ACADEMICS

Earning a degree in Communications and Theatre Arts, (or any subject for that matter), is more than just completing a series of requirements. As a department, the goals we seek for our students reflect many concepts contained in the University goals. 

First, we seek to enable our students to understand and assess the many ways that people communicate. Second, a graduate of the department should have the ability to speak, think and write critically, clearly and creatively. Third, Communications and Theatre Arts students should be able to present their ideas in a variety of communicative media and technologies. Fourth, our students should be able to develop and integrate sound ethical principles in their communicative practices. Fifth, course work should train Communications and Theatre Arts students to work well as individuals, as team members and as leaders. Finally, students in Communications and Theatre Arts courses should gain experience in the analysis, synthesis and evaluation of problems and their solutions.

The department fulfills these goals for majors by requiring them to achieve breadth in their studies in keeping with the University mission of the transmission and extension of the treasury of human knowledge. Majors demonstrate this breadth by successfully completing a required series of courses in interpersonal communication, broadcasting, journalism, argumentation/debate, and theatre. Students expand this knowledge through advanced study in these areas and in rhetoric/public address, intercultural communication, organizational communications, speech science and public relations. Communications and Theatre Arts Majors thus move beyond the acquisition of skills to the appreciation of enduring principles of communication traceable to classical culture and the Ratio Studiorum of St. Ignatius Loyola.

Of course you are not forced to meet our goals.  But if you want to get the most out of the Communications and Theatre Arts Major, you will be challenged to master both classroom theory and practical application, to write and speak effectively, and to think critically and ethically. As a department, we hope you accept the challenge and fulfill it successfully, not because it will help us, but because it will help you.