Iowa State University

Inside Iowa State
February 4, 2000

Forum focus: Initiative to improve student communication

by Anne Krapfl
A new initiative to revise Iowa State's undergraduate curriculum and subsequently improve students' communication skills will be the focus of the Feb. 21 Faculty Forum and Dinner, sponsored by the Center for Teaching Excellence.

Michael Mendelson, English, and a member of the "ISUComm" planning committee, will provide an update on what has been done since last spring and field questions on what the program means for faculty. ISUComm is a cooperative effort of the Faculty Senate curriculum committee, the vice provost for undergraduate programs and the teaching center. The 16-member planning committee includes representatives of the undergraduate colleges.

ISUComm is modeled, Mendelson said, after the College of Agriculture's AgComm, an effort that integrates communications learning with discipline-specific courses.

"AgComm is the inspiration behind ISUComm," he said. "We'd like to build on that momentum and get the conversation rolling about how to do this university-wide."

Mendelson said there won't be a communications curriculum "template" for the whole university. Rather, college faculty will decide "what communications innovations are appropriate to them," he said.

Mendelson said ISU faculty increasingly are dismayed at some students' inability to speak coherently or write succinctly. A couple premises of ISUComm, he said, are that discipline-specific knowledge is tied closely to communication skills in that field and that communications skills are not like riding a bike - they need to be continuously used to improve and will diminish if they're not.

As part of the initial legwork for ISUComm, last fall a team of outside reviewers -- faculty from other universities- - assessed the existing communications curriculum at Iowa State. Among the strengths the team identified were:

  • Faculty and administrative commitment to excellence in undergraduate education.

  • A series of speaking and writing foundation courses in place.

  • AgComm, a "model program" for communication across the curriculum.

    The team recommended some changes, including mandatory writing classes in the freshman and sophomore year, with no "testing out" options; changes in discipline-specific classes to force students to practice oral and written communication skills within their disciplines; establishing a campus-wide ISUComm coordinator and expanding the English department's writing center to serve the needs of the entire campus. (The team report is online at www.engl.iastate.edu/main/resources/consulting.html.)

    Mendelson said ISUComm at this point "is a conversation." Implementation, when it comes, won't be expensive, he said, "because we have in place what we need: competent faculty."

    The dinner portion of the faculty forum begins at 6 p.m. in the Memorial Union Campanile Room, preceded by a 5:30 p.m. social time. The discussion will begin at approximately 6:45 p.m. and conclude by 8 p.m. For dinner reservations, contact Jane Henning, 4-2906, by 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18.

    Iowa State homepage

    Inside Iowa State, inside@iastate.edu, University Relations
    Copyright © 1999, Iowa State University, all rights reserved
    URL: http://www.inside.iastate.edu/2000/0121/forum.html

    Revised 2/2/00