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Preparing for the Future
The College of Communications and Information
Studies seeks to prepare students for leadership roles in a
rapidly changing professional world, within the context of a
liberal arts education. We seek to understand communication from
its roots in oral communication, to the current multiplicity of
electronically mediated communication technologies. Our units
each focus on different aspects of how we construct, process,
store, and share effective messages contributing to a unique
synergistic blending at the college level. The Department of
Communication focuses on the interpretation, preparation, and
effects of communication messages. The School of Journalism and
Telecommunications focuses on guaranteeing the free flow of
information through its traditional focus on the First
Amendment. Its members also focus on disseminating and
synthesizing information from a variety of sources for a mass
audience. The School of Library and Information Science has
traditionally dealt with issues of information storage (e.g.,
quality and management of information resources), access and
retrieval systems, and the information seeking skills of
individuals.
We believe a society must have both adequate information support
systems and adequate communication knowledge and skills to
compete effectively in the global economy, and help its people
maintain a high quality of life. Fundamentally we educate our
students on where they can obtain information, how they can
assess and verify it, and then how they can make strategic use
of it. The College is also concerned with developing critical
consumers of information who are concerned with ethical
communication practices. We seek to promote civic
responsibility, service learning, and diversity and a deeper
appreciation of the role that communication plays in a complex,
self-governing, democratic society.
About the College
The College operates in many ways from a
position of strength, given its considerable accomplishments.
First, there are many outstanding teachers within the College,
including three Alumni Great Professors and three Provost Award
Winners. We have a rapidly growing student body, perhaps
reflecting the many learning opportunities, such as Debate, the
Kentucky "Kernel," the Kentuckian, WRFL, WUKY,
and JAT News, that UK provides our students. Second, our
professional schools play a critical role in the Commonwealth.
The School of Journalism and Telecommunications is one of the
state's three accredited programs. It has engaged the
professional community through its training of High School
Journalists, the First Amendment Center, and our Bowling
Executive-in-Residence Program. The School of Library and
Information Science is the sole accredited one in the
commonwealth. It plays a key role in KERA and serves as the
state repository of children's literature. It offers one of the
most successful distance learning programs at UK. Finally, we
have the only doctoral program in communication in Kentucky.
While UK as a whole is confronted with the challenge of
achieving Top Twenty status by the year 2020, our graduate
programs in communication are already there. Nationally we are
the leader in sponsored health communication research.
To continue our record of accomplishment we have
set the goal of $1.6 million dollars during the current UK
Capital Campaign. We are asking alumni, friends, corporations
and foundations to help us in providing programs and services of
the highest caliber. We must increase our number of endowed
chairs and professorships, graduate fellowships, undergraduate
scholarships, program endowments for student travel and
our-of-class learning experiences, and facilities such as
information technology and graphic laboratories. This increased
support will heighten the quality of our faculty and students
and enhance our impact on the Commonwealth.
Why Give?
The CCIS Development Officer is responsible for
all private fund raising efforts for the College. The
Development Officer works with College alumni, friends,
corporations and foundations to raise funds to improve our
programs, increase opportunities for our students and faculty to
receive scholarships, fellowships and professorships, provide
support for student and faculty research efforts and improve
resources in our Centers of Excellence, the Media Center for the
Future and First Amendment Center.
The generous contributions and efforts of our
College’s supporters have helped us move forward in achieving
these goals.
*Contact Janice
Birdwhistell with questions.
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