Communication

Students may earn either a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science in Communication. Students majoring in Communication are often interested in careers in media, public relations, journalism, marketing, advertising, event planning, sports, politics, and law. Students are also prepared to enter and succeed in graduate school should they choose to pursue that option upon graduation. Students develop and improve skills such as researching, writing, editing, listening, speaking, interpersonal communication, and reasoning.

Students have the opportunity to intern with organizations off campus in order to gain experience. Students may also take practicum courses, which allow them to earn credit working for the campus radio station, Eagle Radio; the campus newspaper, The Collegian; and shooting, editing, and finishing video projects. In recent years students have interned for a local magazine, radio station, and the State of Missouri.

CMU has three student organizations for Communication: Lambda Pi Eta, the national honor society of the National Communication Association (Advisor: Dr. Kristin Cherry); Pi Kappa Delta, a national honorary fraternity in speech and debate (Advisor: Prof. Collin Brink), and The Scholarly Communication Society (Advisor: Dr. Kristin Cherry).

CMU has two pre-law chapters: Phi Alpha Delta is the national pre-law fraternity, and the Pre-Law Club is for upperclassmen who plan to enter the law profession (Advisor: Dr. John Carter).

CMU has a chapter of Pi Gamma Mu, an international social science honor society (Advisor: Dr. Kristin Cherry).

Communication Program Learning Outcomes

Students will learn to communicate effectively.

Data: Senior thesis rubrics
Benchmark: The mean score will be 80 or higher on the senior thesis rubric (out of 100).
Note: Sub-scores can be examined to determine how students written, verbal, organizational, logical, and critical thinking communication skills compare.

Goal: Students will learn to communicate ethically.

Data: Ethical Quality scale
Benchmark: The mean score will be 5 or above on the EQ scale (7-point scale).
Note: Outside evaluation of ethical communication is a more reliable measure than self-report measures as they tend to be skewed.

Goal: Students will be confident in their communication skills.

Data: Personal Report of Communication Apprehension scores
Benchmark: The mean score will be below 70 (120 max score, above 72 is considered apprehensive).
Note: Sub-scores can be examined to determine what communication contexts students arrest confident in. Sub-scores include: interpersonal, small group, meeting, and public speaking.

Goal: Students will be prepared for jobs in communication-related fields.

Data: Job placement rates
Benchmark: 70% of students will be working in a communication-related field, or attending graduate school, within six months after graduation.
Note: Students job placement rates will be collected and categorized after several years of stat collection to determine the frequency and type of jobs that graduates are obtaining.