News & Notes
Students Receive Fall Dean's List Honors. The Dean's List for Fall Quarter 2011 includes 47 Communication Studies majors, or roughly one-fifth of the students enrolled in the degree program. Students must earn a grade point average of 3.50 or higher with a class load of 16 or more units to earn Dean's List honors. The mean GPA for the 47 majors earning honors this quarter was 3.72, with two students earning a perfect 4.00 GPA. Both the total number of majors on the list and the recipient rate (19.9%) are the highest levels since the department began tracking Dean's List data in 2006. On the average, 35 students (16.0%) earn the honor each quarter. This quarter's honorees include freshmen Damien Arredondo, Chad Hennings, Holly Kelly, Joshah McPeak, Leah Monteleone, Jessica Singleton, Ashley Stephens, Sara Torres, and Erin Warren; sophomores Kendra Berner, Kellie Brown, Audrey Coleman, Kristina Cosgrave, Elizabeth DeVeny, Patrick Fitzsimmons, Haley Gross, Caroline Hollister, Danielle Morrison, Kelly Trom, and Natalie Zafis; juniors Blair Buckley, Krista Burke, Nicholas Carrasco, Jenna Davis, Amanda Gonzalez, Timothy Granado, Vianna Hochstrasser, Alison Johnson, Manya Maier, Natalie Schutt, Madeleine Sciarra, Hannah Teitelbaum, and Amber Ullo; and seniors Maryn Anderson, Sierra Cadena, Arianna Chopelas, Alison Costello, Hannah Drain, Nathan Hennes, Katharine Henry, Christine Herman, Claire Kister, Megan Michels, Kelley Plasterer, Alyssa Santos, Stephanie Taft, and Courtney Wen. This is the fourth consecutive quarter on the Dean's List for Davis and Twitelbaum, and the seventh consecutive quarter for Zafis.
Fall 2011 Graduates Honored at December Commencement. University Commencement ceremonies were held on December 4 in Mott Gym, with seventeen Communication Studies students receiving Bachelor of Arts degrees. Although the university awards degrees quarterly, commencement ceremonies are held only in June and December. The new graduates reduces the total number of current Communication Studies majors to 219 students. Degrees awarded are not official until a final check is conducted by the Evaluations Unit.
Fall Quarter Intramural Debate and Public Speaking Contest Results. The quarterly Intramural Debate Tournament concluded on November 30, following two weeks of competition. First place in the debates was presented to the team of Kristina Cosgrave, a sophomore Communication Studies major, and Rosie Falcon-Shapiro, a freshman Graphic Communication major. Taking second place in the contest was the team of Clay Mead and Natalie Schutt, both sophomore Communication Studies majors. Receiving an award as the top individual speaker in the tournament was junior Communication Studies major Amanda Gonzalez, with senior Communication Studies major Brian Peters receiving the second place individual award. Twelve students participated in the debates.
The quarterly Public Speaking Contest was held on December 2, with 40 students competing as representatives of the Fall Public Speaking and Principles of Oral Communication classes. Taking first place in the contest was freshman Mathematics major Nicolas Rodriguez. Second place was awarded to junior Kinesiology major Sara Peterson, and third place went to freshman Agricultural Science major Rebecca Graham. Three received Honorable Mention for their performance in the tournament preliminary rounds: freshman English major Varvell, sophomore Business major Travis Webb, and freshman Journalism major Hayley Williams.
Both competitions are judged by student enrolled in the Advanced Forensic Activities class.
Communication Studies Alumna Named California Teacher of the Year. Cal Poly e-News Release. Rebecca (Lipschultz) Mieliwocki, a 1990 Speech Communication graduate, has taken an unorthodox, yet effective approach to teaching students at Luther Burbank Middle School in Burbank, Calif. The state Department of Education recently chose Mieliwocki as one of five California Teachers of the Year and the state's nominee for the national honor. Mieliwocki, who has taught at the school for nine years, understands the fast pace of information bombarding today's adolescents and has set up her lesson plan to capture and retain their attention. Read more about Mieliwocki in the Los Angeles Daily News.
Besel Elected to Environmental Communication Interest Group Post. While attending the National Communication Conference in New Orleans, Dr. Richard Besel learned that he had been elected to the position of Vice President for the NCA Environmental Communication Interest Group. NCA Interest Groups serve as a loose organization of scholars pursuing research in areas related to the Interest Group, and are responsible for program planning for Interest Group sponsored events at the upcoming national conference.
Department Represented at National Communication Association Conference. The department was well represented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, held November 17-20 in New Orleans. Presenting papers at the conference were Dr. Richard Besel, Dr. Jnan Blau, Dr. Bernard Duffy, and Dr. Michael Fahs.
Zeuschner Receives Recognition from Fullbright Program. The Institute of International Education recently recognized the excellent work of Communication Studies Emeritus Professor and Interim Director of International Program Raymond Zeuschner in its annual report on the Fullbright Scholars Program. Zeuschner was singled out for his "strong contributions to the program's success at Cal Poly." Cal Poly is ranked Number 9 on the Fullbright Scholars Program list of top producing Masters granting institutions for the 2011-2012 academic year.
Class of 2015 Arrives. The Class of 2015 arrived on campus September 12 for the annual university Week of Welcome (WOW) new student orientation activities. The incoming Communication Studies class includes 63 first time freshmen and 12 upper-division transfer students. The number of new students exceeds university projections by more than 10%. Combined with a slightly lower than projected number of June graduates, the major now stands at 239 active students. If that number holds, it will represent the largest Fall class in the history of the department, surpassing the previous record of 230 student majors set in Fall Quarter 2008. The five-year average for the department is 214 student majors. The department begins the academic year with 32 returning academic minors. The number of registered minors usually doubles over the course of the academic year as new students replace the recently graduated minors.