College of Communication looks toward integration

Dean Kathy Krendl recently discussed her vision for the College of Communication with Outlook. This is part of a series giving deans an opportunity to share their thoughts with the Ohio University community.

What is your vision for the College?

The vision for the College of Communication is to demonstrate for the Ohio University community, as well as our alumni and friends throughout the country, why and how communication matters. Communication matters throughout one's life -- not only at work, but also in one's family and in one's personal relationships.

What are your short-term goals?

At the undergraduate level our most important short-term goal over the past five years has been to improve our student-faculty ratios in order to maintain our tradition of excellence in instruction. The College of Communication has more University Professors than any other unit on campus. Our students expect an active learning environment, as well as mentoring relationships with faculty. Because our number of majors has been steadily increasing, and our faculty size has not kept pace, the challenge has been to maintain a high level of faculty-student engagement. Recent additions to our faculty have begun to address the problem, and we hope to continue to add outstanding faculty to our ranks.

We have also made significant progress on the short-term goal of building more collaborative approaches to graduate education. The recent introduction of a multimedia sequence that involves collaboration across three of our schools -- Visual Communication, Journalism and Telecommunications -- is our first step. In addition, the School of Interpersonal Communication will be launching its master's program in corporate communication next fall with both on-site and "without boundaries" options. The McClure School of Communication Systems Management will also introduce its master's program in Technology and Policy in fall 2003. All of these efforts reflect our commitment to responding to market demand for focused graduate education.

Another short-term goal is to continue to increase external funding for research through grants and contracts. In the past six years external support has more than tripled, for a total of more than $3 million.

What are long-term goals for the College?

Our primary long-term goal is to integrate the College's units into a shared facility to realize the potential of the technological and professional convergence in the field. Because of the explosion in the growth of the information age economy, student demand for communication courses has increased significantly. As a result, space requirements for the units that make up the College of Communication have increased well beyond current space allocations. Several units are now split across multiple buildings.

The college's six units are now housed in 10 different locations. Such wide dispersion across campus has inhibited opportunities for collaborative efforts in teaching and research. The goal of integrating the College's units is critical to its national competitiveness.

What are unique opportunities for the College?

The national reputation of the College, its individual schools and the Telecommunications Center present numerous opportunities. Resolving the space issue will allow collaborative efforts to flourish, along with research funding and donor support. Already partnerships with external groups such as Verizon and the American Cancer Society have developed to support research efforts that bring together the units of the college.

Engagement of alumni is also at an all-time high, and all programs have benefited significantly from alumni support. Alumni return to campus to meet with students, faculty and staff and contribute to our mission. Support for student scholarships, named professorships and other funding initiatives have also increased in recent years.

What are challenges facing the College?

The direction of the field of communication is toward integration. Our physical separation is a severe limitation on our ability to compete effectively in this environment, particularly at the national level. Our most significant challenge is to articulate the vision, the opportunities and the potential that can be realized in an integrated facility.