History

Emeritus Faculty Review Four Decades of Communication

UW-Stevens Point founded the first comprehensive communication program in the Midwest in 1969.  It was a different era, but as several former communication faculty members told COMM 320 student Aaron Krish in 2012, the Division of Communication has played an important role throughout changing times.  Don’t miss this eight-minute slide detailing some of that history.  (Click the screen shot below to go to a new screen, then click the play button in the lower left corner of the SoundSlides interface.)

A History of Giving Back: Comm Week and its Alumni Guests

Communication Week first started in 1989 and occurred several years in a row.  Dr. Jim Haney and other faculty members developed the idea with the goal of bringing back successful alumni to talk to students in a classroom setting.

Before it ceased in the early 1990s, Comm Week acquired special funding that allowed the division to host nationally known communicators,  such as journalists Linda Ellerbee and Richard Schlesinger in April 1990, along with its own successful alumni.

“When existing funds could no longer sustain bringing in those guests, we continued to bring our alumni to speak.  It was a popular and successful program,” Haney said.

Haney explained that Comm Week is so successful in the university due to its three main goals.

“We offer high quality guest speakers, offer networking opportunities for students, and are able to maintain our alumni relations very well,” Haney said.

Students benefit when speakers offer timely topics and relevant real-life experiences  to the classes they visit, as well as professional connections in their fields of study. Typically, division faculty recommend alumni they would like to see in the classrooms.

“These students are networking with alums who graduated and sat in the same desks as them.  They have the chance to ask questions and get valuable advice from the alums.  Our hope is that there is a long line of students waiting to talk to them,” Haney said.

Alumni generally give their insights to questions about what they think students need to do to prepare themselves for the job market, what employers are looking for in prospective employees, and how students can go out on their own and engage the connections they have made.

The last goal, Haney explained, is to maintain alumni relations, as alumni support is critical to helping the university thrive.

“Some of our alumni donate a significant amount of money to our program and students, while others have a different way showing their appreciation,” Haney said.  “By hosting Comm Week, we have the opportunity to honor them and their accomplishments.  It’s healthy for both the faculty and students.”

Alumni say they appreciate the idea to give back to the university that helped them get where they are today.

“My story is a little unusual in the sense that I went back to school to get my master’s when I was 46 years old.  I was almost always the oldest person in the class, but in the classroom none of that mattered,” said Kit Kiefer, a 2012 guest.  “Grad school was by far the best educational experience of my life, and I’m indebted to UWSP for providing it.”

Steven Heller, another 2012 guest, started giving back to the university as soon as he graduated. He donates a scholarship in his name each year to students actively involved on campus.

“I felt that the opportunities I had in student organizations were what made my college career what it was,” Heller said.

— Aaron Krish (Nov. 2012)