Communication

About the Department

Dawn K. Lewis, Ph.D., Interim Department Chair
Speech Arts Building, Room 15
559.278. 8517
FAX: 559.278.4113
cah.fresnostate.edu/communication/

Our aim is to prepare students to understand and provide leadership in a competitive communication-oriented society. We offer a balance of humanistic and scientific instruction in communication skills people need to function effectively in teaching, business, law, nonprofit organizations, public service and administration, public relations, government, and management. Outside the workplace, these skills will also enhance students’ ability to be active in civic engagement and community service.

Our program requires a comprehensive understanding of the breadth and depth of the communication discipline, as well as its major theoretical frameworks and research methodologies. The major and minor emphasize how this theoretical knowledge is applied in specific contexts ranging from personal relationships to professional organizations to public advocacy. Students investigate problems in diverse cultural settings, which make the San Joaquin Valley - with its tremendous ethnic diversity - an ideal location for study.

The Communication Skills for Professionals Certificate program recognizes development in such areas as presentational speaking, problem solving and decision making, leadership, and interpersonal communication.

Our program offers a variety of exciting activities to enrich students’ educational experience. We have an active student organization, the Communication Club, and a debate team that participates in competitive intercollegiate tournaments and hosts public debates on campus. Our annual Peach Blossom Festival brings more than 5,000 elementary-age students to campus to present prose and poetry.

We offer majors personalized advising through a dedicated undergraduate coordinator. Our major builds on a sound core of foundation courses and is completed by courses selected to meet your needs and career objectives. Our major requirements are flexible and easily integrated into a host of minors.

The communication program presents a balance of humanistic and scientific instruction including communication skills people need to function effectively in teaching, business, law, the communication professions, public service, politics and management. Students have an opportunity to explore the full range of human communication.

Interesting Classes You Might Take

• The Dark Side of Close Relationships
• Communication od Science and Technology
• Organizations, Society, and Culture
• Leadership in Groups and Organizations
• Environmental Communication
• Rhetoric of Terrorism
• Critical Communication Pedagogy
• Freedom of Expression
• Rhetoric and Game Studies
• Performance for Social Change

What You Can Learn

• Various theories of interpersonal communication
• The role of culture, race, gender, and other aspects of identity in human communication
• Communication and problem solving in group settings and organizational settings
• The use of persuasion as a social tool for advocacy, resolving controversy, and shaping opinions from the perspectives of both the persuader and the persuaded
• The nature of communication and its relationship to learning and instruction

Career Opportunities

Recognizing that some careers require extensive knowledge about specific communication practices (in occupations ranging from politics and law to human resources and public relations), while virtually every field demands competence in oral and written communication skills, the Department’s undergraduate program offers degree and certificate options tailored to our students’.

What You Can Earn

• Marketing Communication Specialist, $70,334 (in our region)
• Employee Communication Manager, $106,157 (in our region)
• Internal Corporate Communication Coordinator, Internal/External Communication Representative (entry-level), $55,982 (in our region)
• Speech Writer, $135,450 (in our region)

Source: HR Reported data on salary.com as of February 2021

Programs

• Communication Skills for Professionals, Certificate of Special Study

• Communication, B.A.

• Communication, M.A.

• Communication, Minor