduce trait and state anxiety. It was found, however, that IA is more effective in decreasing the symptoms associated with PSA

Making Good Tenure Decisions

This article provides information on decision making on the granting or denial of tenure to a faculty member. It not only has an effect on the professional life of a colleague, it has a major influence on the direction and long-term quality of the department. The tenure decision in made in the sixth year of a tenure-track faculty appointment. If a faculty member has been on the tenure track at two institutions, the years of service at the first institution usually count toward those six years, unless the faculty member and his of her current institution agree in writing at the time of appointment that they will not or that only a certain number of them will. The sooner the person is terminated or helped to find another position, the better for him or her and for the department

Single-cell analysis reveals regional reprogramming during adaptation to massive small bowel resection in mice

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The small intestine (SI) displays regionality in nutrient and immunological function. Following SI tissue loss (as occurs in short gut syndrome, or SGS), remaining SI must compensate, or adapt ; the capacity of SI epithelium to reprogram its regional identity has not been described. Here, we apply single-cell resolution analyses to characterize molecular changes underpinning adaptation to SGS. METHODS: Single-cell RNA sequencing was performed on epithelial cells isolated from distal SI of mice following 50% proximal small bowel resection (SBR) vs sham surgery. Single-cell profiles were clustered based on transcriptional similarity, reconstructing differentiation events from intestinal stem cells (ISCs) through to mature enterocytes. An unsupervised computational approach to score cell identity was used to quantify changes in regional (proximal vs distal) SI identity, validated using immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, qPCR, western blotting, and RNA-FISH. RESULTS: Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection-based clustering and visualization revealed differentiation trajectories from ISCs to mature enterocytes in sham and SBR. Cell identity scoring demonstrated segregation of enterocytes by regional SI identity: SBR enterocytes assumed more mature proximal identities. This was associated with significant upregulation of lipid metabolism and oxidative stress gene expression, which was validated via orthogonal analyses. Observed upstream transcriptional changes suggest retinoid metabolism and proximal transcription factor Creb3l3 drive proximalization of cell identity in response to SBR. CONCLUSIONS: Adaptation to proximal SBR involves regional reprogramming of ileal enterocytes toward a proximal identity. Interventions bolstering the endogenous reprogramming capacity of SI enterocytes-conceivably by engaging the retinoid metabolism pathway-merit further investigation, as they may increase enteral feeding tolerance, and obviate intestinal failure, in SGS

B Cells Regulate Neutrophilia during Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection and BCG Vaccination by Modulating the Interleukin-17 Response

We have previously demonstrated that B cells can shape the immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, including the level of neutrophil infiltration and granulomatous inflammation at the site of infection. The present study examined the mechanisms by which B cells regulate the host neutrophilic response upon exposure to mycobacteria and how neutrophilia may influence vaccine efficacy. To address these questions, a murine aerosol infection tuberculosis (TB) model and an intradermal (ID) ear BCG immunization mouse model, involving both the μMT strain and B cell-depleted C57BL/6 mice, were used. IL (interleukin)-17 neutralization and neutrophil depletion experiments using these systems provide evidence that B cells can regulate neutrophilia by modulating the IL-17 response during M. tuberculosis infection and BCG immunization. Exuberant neutrophilia at the site of immunization in B cell-deficient mice adversely affects dendritic cell (DC) migration to the draining lymph nodes and attenuates the development of the vaccine-induced Th1 response. The results suggest that B cells are required for the development of optimal protective anti-TB immunity upon BCG vaccination by regulating the IL-17/neutrophilic response. Administration of sera derived from M. tuberculosis-infected C57BL/6 wild-type mice reverses the lung neutrophilia phenotype in tuberculous μMT mice. Together, these observations provide insight into the mechanisms by which B cells and humoral immunity modulate vaccine-induced Th1 response and regulate neutrophila during M. tuberculosis infection and BCG immunization. © 2013 Kozakiewicz et al