You are in the official current online General Catalog
for California State University, Fresno.
Department of Communication
College of Arts and Humanities
Department of Communication
DOUGLAS M. FRALEIGH, Chair
Speech Arts Building, Room 15
559.278.2826
FAX: 559.278.4113
www.fresnostate.edu/communication
M.A. in Communication
Minor in Communication
Single Subject
Teaching Credential in English/Speech
Communication Skills for Professionals
Certificate
Faculty
Douglas M. Fraleigh, Chair
Katherine L. Adams
Kevin Ayotte
Diane M. Blair
Craig Fowler
Kevin Kuswa
Scott D. Moore
Shane Moreman
Marnel N. Niles
Robert G. Powell
Devendra Sharma
The Department
Our aim is to prepare students to understand and provide leadership in
a competitive communication-oriented society. We offer a balance of humanistic
and scientific instruction in communication skills people need to function
effectively in teaching, business, law, nonprofit organizations, public
service and administration, public relations, government, and management.
Outside the workplace, these skills will also enhance students' ability
to be active in civic engagement and community service.
Our program requires a comprehensive understanding of the breadth and depth
of our discipline, as well as its major theoretical frameworks and research
methodologies. Both the major and minor are grounded in the fundamental
communication contexts including public, interpersonal, group, organizational,
instructional, and intercultural communication. Additionally applied contexts
in business communication, gerontology communication, technology, and leadership
are available. Students investigate problems in diverse cultural settings,
which make the San Joaquin Valley - with its tremendous ethnic diversity
- an ideal location for study.
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 students'
educational experience. We have an active student organization, the Professional
Communication Association, and a debate team that participates in competitive
intercollegiate tournaments and hosts public debates on campus. Our annual
Peach Blossom Festival brings more than 5,000 elementary-age students to
campus to present prose and poetry.
We offer you personalized advising. Our major builds on a sound core of foundation courses and is completed by courses selected to meet your needs and career objectives. Our major requirements are flexible and easily integrated into a host of minors.
Career Opportunities
In the new millennium, a degree in communication opens a great number
of career doors. Increasingly, we see a wide variety of job descriptions
across professional disciplines which list competence in communication as
the highest priority. An essential goal for us is to help you develop as
a competent communicator.
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 situations.
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.
Communication
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