Communications-based departments merging
The journalism and communications department, the department of languages, philosophy and speech communications and USU’s Utah Public Radio (KUSU) will merge to create one communications department, said College of Humanities, Arts and Social Science (HASS) Dean Yolanda Niemann.
Speech Communications Head Brad Hall will act as the new department’s interim head, Niemann said. She also said a new name for the merged departments has not been decided.
Discussion with the involved departments began six weeks ago when Michael Sweeney, journalism and communications head, announced he will be leaving USU at the end of the semester, Niemann said. By naming an interim department head, the college eliminates the costs of a national search to fill Sweeney’s position, she said.
By the end of this semester, the university will be utilizing the interim department head, but it won’t yet be an official change, she said. She also said she hopes the change will become official sometime next fall.
Niemann said she hopes to have paperwork done by the end of March. After it’s complete, the changes will be submitted to the Curriculum Committee, Faculty Senate, Board of Trustees and finally to the Board of Regents.
Hall said the merger creates a lot of potential for students, faculty and the involved programs.
“Students can relax,” he said. “I was talking to students today that it’ll be fine. You’ll still be taken care of.”
Communications students will hardly notice a difference in the fall, Hall said.
“The majors that are existing will still exist,” he said. “The faculty that (students are) used to will still be teaching the courses that are in their area of expertise. The curriculum will not have changed in that way, the requirements and things will still be there.”
This doesn’t mean things won’t change in the future, he said, but these decisions will be faced as they surface and students shouldn’t worry.
Cathy Ives, KUSU general manager, said of the departments merging, “We’ve been leaning this way, anyway. I just think it will make for a wonderful synergy and it will make for a great student experience.”
Ives said the involved departments will still function individually, but the merge will allow a lot of beneficial cross over between them.
Media forms are merging, Ives said, so combining the departments will allow students to get a well-rounded education in the different media forms.
“You have to be sort of media flexible as far as journalism is concerned,” Ives said. “If you’re writing a story for a newspaper, newspaper sites now have audio and video. It’s a good way to forge ahead in the media platforms.”
Hall said students and faculty who have questions or concerns about the merge are welcome to come to him for answers.
–rac.ch@aggiemail.usu.edu