Major changes to Professional Communication major

-- Tara Mikenas

When you came to the ever-difficult decision about what your major would be, what were the determining factors? Was it that you felt you are good with numbers, public speaking or writing? These strengths are all good reasons to pick a certain major. Part of the changes within the Professional Communication major at Metropolitan State University no longer give you the final say in regard to whether or not you may enter this program. This is the first of the many revisions made within the program that will help ensure your degree is the right fit for you.

In efforts to be certain the Professional Communication major is the right choice, students will now be required to apply to enter this program by writing a letter of application explaining their reasons for choosing the major. The written applications will be used as screening documents to ensure applicants are serious about the program and capable of good writing and reasoning skills. Kathryn Kelley, associate professor in the Communication Department stated, "Our goal was to make it harder to enter this major. We want students to choose us because this is the major they really want to pursue, not because it seems easy."

Another change that was made to ensure this goal was to require an overall g.p.a. of 3.0 or better to be admitted into the program.

The changes don’t stop there. The Communication Department has also made adjustments within the program that will provide tools the students need to succeed. All Professional Communication major students will be required to begin their studies with INFS 315 Searching Information, a course that teaches students the methods of thorough and accurate research. To enable the addition of this course to all areas of study within the major, the other two required courses, COMM 301 Connections: Introduction to Communications Studies and COMM 482 Applied Communication Research Capstone, will now be two-credit courses.

The last change made to the Professional Communication major will require students to begin research for their capstone before they actually begin the final course. The research for the capstone will now begin in the advanced classes, which is traditionally the second to last class before graduation. Students will do in-depth research about the communications topic they wish to write about for their capstone projects during their advanced classes. They will have a clearly defined and original topic, and will be ready to begin their own primary research when they begin the capstone.

In addition to the changes that have been made to the entire Professional Communication major, individual changes have been made to each Professional Communication track. However, these changes do not affect current students in the major and their individual tracks; each student is locked into the contract that was in place when they entered the program.

The Professional Communication major is made up of three tracks: Public Relations, Organizational Communications and Speech Communications, which will now be titled Interpersonal Communications. Formerly, the major consisted of four tracks, but as part of the revisions made, the Media Relations track has been discontinued. According to Kelly, it has been discontinued due to continuous misunderstandings by students that the track was a technical degree versus the media literacy/critic focus that it actually was. This cut also provided the department the funds needed to revamp the other individual tracks.

The newly named Interpersonal Communications track has added a new advanced course for students. The new course is entitled, COMM 499 Topics in Communication: Advanced Intercultural Communication. This course will be taking the place of the Advanced Interpersonal Communications course normally offered. The department felt the ever-growing diverse population in the Twin Cities and at Metropolitan State University made this class vital for the Interpersonal Communications track.

The Public Relations track has also made minor changes in classes offered. One notable change is that the course, COMM 382/582 Communications Issues and Trends will no longer offered. COMM 320 Individual Rights and Social Discourse will be offered in its place.

Overall, Kelley stated, "...our students are prepared to research well, synthesize well, critically think and assess well, and present their findings and ideas well in a face-to-face public presentation setting." These changes give a new edge to the Professional Communication major and its students in learned skill sets and career development.