About the College and Its Units
History of the College of Communications and Information Studies
On September 16, 1975 the UK Board of Trustees abolished the School of Communications in the College of Arts and Sciences with its Departments of Journalism, Speech and Telecommunications and replaced it with a School of Journalism and Department of Human Communication. On May 4, 1976, these units were separated from the College of Arts and Sciences to form the new College of Communications composed of these units.
Graduate degrees in communication, journalism, and telecommunication have been offered since Fall 1966 and authorized to accept the first students in a new M.A. program. The Ph.D. program was approved in December 1977, and admitted its first students in 1980. On April 7, 1981 the Department of Telecommunications as an educational unit was established in the College of Communications.
On June 22, 1993, the Board of Trustees approved the merger of the College of Communications with the College of Library and Information Science to form the new College of Communications and Information Studies. During the same year, the School of Journalism and the Department of Telecommunications were merged to form the School of Journalism and Telecommunications within the College. In 1997, the Advertising program within the School of Journalism and Telecommunications was renamed Integrated Strategic Communication.
The College has experienced exceptional growth. Today, the College has over 1200 undergraduate majors enrolled in four undergraduate programs, and three hundred graduate students pursuing Master's and Ph.D. degrees. The excellence of the faculty is reflected in the quality and number of their publications and grants, and the many national honors awarded them.
Mission of the College of Communications and Information Studies
The mission of Kentucky's only College of Communications and Information Studies is to provide communication education and training for undergraduate and graduate students in the multicultural, multiethnic society of the information age. The College of Communications and Information Studies offers the only doctorate in communications and the only master's in library science in the state.
The College has experienced phenomenal growth since its inception. The quality of the faculty members is reflected in the amount and nature of their publications and grants and the many national honors awarded them.
Undergraduate students in the College's four degree programs -- Communication, Integrated Strategic Communication (formerly Advertising), Journalism, and Telecommunications -- receive a liberal arts education that goes beyond preparing students for an information-centered, service-oriented society. The College seeks to educate students in the spirit that electronic, written, and oral communication provide -- the very cornerstone of a democratic society. Additionally, the College offers courses that satisfy University Studies requirements. The Integrated Strategic Communication and Journalism programs are accredited by the Accrediting Council of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.
At the graduate level, the College offers master's and doctoral students opportunities to undertake important research programs that contribute directly to the wellbeing of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the United States. The graduate program allows emphases in interpersonal, international, health, and mass communication, and offers the only accredited program in library and information science in the Commonwealth. The School of Library and Information Science enrolls master's students in its graduate program on campus and at its off-campus site at Northern Kentucky University. In addition, the School provides about ten service classes each year in children's, adolescent, and young adult literature, which are taken largely by students of the College of Education. The School graduates approximately 100 information professionals each year, and produces more than eighty percent of all school, public, academic, and special librarians educated in Kentucky.
Summary
Information has become a vital resource of modern society. In fields such as education, government and law, business and economic development, health care, environmental protection, research and development, and national security, the rapid acquisition, processing, dissemination and use of reliable information is critical. Indeed, the volume of information has become so great, the need for access to information so pervasive, that many experts characterize this period of social development as the Information Age. A society with inadequate information support systems and inadequate communication cannot hope to compete effectively in the global economy, nor can its people expect to achieve or maintain a high quality of life.
With society's growing need for current and accurate information has come a need for well educated and trained information and communication professionals who have the ability to design, develop, and manage information and communication effectively.