During the week of July 31, 2000 , a group of undergraduate faculty met at Hope College in Holland, Michigan for a special conference on designing the undergraduate curriculum in communication under the facilitation of Professor Stephen Littlejohn of Domenici Littlejohn, Inc. The 42 participants represented a variety of undergraduate programs in 18 states and Hong Kong . The primary concern was with how the small undergraduate college department of communication, with limited faculty and curricular resources, could implement a program representing our field's diversity.

Disciplinary Identity

Communication is a multifaceted discipline that studies the processes, practices and products of human signification as its central defining characteristic. We are a broad and diverse intellectual community whose members study the symbolic processes of interaction in a variety of contexts and modalities. When we use the term communication in this document, we are including communication science, rhetoric, and aesthetics. We teach the ability to interact ethically, confidently, and effectively. We engage in systematic description, interpretation, and assessment of the products and results emerging as a consequent of communicative processes and practices.

Curricular Goals and Core

We believe an undergraduate degree in communication should educate individuals to be capable of assessing situations and crafting appropriate communicative responses to interact effectively with diverse others and to participate as socially responsible members of their increasingly mediated and complex communities. The following nine goals in combination address this mission. The ideal communication curriculum achieves all of the goals.

Goal 1: Understanding of multiple theoretical perspectives and diverse intellectual underpinnings in communication as reflected in its philosophy and/or history

Goal 2: Competency in effective communication with diverse others

Goal 3: Competency in presentation, preferably in more than one form

Goal 4: Competency in analysis and interpretation of contemporary media

Goal 5: Competency in reflective construction and analysis of arguments and discourse intended to influence beliefs, attitudes, values, and practices

Goal 6: Competency in systematic inquiry (the process of asking questions and systematically attempting to answer them, and understanding the limitations of the conclusion reached)

Goal 7: Competency in analysis and practice of ethical communication

Goal 8: Competency in human relational interaction