Curriculum:
The Bachelor of Science in Communication degree program consists of 182 credits. Click here to download a printable course checklist.
Two Audio-Visual courses
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COM 335
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Electronic Publishing
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3 credits
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COM 340
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Desktop Publishing
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3 credits
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Communication electives (any six courses with a COM rubric at the 300-level or higher)
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18 credits
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Electives
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Culture electives (any two courses with a SOC or ANTH rubric. At least one must be at the 200-level or higher)
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6 credits
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Free electives
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30 credits
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Course Descriptions
ANTH 410Cultural Theory - 3 credits
Explores controversial issues and questions, such as sociobiology and what it means to be human, as they have been and are being studied by those concerned with human origins and development. Reviews major thinkers in the history and theory of anthropology, including modernists and postmodernists.
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COM 111: Introduction to Corporate Communication - 3 credits
Explores the importance of communication in organizational settings. Includes assessment of appropriate modes of communication, including written, spoken, and electronic.
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COM 210: Theory and Models of Communication - 3 credits
Surveys historical and contemporary attempts to understand the process of human communication, using examples from the literature of interpersonal, group, organizational, and mass communication.
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SOC 260: Classical Social Theory - 3 credits
Critically examines the ideas of the classical sociological theorists (e.g., Marx, Durkheim, and Weber). This is a writing intensive course.
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COM 220: Introduction to Communication Research - 3 credits
Provides a detailed investigation of the various methods used in the study of human communication, including content analysis, survey research, experimental research, and ethnographic research.
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SOC 250: Research Methods - 3 credits
Covers research design, including ethics of research, sampling, survey research, interviewing, field experiments, and content analysis. Involves multidisciplinary examples and application in seminar format with student production of original projects.
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SOC 364: Computer-Assisted Data Analysis I - 3 credits
This course uses the computer as a tool in organizing and manipulating a numerical database, as well as in performing statistical analyses. Simulation and modeling may also be covered.
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COM 230: Techniques of Speaking - 3 credits
A workshop course in improving public speaking skills.Provides experience in speeches of explanation, persuasion, and argument.
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COM 240: New Technologies in Communication - 3 credits
Provides an overview and survey of the changes taking place in the technologies of information production, distribution, storage, and display, including the interaction of these changes with legal, social, cultural, and communications systems.
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PHIL 305: Communication Ethics - 3 credits
Undertakes a systematic study of moral problems arising in the context of public communications, including ethical problems encountered in organizational and mass communication.
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COM 260 WI: Fundamentals of Journalism - 3 credits
A workshop course in news reporting. Covers interviewing, editing, and writing for the mass media and for business, industrial, and trade publications. Explores the history of the field and changes in journalistic practices. This is a writing intensive course.
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COM 270 WI: Business Communication - 3 credits
Covers the writing of business letters, resumes, memos, proposals, and reports.This is a writing intensive course.
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COM 280: Public Relations - 3 credits
The course focuses on the principles of public relations. It introduces students to theory and practice of PR taught in the context of real life material and situations. The course also covers main public relations techniques, tools, and types of publics.
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COM 281: Advanced Public Relations - 3 credits
This course will focus on advanced aspects of public relations: how to analyze, plan, and conduct public relations campaigns systematically and scientifically. A great deal of attention will be paid to the analysis of real life public relations cases. At the end of the course students create full-scale PR plans, including budget and media material.
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COM 330: Professional Presentations - 3 credits
A workshop course in the theory and practice of making effective professional presentations for the technical and business professional. Provides a systems approach to the planning, production, and presentation of visual/aural programs.
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COM 380: Special Studies in Communication Theory - 3 credits
Provides advanced communication studies covering various subjects in interpersonal, group, organizational, and mass communication. May be taken for credit twice.
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MKTG 311: Introduction to Marketing Management - 3 credits
Provides a conceptual and applications-oriented framework for marketing decision-making in a dynamic environment. Emphasizes satisfying target customers and achieving organizational objectives through skillful blending of strategies in product development, pricing, promotion, and distribution. This is a writing intensive course.
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ORGB 300 WI: Organizational Behavior - 4 credits
Provides conceptual understanding of various principles of management and organizational processes and the opportunity for skill-building in the areas of individual, interpersonal, and intergroup organizational behaviors.
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PHIL 105: Critical Reasoning - 3 credits
An introductory course. Designed to impart the skills of sound reasoning and argumentation useful in most fields.
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LING 101: Introduction to Linguistics - 3 credits
Introduces major topics in the study of language, including language acquisition, language change, the social use of language, and the analysis of discourse, and teaches basic techniques in linguistic analysis through the use of a wide variety of language data.
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LING 102: Language and Society - 3 credits
Develops understanding of how language is involved with relations of class, ethnicity, gender and aesthetics in society. The course covers the social investigation of language use, politeness in languages, different varieties of English dialects, slang, and rap, bilingualism and languages in immigrant communities, and language planning.
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COM 335: Electronic Publishing - 3 credits
Electronic Publishing gives students applied and theoretical knowledge of professional electronic publishing. Students will focus on issues relating to writing and integrating text and graphics to create websites and on-line publications. Students will also consider how issues in document design and usability can be used to evaluate websites.
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COM 340: Desktop Publishing - 3 credits
Covers production of publications using desktop publishing software, including planning, writing, designing, and budgeting of institutional magazines, newsletters, manuals, and brochures. Requires students to design several pieces (letterheads and flyers).
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ANTH 101: Cultural Diversity: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology - 3 credits
Examinesthe diversity that exists in human culture. Uses lectures, films, and discussions to examine and illustrate the relationship between humans and their social/cultural systems.
