Introduces articles from the issue about the disciplinary advancement of the communication departments of various colleges and universities

Becker, Samuel L.

English

University of Central Florida (UCF): STARS (Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship)

BeckerJournal ofthe Association for Communication Administration28(1999), 111-112Advancing the Discipline:Guidelines fromthe Experience of ColleaguesSAMUEL L. BECKERIn 1997, the National Communication Association published the report of the TaskForce on Discipline Advancement. The Task Force had been appointed in 1995 bySecond Vice President Judith Trent to recommend what departments and the Associa-tion might do to ensure that they and our discipline flourish. The Task Force made anarray of recommendations that can be found in the April 1997 edition of Spectra.Strongly stressed by the Task Force was the importance to disciplinary advancementof the work of the individual department. If our departments are strong, the discipline willbe strong; if our departments are well-regarded, our discipline will be well-regarded.As the Task Force concluded, though, there is no one formula for departmental strengthand regard. Each department's situation is different; sometimes extremely different. Hence,its strategy for advancing its cause and the cause of the discipline must be different. TheTask Force members tried to take that into account in their set of recommendations. In thisissue of JACA, we try to do so even more by providing a variety of models, examples ofquite different individual departments that have recognized and taken into account theirparticular institutional circumstances while building strong and well-respected programs.The first two papers in this volume are excellent illustrations of how departments intwo quite different institutions advanced the cause of their departments, and, thus, thecause of our discipline, by their sensitivity to the values of their institutions, JacquelineSchmidt explains how her department built a solid campus reputation by broadening itsscope; Jesse Delia describes the way his department achieved its outstanding reputation,both on campus and nationally, by narrowing its scope, focussing much of its energy onone theoretical idea. John Carroll University and the University of Illinois took almostprecisely opposite approaches, but both worked because each one's approach fit its cam-pus' values.John Makay makes this point more explicit in his paper describing the way his de-partment built credibility with its administration. Ronald Lee and William Seiler do soalso as they lay out the departmental characteristics that administrators at their universityperceive as strengths and weaknesses and how a communication studies department suchas theirs measures up. Perhaps more important, they urge departments to take a strong,IIIJACA September 1999proactive stance as their department did so successfully in warding off a threat of elimina-tion and becoming even stronger and more respected on campus than it was before.Joseph MacDoniels and Rhonda Kekke remind us of the different ways the disciplinemust be advanced in the small liberal arts college, community college, or large researchuniversity. Even within these categories of institutions, though, there is great variance. So,no matter what type of institution it is in which you are attempting to advance the disci-pline and your department, you must gain an understanding of what your institution'sadministrators value and reward and then shape and promote your program in a way thatshows it exemplifies those values and, thus, contributes substantially to the institution'sgoals.Alfred Mueller and Delmar Crisp illustrate MacDoniels' and Kekke's point well witha case study of a successful effort to overhaul the communication major in a small collegewhere the institution's values play a strong and direct role in all curricular decisions.If there is one common value developing in almost every type of institution thesedays, it is belief in the importance of fund-raising. Institutions are recognizing that en-dowments, or even uninvested moneys that are acquired through fund-raising, can be evenmore beneficial and have longer-range impact on the institutions than monies acquiredthrough research grants, since there is often little true financial gain from the latter. As aresult, most department chairs are going to need to become active in fund-raising. Toprovide some background and guidance on fund-raising, we turned to Robert Jeffrey,former Dean of the College of Communication at the University of Texas. He was one ofthe first administrators in our field to become involved in fund-raising and was extremelysuccessful during his tenure as dean, raising a total of almost $15-million in gifts, a totalthat now has a market value of over $27.5-million. Although most department chairs willprobably not be acquiring gifts as large as those Jeffrey discusses in his paper, the prin-ciples and strategies he espouses should be useful guides for all who venture into thisactivity.REFERENCES AND NOTESSamuel L. Becker (Ph.D., University of Iowa, 1953) is the University of Iowa FoundationDistinguished Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa.He was Chair of the Department of Speech and Dramatic Art at Iowa, 1968-1982, andInterim Provost, 1995-1996. He chaired the National Communication Association's TaskForce on Disciplinary Advancement.112

Advancing the Discipline: Guidelines from the Experience of Colleagues

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Advancing the Discipline: Guidelines from the Experience of Colleagues

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