Coming to Terms with Program Prioritization.
I haven't blogged for a while. That's because I am bad. Maybe this will get me back to it.
I found out yesterday that even though we basically only have one class (I've been fighting for more), no minor or major in the catalog (I've been fighting for one), and only one full-time faculty member (me), that Communication is a "program" at my university and therefore subject to Program Prioritization. That is the process by which programs can be cut, grown or ignored. Most "programs" who found out that they were subject to "prioritization" were pretty ticked about it. I wasn't because I don't think that we could be moved to a much lower priority from where we are. It is time to move up or out, in my opinion.
Those programs subject to "prioritization" were required to write answers to five "Core Questions." Here are my answers with portions referring to specific names redacted.
Question 1:
What was the Communication Program created to do in the first place?
Of course, we could begin this
description in ancient Greece on the island of Sicily where a Communication
teacher named Corax began the very first of what could be considered “college
level teaching.” We could start hundreds of years later with Aristotle’s text On Rhetoric or much later with Cicero’s Rhetorica ad Herrenium which together
lay out the basic structures of western studies of Communication and its five
canons of Invention, Style, Arrangement, Memory, and Delivery. Perhaps it is
best to begin with Augustine and his argument that Communication classes be
required for all clergy and the way that morphed into rhetoric (which was and
is Communication) being one of the seven basic liberal arts which became the
basis for the entire concept of the University. Perhaps it could be discussed
that for generations Communication devolved into mere writing devoid of the
classical canons of delivery and memory and found its way into English
departments, but reemerged powerfully with the Elocutionists of the 19th
century. Maybe, an answer would begin with Herbert Wicheln’s 1925 seminal essay
"The Literary Criticism of Oratory" which finally separated written rhetoric
as taught in those English departments from the full range of rhetoric and Communication
more broadly understood, especially speech. All of that would provide a very
good understanding of the purpose of a Communication Program, but would take
hundreds of pages to do properly. Indeed, many excellent books do just that.
Instead, it would be good, I
think, to begin in 1994 when WNMU officially created their own Communication
program. Much of the original purpose of the Communication Program must be
ascertained by conjecture since little institutional memory exists on the
campus regarding its construction. However, the history of the larger
discipline and the university documentation available can provide some
indication about why the Communication Program came into existence. According
to old catalogs, previous to 1994 WNMU had a “Speech” program and it seems that
faculty members were reassigned and many of the classes in that discipline were
being renumbered as COMM classes. This reflected a larger trend that was taking
place in the discipline. In this same decade, the “National Speech Association”
also changed its title to “The National Communication Association.” This was
done for a powerful reason. Rhetoric, we were recognizing again, was indeed
much larger than the truncated version being taught in English programs and
even larger than what could be taught in classes which limited themselves to
“Speech.” At this point, the National Communication Association stated as its
mission that it would address “all forms, modes, media and consequences of
communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry.”
Since it was in this era that
Western New Mexico University also created its program, it is reasonable to
assume that the reason for creating a “Communication” program from the old
“Speech” program was much the same at the local level as they were at the
national level. Just teaching writing
and public speaking was not enough to function as a University. To be engaged
in sound pedagogy and preparing students to communicate in the diverse and
technologically dynamic world into which they were moving, a “Speech” program
is not enough. Instead a “Communication” program was necessary in which
students could learn Communication in “all forms, modes, media and consequences
of communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry,”
not just speech. Thus a Communication Program was born.
Question 2:
What is the program doing now?
A history of staffing
difficulties, budget constraints, pressures from the state, accreditation
requirements, and a probable lack of vision seem to have deviated the
Communication Program at Western New Mexico University from its lofty origins. It
has moved more to the background and functions as a service to the larger
university. The Communication Program at WNMU now serves two important and
necessary functions for the university.
First it allows the students to meet their Area 1 Core
Competencies specifically in the areas that require oral and presentation
skills. These core competencies are required in the state of New Mexico for all
students. This is an absolutely necessary function. Second, it provides a
number of competencies in non-print media and oral rhetorical skills required
specifically for entry-level Language-Arts teachers to receive their teaching
licensure in the state of New Mexico. Given the historic place of WNMU in the
training and development of teachers, this is also absolutely necessary.
Question 3:
Should it be doing what it’s doing now?
Without a doubt, meeting general
education and teacher licensure requirements is a necessary and proper role for
the Communication Program. However, examining the current role of the program
and comparing that with the probable reason for the program’s creation provides
an opportunity to consider a fascinating semantic distinction between what is
“necessary and proper” and what is “essential.” Things which are “necessary and
proper” need to be done, should be done, and if they are not done represent a
significant failing. Things which are “essential,” however, are things which
are constitutive. They are what provide the “essence” of the program. Without
them, the program is empty and meaningless.