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ANTH 110: The Human Past - 3 credits
Examines human origins from the australopithecines to the present, including both the physiological and archaeological records. Discusses new finds and new interpretations of evolution.
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COM 150: Mass Media & Society – 3 credits
Provides an overview of the history, economic structure, regulation, and impact of the mass media in the United States.
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ENGL 101: Expository Writing and Reading - 3 credits
Develops students' abilities to read and write expository academic discourse. Teaches students how to read with understanding; how to access print and technological sources; how to research, plan, draft, revise, and edit academic essays and reports. Requires students to write expository essay and to keep a journal to express their responses to material read and study in the course.
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ENGL 102: Persuasive Writing and Reading - 3 credits
Develops students' abilities to read and write persuasive academic discourse. Teaches students to think and read critically, to evaluate and use print and technological sources effectively, and to present a written argument effectively. Requires students to write persuasive essays and research papers and to keep a journal to express their responses to material read and studied in the course.
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ENGL 103: Analytical Writing and Reading - 3 credits
Develops students' skills in critical and analytical reading and writing through a study of literature. Teaches students techniques to help them understand and appreciate literature. Requires students to read, analyze, and write essays and research papers about selected works of poetry, drama, and fiction and to keep a journal to express their responses to the literature studied.
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PSCI 100: Introduction to Political Science - 4 credits
Studies the political process, which determines who gets what, when, and how in society.
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PSY 101: General Psychology - 3 credits
Reviews the fundamental principles, concepts, and methods of psychology, with emphasis on the concepts of motivation, learning, and perception, and their psychological foundations.
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SOC 101: Introduction to Sociology - 3 credits
Examines principles underlying human interaction in simple technological societies, including learning and development of social roles; development and meaning of culture and social organizations; and special institutions in the society, such as the family, class structure, and power structure.
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BIO 102: Biology I: Cells and Tissues - 4 credits
Covers function of cells and tissues at the molecular, cellular, and organ level, with emphasis on human physiology.
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BIO 104: Biology II: Growth and Heredity - 4 credits
Covers growth and development of selected lower and higher organisms, with emphasis on the replication, transmission, and regulation of genetic material.
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CHEM 111: General Chemistry I - 4 credits
Not open to engineering or science majors. Introduces the principles of general chemistry. Covers SI units, unit factor calculations, states of matter, elements and compounds, energy, atoms, electronic configurations, ionic and covalent bonds, Lewis dot structures, shapes of molecules, chemical equations, stoichiometry, molarity, gas laws, nuclear chemistry, equilibrium between different states of matter, and some colligative properties of solutions.
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CHEM 112: General Chemistry II - 4 credits
Introduces organic chemistry. Covers some classes of organic compounds from alkanes to amines, basic reactions of important functional groups, uses of some compounds, stereochemistry, synthetic and natural polymers (carbohydrates, protein, DNA), and briefly acids and bases.
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PHYS 103: General Physics I - 4 credits
Algebra-based course that covers force, motion, work, energy properties of matter, and wave motion and sound propagation.
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PHYS 104: General Physics II - 4 credits
Algebra-based course that covers electricity and applications, magnetism, and optics.
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MATH 101: Introduction to Analysis I - 4 credits
Covers linear, quadratic, exponential, and logarithmic functions; systems of linear equations; elementary linear programming; matrix algebra; inverse; and mathematics of finance.
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MATH 102: Introduction to Analysis II - 4 credits
Covers limits, continuity, derivatives, indefinite and definite integrals, and applications.
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MATH 121: Calculus I - 4 credits
Functions, limits and continuity, derivatives, transcendental functions, and applications.
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MATH 122: Calculus II - 4 credits
Definite integrals, Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, integration techniques, applications of integration, numerical integration and differential equations.
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ENGL 201: Renaissance to the Enlightenment - 3 credits
A survey of Western literature from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, focusing on works by Cervantes, Erasmus, Rabelais, Petrarch, Voltaire, Rousseau, Swift and Pope.
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ENGL 202 WI: Romanticism to Modernism - 3 credits
A survey of Western literature of the 19th and 20th centuries focusing on the major periods of Romanticism (Blake, Coleridge and Keats), Realism (Balzac and Ibsen), and Modernism (Kafka, Borges and Woolf). This is a writing intensive course.
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ENGL 203 WI: Post-Colonial Literature I: Africa/Asia/Carib./Middle East- 3 credits
A survey of nonwestern literatures produced before the modern era in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, representing the more important periods and genres. This is a writing intensive course.
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ENGL 204: Post Colonial Literature II: Africa/Asia/Carib/Middle East - 3 credits
A survey of nonwestern literatures written in the 20th century by writers from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and focusing on the effects of social, aesthetic and contemporary events on artistic creation.
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HIST 220: History of American Business - 3 credits
Examines the development of business in the United States from the 1870s to the present. Emphasizes the evolving structure of business enterprise, business/government relations, business in an international context, and business and American culture.
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HIST 280: History of Science I - 3 credits
Covers the development of the scientific ideas of Newton, with emphasis on the nature of science and scientific method. Provides an opportunity for students to pursue their own interests.
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HIST 281: History of Science II - 3 credits
Covers scientific ideas from Newton to the early 20th century, including cultural influences on science and relationships between science and technology. Centers on student interests.
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HIST 285: Technology in Historical Perspective - 3 credits
Examines the causal interrelations between technological progress and developments in economic, social, intellectual, and political aspects of Western civilization from the 18th century to the present.
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