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College of Communications
119 Gregory Hall
810 South Wright Street
Urbana, IL 61801
(217) 333-2350
For students with two years of college and commitments to careers in communications, the College of Communications offers an additional two years of education leading to bachelor of science degrees in advertising, in journalism, and in media studies.
Through its professional programs, the college strives to give students in advertising and journalism broad career competence in their chosen fields of communications, while ensuring that they acquire solid backgrounds in the social sciences and humanities. Its premise is that students need an understanding of people and the world they live in if they are to communicate effectively through print and electronic media.
Through its nonprofessional media studies program, the college offers students the opportunity to study, analyze, and critique modern communications media, again with a firm foundation in the social sciences and humanities.
The college has modern equipment and facilities for teaching future communications practitioners-reporting, editing, graphic arts, and photojournalism laboratories, in addition to editing studios for radio and television production and the new Richmond Journalism Teaching Studio. The Communications Library is generally recognized as one of the best in the nation. The departments of advertising and journalism maintain job placement services for their students.
The college is also the supervising administrative unit for the University Broadcasting Division (WILL-AM, -FM, and -TV) and the Institute of Communications Research, where the media studies program is administered.
Instruction in journalism at the University was begun in 1902 as part of the course offering in rhetoric and was organized as a division of the Department of English in 1916. The School of Journalism was established in 1927 as a separate unit. In 1950, it became the School of Journalism and Communications with divisions of journalism, advertising, and radio, the last of which later added instruction in television. In 1957 the school was elevated to college status, and two years later the college's three divisions were redesignated as departments. The present name-College of Communications-was adopted in 1968.
Departments and Curricula
Through its Departments of Advertising and Journalism, the college, which has been accredited by the American Council on Education for Journalism and Mass Communication, offers professional education in three sequences-advertising, news-editorial journalism, and broadcast journalism. A bachelor of science degree is also offered in media studies through the Institute of Communications Research.
The Department of Advertising supervises work in the advertising curriculum for students expecting to enter advertising agencies, public relations firms, non-profit organizations, or the marketing departments of corporations. The department aims to educate students to become analytical, flexible, and creative professionals who are able to deal with current and future advertising challenges.
The Department of Journalism seeks to prepare students for varied and long-term careers in print and electronic journalism. The primary professional aim of the news-editorial and broadcast sequences is to train students as public affairs reporters by providing them with the skills, knowledge, and understanding required for success as journalists. The department aims to prepare broadly educated professionals who will eventually assume decision-making and leadership roles.
The Institute of Communications Research, through the media studies curriculum, gives students concentrated formal academic study in the development of the communications media and their underlying technologies.
The Departments of Advertising and Journalism offer graduate programs leading to master of science degrees in advertising and in journalism. The college offers an interdisciplinary program leading to the doctor of philosophy in communications under the direction of the Institute of Communications Research.
Requirements
ADMISSION
For admission to the College of Communications, a student must complete 60 semester hours of acceptable undergraduate college work and present a grade point average of at least 3.0 (A = 4.0) and evidence of interest in the practice and/or study of communications. The competitive grade point average in recent years has been higher for particular majors. Applicants with less than a 3.0 grade point average may be considered if they demonstrate strong motivation and aptitude, provided that spaces are available.
Since they must have junior standing to be eligible to enter the
College of Communications, students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are advised to register as freshmen and sophomores in the prejournalism curriculum of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and to follow a broad general education program. Students at other institutions should follow similar programs.
Although there is no formal preadvertising or prejournalism program, a strongly recommended program for each college curriculum for the first two years is available in the college office. These programs include basic courses in economics, English, history, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology, as well as courses satisfying the University's general education requirements. Students who do not have a reasonable degree of typing ability should acquire this skill before entering the college, because it is desirable in all curricula. A basic knowledge of computer skills is also useful.
Students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign should make arrangements at the college office to apply for an intra-college transfer early in the second semester of their sophomore year. Junior standing is necessary for students to take most courses offered by the College of Communications.
Students completing their freshman and sophomore studies at institutions other than the University of Illinois are strongly advised to defer courses in advertising, journalism, and communications until enrolled in the College of Communications. Students must take all of their required communications courses in the College of Communications. They may be permitted to transfer up to nine hours of elective communications courses taken elsewhere, provided that they take an equivalent number of additional hours in advanced social studies, arts, and sciences beyond the 20 semester hours required for graduation from the college.
The college does not recommend that students with more than 90 hours enter any of its undergraduate programs. The programs are designed for completion within four semesters. In certain cases, it is possible to complete the curriculum requirements in three semesters if prerequisites in sequential courses can be met. The college does not accept a student who has already received a bachelor's degree as a candidate for a second bachelor's degree. Instead, it recommends that such a student enter one of its graduate programs.