What makes a “Communication
Program” a “communication program” is the broad teaching of “all forms, modes,
media and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific
and aesthetic inquiry” as referred to by the National Communication
Association. The current faculty member in the Communication (hereafter
referred to as “I” or “me”) has published work and presented at conferences in
areas such as media ecology, internet law, interpersonal communication, popular
culture, communication pedagogy, general semantics, and classical rhetorical
theory while at WNMU. This more than qualifies me to provide essential teaching
to constitute a true Communication Program. The official teaching of
communication, however, has been limited by course requirements and providing
necessary and proper teaching of speech.
Certainly, the Communication Program must continue doing what
it is doing now, however, it must not only be doing what it is doing now.
The Communication Program must provide something more than these necessary
functions. It must also provide its essential functions.
I would have to argue that in its current condition the
Communication Program at WNMU is doing things that are “necessary and proper”
while ignoring things that are “essential.” If the Communication Program is to
continue as anything more than a vestigial appendix of a bygone dream this must
be addressed.
Question 4:
If not, what should it be doing?
Option 1: the preferred option.
The
Communication Program at WNMU should continue to fulfill its necessary and
proper role by providing introductory Public Speaking classes which meet the
Area 1 Core Competency requirements for the state of New Mexico and provide the
necessary competencies to teachers seeking licensure as Language-Arts teachers.
It should also be fulfilling its essential role as defined by the National
Communication Association to teach “all forms, modes, media and consequences of
communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry.”
OR
Option 2: a less preferred option.
The
Communication Program at WNMU, being unable due to administrative constraints
to fulfill its essential role of teaching “all forms, modes, media and
consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific and
aesthetic inquiry” should be dissolved entirely and the COMM prefix should be
removed from the WNMU catalog. The Area 1 Core Competency and Language-Arts
teaching requirements should be fulfilled through a different department or
departments whose essential components can also be met.
OR
Option 3: the worst option.
The
Communication Program at WNMU can continue exactly as it is. It can continue to
fulfill its necessary and proper role by providing introductory Public Speaking
classes which meet the Area 1 Core Competency requirements for the state of New
Mexico and provide the necessary competencies to teachers seeking licensure as
Language-Arts teachers. It will continue to “function” as a program without an
essence, without doing what a Communication Program exists to do.
Question 5:
How should it do what it should be doing?
IF
Option 1:
A proposal for a minor has been
presented to the VPAA early in the spring semester of 2014 and awaits his
approval to go to the Curriculum and Instruction Committee. If approved this
would restore the essence of a Communication Program while continuing to provide
the necessary and proper services to the students. Another proposals aimed at
restoring the essence of a Communication Program, specifically an Associates of
Arts in Communication which will provide two year students with a broad range
of skills and knowledge in Communication that they can put to work immediately
and that would also provide the basis for a number of Baccalaureate
disciplines, is also being studied by the departments. This second proposal
would require no more additional classes than the proposed minor. The best
possible scenario would be for both proposals to be accepted. If neither of
these proposals are accepted, option 1 would be difficult to achieve.
IF
Option2:
The Communication Program should be
dissolved as follows: I should be reassigned with the current title to a
different program. The speech class should follow me into that program and
renumbered to meet that new placement. That can be done in a couple ways I can
see or perhaps in other ways.
While Communication departments separated from English
departments in the 1920’s because of the limited focus of the English
discipline, it would be inaccurate to say that English still has that limited
focus. Perhaps I should be moved programmatically and officially to English
where I could continue to teach Public Speaking under an ENGL prefix to meet
the necessary state requirements and other appropriate upper level or graduate
classes in rhetorical theory or criticism.
I would continue to be “Assistant [or perhaps by that time ‘Associate’]
Professor of Speech and Communication” but in the English program.
Another possibility might be to place me in the newly created
Cultural Studies program. Cultural Studies has a history similar to
Communication Studies and at many major universities they share faculty. My particular background in media and
ethnography might make sense there. I would continue to teach Public Speaking
under that program’s prefix to meet the necessary state requirements and other
appropriate upper level or graduate classes in cultural studies. I would
continue to be “Assistant [or perhaps by that time ‘Associate’] Professor of
Speech and Communication” but in the Cultural Studies program.
Other possibilities for my placement exist and these are just
two possibilities if the Communication Program were to be dissolved.
IF
Option 3:
We’d
just keep doing what we’ve been doing and it will probably be okay, but something
deep and profound will be missing.
