Welcome
Welcome to the Communication Studies Department at Cal Poly, home to more than 200 student majors and minors.
The modern discipline of Communication Studies can be traced to the academies of ancient Athens, where the study of discourse as a means of sharing information and gaining influence formed the core of the academic curriculum. Understanding the process of human communication is no less important in the Information Age than it was in the Golden Age of Greece and Rome. Contemporary courses in Communication Studies focus on the theory and practice of human communication in a variety of contexts: interpersonal, intercultural, instructional, organizational, political, in dyads, in small groups, and in the mass media.
The general mission of the Communication Studies degree program is to facilitate students in developing their ability to reason critically, to speak and write effectively, and to understand and appreciate the influences of culture upon their lives. The discipline specific mission of the curriculum is to enhance understanding of the nature, processes and effects of human communication. Multi-dimensional in its approach, the discipline uses the rich resources of both the humanities and the social sciences in exploring the human capacity for speech - when, where, why, how, and with what effect people interact through language and extra-linguistic symbols - and focuses on the theory and practice of human communication in a variety of contexts: interpersonal, intercultural, instructional, organizational, political, in dyads, in small groups, and in the mass media. The Communication Studies major leads to a Bachelor of Arts degree that prepares students for graduate work or careers in a wide variety of occupations that place a premium on excellent communication skills. The Communication Studies minor is designed to complement other majors in the university through a series of required and elective courses addressing various facets of human communication.
Program History
Instruction in oral communication, at least to some degree, has been included in the curriculum since Cal Poly opened its doors in 1903. At the time, oral communication had yet to evolve as a discrete academic discipline; instead, the normal practice was for English departments to house instruction in composition, literature, drama, and oral communication. The first official reference to oral communication in the Cal Poly curriculum is found in the 1904 course catalog, where a description of the subject matter addressed in English courses includes "oral communication . . . oral discussion and debating."
When the school formed disciplinary units in 1936, the English curriculum included a single course in Public Speaking, which involved instruction in public address, discussion, and debate. Over the next decade, oral communication instruction expanded to a point where the university renamed the department English and Public Speaking, followed a few years later by the name English and Speech. By the mid-50s, oral communication courses had their own academic prefix (SP) and separate listing in the college catalog under the heading Speech.
In 1969, the college formed a standalone Speech Department, introducing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and an academic minor. The new department included seven faculty, thirty-four majors, and a thirty-three course curriculum including offerings such as debate, discussion, oral interpretation, persuasion, public speaking, rhetorical theory and criticism, speech pathology, broadcasting, and drama (the drama courses ultimately formed the core of a new Theatre and Dance department). The department and degree program were renamed Speech Communication in 1973 in response to the program's broader objective of preparing "students planning to enter many other fields related to the communicative arts and sciences."
In 2005, the university approved a long overdue change in the name of the department, degree program, and academic minor to Communication Studies. The curriculum currently includes thirty-nine courses, nearly thirty faculty, and more than three hundred student majors and minors. The Communication Studies degree program is now among the most popular in the College of Liberal Arts, with more than 1,200 applicants vying for approximately fifty annual admissions slots.