GRADUATION
The college offers programs of study leading to bachelor of science degrees in advertising, journalism, and in media studies. To meet the degree requirements, all students must satisfy general University requirements as to registration, residence, scholarship, and fees. They also must complete the University general education. All students must also fulfill the following general requirements of the College of Communications:
- Complete a total of 124 semester hours of course credit. Basic physical education activity courses and basic courses in military, naval, or air force science may not be counted toward this total although such credits may be counted toward meeting the admission requirement of 60 semester hours. No more than a total of 12 hours earned in undergraduate open seminars (199 courses), in independent study courses outside the college, and in other experimental courses may be counted toward the degrees offered by the college. A student in the college may enroll in one such course for a maximum of four hours of credit in any semester with the consent of the head of the student's major department. The same policy is applied to credit for internships in fields other than communications with the additional requirement that such courses must also be approved by the dean of the college. While the college encourages its students to hold internships in the communications field, particularly in the summer between the junior and senior years, it does not allow academic credit toward the degree for such experience alone. Credit granted by other institutions for internships is not accepted.
- Complete not less than 30 hours but not more than 36 hours in courses offered by the college in advertising, communications, and journalism. Those undergraduate courses cross-listed with advertising or journalism courses are considered college course offerings. Undergraduate communications courses cross-listed only with departments outside the college are not counted as college offerings, except COMM 251, 275, and 377.
- Complete not less than 20 hours in advanced (200- and 300-level) courses at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the social studies, arts, and sciences approved by the faculty.
- Complete the specific requirements of one of the curricula offered by the college, as listed below.
- Complete 90 hours of credit outside the college, of which 65 hours must be taken in the liberal arts and sciences.
- Earn a grade point average of 2.0 (A = 4.0) in all courses presented for the degree. Earn a 2.0 cumulative grade point average for all courses taken while registered in the college. Earn a cumulative 2.0 grade point average for the 30-36 hour courses required for the major.
GENERAL EDUCATION
To be graduated from the College of Communications, students must satisfy the University's general education requirements, which include completion of the two-course composition requirement; a Quantitative Reasoning requirement; six hours of Cultural Studies; a minimum of six hours each in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences; and the foreign language requirement for students enrolled as freshmen in Fall 2001 and thereafter. Any substitution of courses must be approved by the dean of the college.
The Campus Senate, the faculty General Education Board, and the colleges and departments are working to implement enhanced general education requirements. Thus, new students should confirm their general education requirements by consulting college and departmental offices, handbooks, or advisers.
Special Programs
Edmund J. James Scholars
The College of Communications does not have a college honors program. However, a student who transfers into the College of Communications from another college on the Urbana-Champaign campus and is a James Scholar in the previous college at the time of transfer will continue to be listed as a James Scholar in the College of Communications through the end of the first spring semester in the college. If the student has a cumulative and semester grade point average of 3.5 or above (A = 4.0) at that time, he or she will be certified as a James Scholar for the next academic year when his or her records will be reviewed for certification. Any student whose cumulative and semester average falls below 3.5 will not be certified and will be removed from the James Scholars listing. Designation as a James Scholar is available only to a student who was previously so designated.
Dean's List
To be eligible for Dean's List recognition for any semester, students must rank in the top 20 percent of their respective classes and must successfully complete 14 academic hours, of which at least 12 hours must be traditionally graded hours (excluding course work graded pass-fail, credit-no credit, satisfactory-unsatisfactory, excused, or deferred) and excluding grades and hours in basic physical education courses and religious foundation courses.
Honors at Graduation
For graduation with honors, a student must have been named to the Dean's List of the College of Communications for at least three semesters, must rank in the upper 20 percent of the student's graduation class, and must have earned a minimum grade point average of 3.5 or above in all courses taken after admission to the College of Communications. For graduation with high honors, a student must have been named to the Dean's List of the College of Communications for at least three semesters, must rank in the upper 10 percent of the student's graduation class, and must have earned a minimum grade point average of 3.7 in all courses taken after admission to the College of Communications. For graduation with highest honors, a student must have been named to the Dean's List of the College of Communications for at least three semesters, must rank in the upper 5 percent of the student's graduation class, and must have earned a minimum grade point average of 3.8 or above in all courses taken after admission to the College of Communications. (Important: See requirements above regarding 14 hours.)
Kappa Tau Alpha
Each year, scholastically high-ranking undergraduate and graduate students in the College of Communications are considered for membership in Kappa Tau Alpha, national honorary society in journalism and communications. The society was founded to recognize and promote scholarship in advertising, journalism, broadcasting, and media studies.