November 27th, 2004 - Creating an ethic of pride in a new department.


Creating an Ethic of Intellectual Pride in a New Department.

November 27th, 2004 - In August of 2004 I was hired by Hilbert College to do what will likely be the hardest task of my life, create a functioning college program dedicated to academic excellence that was still professionally and artistically competitive with more professional schools, that embraced the college's new drive for liberal arts, that was attractive to students who were looking for a small place where they would not get lost in the crowd, where technology was not forced to take a back seat for any reason, and where the program included a comprehensive curriculum from the start. The faculty of the English Department, the department that was in the process of 'giving birth' to Communication Studies had seen a number of what they felt were bad examples that they did not want to follow. They did not want the program spending ten years getting on its feet, that was unfair to students. They did not want the program to shirk the professional for the academic, nor did they want the academic ignored. In short, they wanted Communication Studies to spring forth fully grown from Zues's head, not an easy task unless you are a greek god.

Here I am in Gettysburg explaining the history of regimental markers and memory and communication to Karen Kowicki and David Jensen, Hilbert College undergraduates. Many markers were set on the battlefield by soldiers who fought there or by survivors as a form of social memory of great events. Regimental markers were for many years set down almost at random across the old battlefield, each one an attempt by some group to keep the memory of the friends or their own sacrifices alive. This demonstrates the first concept of the 'ethic of pride' is the encouragement of students to not be scared to think big thoughts. In a society which has grown ever more dismissive of intellectual thought, college students from Hilbert Communication Studies will be required to become renaissance thinkers, willing to accept learnings in a wide range of topics, and to never dismiss or belittle the quest for knowledge. The role of the faculty in this is to be examples of the ;

Before I continue on the discussion of what I was going to do, it is important that I mention what other people had already done to make my path easier. The first was that the Department of English had for some time operated a professional writing track, and the courses from that track had set a standard of quality that I could build upon. In my initial explorations of the program, I discovered that not only had Dr. Amy Smith done an excellent job with the writing courses, but John Harrigan of Erie Community College South Campus, acting as an adjunct, had likewise been teaching some excellent classes. The second aspect that made my life easier was the Liberal Learning component of the curriculum, part of the teaching reforms that were slowly changing how Hilbert saw itself. Liberal learning was quietly causing a sea change at Hilbert, and it was quickly apparent to me how powerful that sea change was. At a previous college I worked at, the liberal arts where a fading star, pushed aside by the professional programs and by a general malaise in both students taking courses, and in the administration who saw itself as a sort a store that sold education by the hundred-weight. Hilbert College's liberal learning was refreshing because it gave me the perfect 'cover' to create a program that was not only professional, but that overtly embraced the liberal arts. The final advantage I had was a refreshing attitude toward technology. Hilbert College, I was quick to discover, had one of the best IT directors I had ever worked with. In the past, the IT departments I had experience with were staffed with people who mostly did not have bachelors degrees, did not like higher education, thought that professors should not be involved in teaching students technology. Mike Murrin, the Hilbert IT director, was made from a different cloth. A man of immense talent, he had slowly crafted one of the best IT systems I had ever seen. Working with him would prove very easy.

Here I am explaining rifling in bronze muzzle loaders to a Karen Kowicki, a Hilbert College undergraduate. On this trip we found the places where Civil War photographers had taken pictures of posed casualties, traced the action from day one to day three of the battle, discussed the modern communication of history as it related to the social construction of reality, had a discussion of the physics of projectiles and why Civil War battlefields where so deadly, talked about how and why tourists take photographs and the process of creating visual memories, and had conversations about compromise in the political arena.

