Vol. 3, #1, July 2002
Greetings! This summer edition of Comm Stew contains several items we hope will be of interest to students in and friends of the Communication Program. Without further ado. . .
Effective September 1, 2002, the Communication Program and its faculty will join the American Studies Program. We are looking forward to this new location and affiliation, which should benefit our program as well as other programs housed under American Studies. In the near future, which means in your academic career at UMass Boston, the move should have little or no effect on the structure and nature of the Communication Program. You’ll just have to come looking for us in a different place (see below). Plans will be underway this coming year for adjustments to the program, including the streamlining of requirements, and for possible additional offerings in association with American Studies and other programs. (Many of you frequently ask about the possibility of a Communication Major. While that remains only a distant possibility, it is not ultimately out of the question.)
The Division of Communication and Theatre Arts, formed in 1996, will cease to exist, but not its programs. The Theatre Arts faculty is teaming with Music, and we expect both programs to benefit from that association. Additionally, the close ties that have existed between the Communication Program and the Theatre Major will continue. What we are ceding, here, is our attempt to formulate a combined major. Given the personnel and budget issues as well as the substantive directions in which both programs need to proceed, we believe this is the appropriate step. We wish to thank the Theatre Arts faculty – Diane Almeida, John Conlon, Maggie Musmon, Ron Nash, and Professor Emeritus Lou Roberts – for their colleagueship and friendship, both of which shall continue. We bid goodbye and thanks as well to Ms. Manny Landry, the CTA Administrative Associate. Manny will serve the Theatre/Music programs.
These hellos and goodbyes, while occurring in the context of budget cuts and the departures of nearly 2/3 of the Communication/Theatre Arts full time faculty, afford an excellent opportunity for all programs concerned. The Communication Program is at a critical point. It is a popular program option, the developments in the field are exciting, and we are forming a number of on-campus alliances that could lead to a much stronger program.
Stay tuned. In the meantime, look for the Program’s director, Mark Schlesinger, in American Studies (Wheatley 5, Room 108). His phone number (617.287.7754) and email (mark.schlesinger@umb.edu) will remain the same.
After over three decades in public higher education in Boston, Professors Bob Bertone and Cathryn Nelson have retired. Both came to UMass Boston in 1982, when their own Boston State College became a part of UMB. They joined the College of Management’s Department of Analysis and Communication, which at that time was a good-sized collection of faculty teaching writing, speaking, critical thinking, and problem solving. Both helped reform that department’s offerings, and they infused the program with their teaching professionalism as well as their shared personal attributes: generosity, adaptability, and constant good humor.
In 1996, Professors Bertone and Nelson moved with Professor Schlesinger to the newly-formed Division of Communication and Theatre Arts, from which base they taught and developed Communication Program courses and continued to offer communication courses in the College of Management.
While we would prefer to have them here with us, we celebrate their new lives as we celebrate the times together at UMB.
Four years ago, the only courses with the “ComStu” prefix were the Intro, the Seminar, and the Internship. We added two General Education Seminars. And we also added Information Technology and Human Communication (ComStu 299), which could earn course credit under “Modes of Communication.” Last year, the College of Arts and Sciences approved two new courses, both of which had been piloted as special topics in previous semesters:
This summer we are piloting another Special Topics course, Public Relations Using Mass Media. This exciting offering fills a campus-gap in the study of public relations, and we anticipate seeking its formal approval this coming year. And this fall, another pilot, Managerial Communications, will run on line (completely taught on the World Wide Web) through the Division of Corporate, Continuing, and Distance Education.
Graduating senior Chuck McGovern won this year’s Robert Risse Prize for outstanding performance in the Communication Program. Here is an excerpt from the award’s text:
Chuck has earned outstanding grades in his Communication courses, his English major, and throughout the curriculum. He graduates in June having with a BA in English and certificates in Communication Studies and Professional Writing.
Chuck came to UMass Boston in 1997, having spent the previous seventeen years as a Master Plumber specializing in commercial and industrial applications. His professors praise his intellectual excellence, and they also note his unfailingly cheerful and collaborative nature, which makes him a leader among students in the Communication Program. He has been a venturer, and even an adventurer. He was in the first cohort of UMass Boston online students in the summer of 2001, and he helped launch our new course in Analyzing Media this past fall. In both instances, he excelled academically and he offered criticisms and suggestions that made the courses better for everybody. Chuck cares deeply about the quality of the enterprise.
Chuck currently manages the website content for Amadeus, an international travel portal based in Madrid. The skills he developed in English, Communication, and Professional Writing will assure his continuing growth as a writer for electronic media.
Chuck is a native of Quincy, and currently resides in North Attleboro with his wife, Tricia, and his dog, Norton. The other love in his life is fly-fishing (he ties his own flies, builds his own rods, and takes the email name of “McFlyrods”).
The faculty and students in the Communication Program will miss Chuck McGovern. We salute him and wish him every success.
Many of you have used our own website, http://www.commta.umb.edu. Toward the end of August, this site, which serves Communication and Theatre Arts, will be dismantled, both physically and virtually. Information on the Communication Program will still be available on the University’s main site, http://www.umb.edu. And some time this fall we shall roll out the new Communication Program website. In fact, if any of our readers would like to help Mark in its design, give a call or send an email!
It is an exciting time. Excitement, of course, can be a curse as well as a blessing, but despite our losses and our goodbyes, we feel fortunate to be entering this new phase with our program intact, and even expanding. Our thanks to Director Lois Rudnick and the American Studies faculty and staff, Dean Louise Smith, and former Provost Arthur McEwan for helping us think through and implement the reorganization. We look forward to the future.
As always, your ideas will be sought after and valued as we proceed. Find or contact us:
Communication Studies
American Studies
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, MA 02125-3393
Director: Mark A. Schlesinger
617.287.7754
mark.schlesinger@umb.edu