You are in the official 1998-99 General Catalog
for California State University, Fresno.
Department of Speech Communication
School of Arts and Humanities
Department of Speech Communication
ROBERT G. POWELL, Chair
Speech Arts Building, Room 15
(559) 278-2826
FAX: (559) 278-4113
http://www.csufresno.edu/speechcomm/
M.A. in Speech
Speech Communication Option
Minor in Speech Communication
Single Subject
Teaching Credential in English/Speech
Communication Skills for Professionals
Certificate
Faculty
Robert G. Powell, Chair
Hal W. Bochin, Graduate Adviser
L. Ralph Hennings, Undergraduate Adviser
Gail A. Sorensen, Credential Adviser
Katherine L. Adams, Melanie M. Bloom, Vincent L. Bloom, John A. Cagle,
Carl W. Carmichael, Connie J. Conlee, George E. Diestel, Douglas Fraleigh,
Scott D. Moore, David T. Natharius, David F. Quadro, W. Richard Ullmann
The Department
Our aim is to prepare you to compete in, understand, and provide leadership
in a world which is more and more a communication-oriented society. We offer
a balance of humanistic and scientific instruction in communication skills
people need to function effectively in teaching, business, law, the communication
professions, public service and administration, the ministry, public relations,
politics, and management. You have an opportunity to explore the full range
of human communication.
Our major and minor are well grounded in interpersonal skills, in problem-solving
and decision -making methods, and in group and organizational leadership.
We study issues such as how we perceive events, express ourselves verbally
and nonverbally, and how communication influences human behavior and social
developments. We develop skills in oral and written communication, statistics
and research methods (including using computers), and how to employ these
skills in specific career areas.
The Communication Skills for Professionals Certificate program recognizes
development in such areas as presentational speaking, problem solving and
decision making, leadership, and interpersonal communication.
Our program offers a variety of exciting activities to enrich your educational
experience. We have a fine intercollegiate forensics program of debate and
individual speaking. We host a national communication conference each spring
that brings scholars and students from around the country.
We offer you personalized advising. Our major builds on a sound core of
foundation courses but is completed by courses selected to meet your needs
and career objectives, often with a minor in an appropriate field. We think
your choice of an adviser is an important decision, and we encourage our
students to pick their own adviser.
Career Opportunities
In the "Information Age" of the 1990s, a degree in speech communication
can open a great number of career doors. Increasingly, we see a wide variety
of job descriptions across professional disciplines which list skills in
communication as the highest priority. An essential goal for us is to help
you develop these very important communication skills.
In addition, we try to provide an educational base for our majors and minors
for specific careers requiring competencies in oral and written communication
and in interpersonal and managerial communication.
Speech Communication graduates are employed as public relations consultants,
personnel managers, political campaign directors, management analysts, teachers,
counselors, lawyers, ministers, human resource specialists, and marketing
representatives. We offer students a discipline widely suited to today's
uncertain job market. National placement studies reveal that communication
majors are finding jobs with reasonably high job satisfaction and above
average pay rates, and that their rate of promotion is significantly faster.
The pursuit of a career is of great concern to students today, but it is
important to recognize that the quality of your education will determine
your success in life as well as how to make a living. More than half of
college graduates do not enter fields directly tied to their majors.
As you begin making decisions about your life and what you want to do with
it, remember that we will be happy for you to join us in the most exciting
and fundamental discipline of all -- the study of human communication.