The main goal of my future labors would be based on creating an ethic of intellectual pride. Communication Studies as a field has in the past suffered from the perception that it is an intellectual backwaters of campus life. At some campuses, it is the 'vanilla' degree, serving as a means of providing undecided students a non-threatening way of getting a degree without to much effort or sweat. At other campuses it is the 'athletics degree' giving sports programs a place to put athletes without the educational attainments needed to get a regular college degree. But many colleges have turned their Communication Studies programs into challenging professional degrees that do not abandon the liberal arts. My first effort to create an ethic of intellectual pride in Communication Studies was to look at models for our own program. My models turned out to be Drake University, Franklin Pierce College, and Syracuse University. Drake University has a long standing professional program with a wide range industry oriented concentrations. It also has had a reputation for years of integrating computer technology into the classroom experience. Franklin Pierce College is a small, young college with a successful multi-track communication program and an excellent track record of participation in the local communities. And finally Syracuse University represents the reality that Hilbert students will not be competing in the job market with small, local colleges, but due to the national nature of professional media, will be competing with prestigous and relatively wealthy Universities like Syracuse, NYU, and Cornell. The first step in the ethic of intellectual pride is defining it. Intellectual pride is a sense of one's own proper intellectual dignity or value, and an acceptance of intellectualism as a proper part of a person's life long makeup. Intellectual inferiority, the opposite status, is the feeling that a person cannot understand subjects of the mind. That knowledge is somehow unreachable, or that it is wrapped up in some form of gnostic secrecy. The main route to develop this pride, for Hilbert College, is the Liberal Learning system as expressed by the six major goals of the general education curriculum. But to make it work it has to be applied. For that reason, the departmental core curriculum needed to be designed with an eye to slowly leading students to intellectualism. The truism is that most students coming to any college program either consider intellectualism a dirty work, intellectuals are 'geeks' who work on black boxes, or something that is outside of their personal experience. To change this attitude classwork must be designed to encourage students to think, give them courage in their intellectual abilities, and teach them information literacy skills that allow them to master any knowledge set, especially since we cannot predict what areas of knowledge will be important to future professional communicators.
COM 110 Introduction to Mass Communications - Emphasis on library skills. Introduce concepts of paradigm shift, objective versus subjective meaning, method of developing intersubjective agreement.		THE SIX MAJOR GOALS OF THE HILBERT COLLEGE GENERAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM 1. Foster Core Skills: Advanced writing, speaking, listening, reading, quantitative skills, and technological fluency 2. Prepare Students for Living in a Diverse and Global Society: Awareness and appreciation of world cultures and languages, non-dominant groups and societies at home and abroad 3. Emphasize and Develop Inquiry Strategies and Capabilities in a Variety of Disciplines across the Curriculum: Development of multiple, sophisticated problem-solving strategies that transcend traditional discipline boundaries 4. Foster Research Skills: Research and technology-enhanced investigation 5. Promote Integrative Learning: Collaborative work combining analytical and experiential learning 6. Prepare Students for the Examined Life, Promoting Commitment to Lifelong Learning: Development of motivation to sustain a lifelong capacity for intellectual growth and self-renewal

COM 151 Public Speaking - Further develop research skills to prepare projects. Encourage students to use alternate methods of information transmission (oral and powerpoint).

COM 170 Explorations in Media - Using web design and audio project, develop student confidence in using alternate media forms to display information gathered from the community. Develop sense of international reach.

COM 201 Introduction to Rhetoric - Reinforce student understand of methods of truth. Emphasize logical arguments, objective agreement, source credibility, and how truth is measured.

COM 210 Media Analysis - Develop an understand of the difference between qualitative and quantitative understandings. Develop skills in critical reading of complex research.


COM 310 Communications Law and Ethics or COM 320 Communications Theory - Both courses act as a information literacy capstone by presented students with a difficult subject area and encouraging them to write critically on the area.

In addition, each concentration would have courses designed to be expose students to both artistic principals, and to connect the concept of information literacy and intellectual pride to the student's chosen professional discipline. Thus, COM 275 Introduction to Video Production uses documentary video production to encourage students to perform field research on a wide variety of subject, teaches students a wide range of artistic skills, and serves to help students learn to be comfortable with technology. COM 243 Journalism I emphasizes clear and concise communication with written language, research in the communities, discussions of various forms of truth, and ways in which a writer can assure they are taking a balanced approach to a subject.
		Students often learn best by teaching. All students should be encouraged to teach younger students under the supervision of a faculty member.


Modern Media can be used in a wide range of intellectual pursuits. Here I use photography to record a picture for my lecture on the use of memorials as societal memory, a lecture that calls in the research of Claude Innis.

The first document I produced for developing the core curriculum and fostering my concept of intellectual pride was the Department of Communication Studies Mission Statement. Despite revisions since it was introduced, the basic mission statement remains the driving force behind the development of the program. The core curriculum, the main tool which expressed the mission statement, was then further defined here.	Department of Communication Studies Mission Statement The Communication Studies mission is to teach students who desire to enter the fields of professional communications the skills they need to succeed in the real world while helping them become an ethical and competent members of society through their embracing of the liberal arts. All students are expected to understand the history of communications, the methods by which people communicate, theories which help us understand human communication; and to develop skills in a wide range of communication techniques, from writing, to how spoken language is used, to visual arts, to verbal communications. In addition, students will have a grasp of the art of communication, the science of communication, the practice of communication, and the technology of communication, especially as these areas are understood through the lens of the liberal arts. Communication Studies will also strive to help students become active learners in all levels of their life. They will be encouraged to understand their community through local projects. They will be encouraged to avail themselves of to the sum of human thought available through information technologies, and they will be encouraged to bring their understandings to the international stage by learning how international society and its local components form a global community.

		Goals of the Communication Studies Core I. Become sophisticated at collecting, judging, and communicating information of all types (information literacy.) II. Develop an understanding of how truth is arrived at, and the various methods logical positivist thinking arrives at objective truth. III. Understand the history of communications and how it applies to the present shape of the professional communication industry and to the current way in which society communicates. IV. Understand the methods people use to communicate with each other and the ethics and morality of communicatoons. V. Develop and understand of the art, science, and practice of communications. VI. Become comfortable with modern technology, its application to modern communication studies, and the ethics of its proper use. Communication Studies will also strive to help students become active learners in all levels of their life. They will be encouraged to understand their community through local projects. They will be encouraged to avail themselves of to the sum of human thought available through information technologies, and they will be encouraged to bring their understandings to the international stage by learning how international society and its local components form a global community.