Department of Communication Studies

Strategic Plan

September 1, 2006

MISSION STATEMENT

The Department of Communication Studies values and is dedicated to providing high quality communication in a pluralistic society. As one of the original departments at Texas Tech and as the discipline uniquely concerned with all the theoretical and applied dimensions of human communication, we offer a long-standing and comprehensive approach to the study of communication.

VISION STATEMENT

The Department of Communication Studies at Texas Tech University will gain national recognition for excellence in teaching, research, and service.  Though we are highly proficient and productive in these areas, we need to find ways to broadcast this more effectively in campus, state, regional, and national arenas.  We currently have a high degree of excellence in our programs and activities, and we desire to grow and further the scope of our boundaries as well.  We seek to engage our students in critical thinking and in communication skills that will equip them for active and ethical participation in society.  We seek to find new ways to integrate and apply our research to address critical societal needs, locally and on an international level as well.

Department of Communication Studies Core Values

• Ethical Communication and Competency
• Knowing, Learning, and Applying
• Student Intellectual and Professional Growth
• Integration of Knowledge and Competency
• Respect for Diversity
• Relevance and Service to Students, College, University, Discipline, Society
• Productivity and Accountability

 STRATEGIC GOALS, BENCHMARKS, and OBJECTIVES

Goal 1.  Invest in People, Human Resources, and Infrastructure of Texas Tech University

Benchmarks

·         Promote access and diversity

·         Increased undergraduate enrollments.

·         Increased graduate enrollments.

·         Achieve professional growth in secretarial staff.

·         Increased numbers of senior faculty members.

·         Increased numbers of teaching assistants.

·         Recruit diversity of faculty and teaching assistants.

·         Be recognized by students and colleagues as an innovative unit in its use of technology-assisted teaching.

·         Increased funding necessary to maintain and upgrade technology.

·         Increased use of technology in department.

Objectives:

Objective 1.1:  Increase average annual number of undergraduate majors.

Strategies:  

·        Host Communication Studies Week events.

·        Advertise in conjunction with high school “on campus” forensic events.

·        Post information on departmental web page.

·        Advertise and promote our honor society, Lambda Pi Eta.

·        Recruit from our general education courses.

·        Participate in University Day.

·        Maintain an up-to-date undergraduate brochure and recruiting materials.

·        Increase departmental scholarships and endowments.

·        Publish Departmental Newsletter.

Assessments: 

·Enrollment data.

·Surveys to assess recruiting approaches.

·Number of web page hits.

·Number and amounts of departmental scholarships awarded.

Objective 1.2:  Increase average graduate enrollments and graduation rates.

Strategies:

·        Actively recruit from our own undergraduates.

·        Use our forensic program to recruit quality graduate students.

·        Post information on departmental web page.

·        Maintain on-line TA application procedures for our web page.

·        Seek to keep GTA stipends at a competitive level with other research institutions.

·        Seek sources for graduate student scholarships

·        Work with graduate school to foster more incentives for potential graduate students.

·        Participate in Graduate School recruiting initiatives.

·        Maintain a current graduate studies brochure.

·        Establish web links with the National Communication Association.

·        Identify and nominate candidates for Chancellor Fellowships

·        Increase departmental scholarships and endowments.

·        Use information from surveys to make necessary improvements in our program.

·        Refer students who are academically struggling to places on campus designed to assist them (e.g., writing center, PASS center, Access Tech, etc.).

·        Develop a stronger sense of community in students within the department.

Assessments:

·Enrollment data.

· Surveys to assess recruiting approaches.

· Number of web page hits.

· Number and amounts of departmental scholarships awarded.

Objective 1.3:  Recruit and retain excellent departmental staff.

Strategies:

·        Provide opportunities for office staff to attend conferences or training workshops on topics relevant to their job descriptions.

·        Provide merit salary increases when available and as appropriate.

·        Engage staff in relevant areas of departmental decision-making.

·        Encourage staff to formulate plans that will make departmental procedures run more efficiently.

·        Provide staff the technology and training they need to perform their jobs efficiently.

·        Solicit input from staff on professional development needs.

·        Make sure staff have current and necessary technology.

Assessments:           

·Annual performance reviews of staff.

·Level of goal attainment.

·Professional growth from training and development opportunities.

Objective 1.4:  Recruit and retain excellent tenure track faculty.

Strategies:  

·        Advertise faculty vacancies in national, discipline, and specialized venues.

·        Advertise faculty vacancies to minority institutions and individuals.

·        Network with doctoral programs that produce excellent scholars to recruit faculty for the department.

·        Work with the Dean and the Provost to seek faculty salary levels that are commensurate with average salary levels in other Big 12 Research universities.

·        Keep faculty informed of their progress toward tenure and promotion through Annual Reports and Fall Review Reports.  This feed back comes from the chair and from senior tenured faculty in the department.

·        Encourage faculty participation in TLTC development opportunities.

·        Support opportunities for faculty development in teaching and research.

·        Encourage senior faculty to counsel and guide junior faculty in pre tenure teaching and research activities.

·        Distribute merit salary increases based on faculty performance.

·        Encourage research collaboration between departmental faculty when appropriate.

·        Maintain bulletin board posting of faculty publications.

·        Seek to insure that faculty have the technology (software and hardware) for teaching and research endeavors, as budget allows.

·        Within budget constraints, seek to provide financial support to support faculty travel to make presentations at research conferences.

Assessments: 

·Number of faculty vacancies per year.

·Annual reports and Fall Review reports.

·Departmental productivity.

·Diversity in faculty hiring.

Objective 1.5:  Expand use of technology in all facets of the department’s functions, especially in teaching and administration.

Strategies:

·        Insure all classrooms are internet accessible.

·        Maintain and update all technology that can be used in teaching.

·        Provide students with hands-on experience in current communication technology.

·        Introduce, where appropriate, use of the internet as a required component of courses.

·        Pursue funding opportunities for technology improvements.

Goal 2.  Enrich the Educational Experience

Benchmarks

·         Achieve high ratings of instruction in COMS classes.

·         Nationally competitive forensics rankings.

·         Service to students through our courses that fulfill oral communication and other general education requirements at Texas Tech University.

·         High ratio of Ph.D. program placement.

·         High rate of job placement for our graduate students.

Objectives:

Objective 2.1:  Promote and sustain high standards of teaching excellence in the department.

Strategies:

·        Observe, evaluate, and provide feedback for the teaching performance of tenure track faculty, full-time lecturers, and GTAs.

·        Maintain the departmental expectation of 4.0 or above on student evaluations of instructor and course (on a 5 pt. scale).

·        Provide multiple teaching training opportunities for GTAs.

·        Use feedback from exit surveys to identify needs for improvement in teaching.

·        Incorporate research into teaching.

·        Provide opportunities for Course Directors to mentor and work to develop teaching skills of GTAs.

·        Explore ways to incorporate technology into the classroom.

·        New faculty hires have strong interests and excellence in teaching.

·        Continue to host the Annual New TA Orientation Workshop for Arts and Sciences College.

·        Refine and enhance curriculum to remain professionally current and relevant.

·        Conduct post-tenure review teaching assessments of tenured faculty.

Assessments:

·Teaching observation reports.

·Annual reports on teaching evaluations.

·Individual and departmental teaching evaluations.

·Exit survey results of teaching effectiveness.

·Corporate evaluations of interns.

·Monitor student progress through program curriculum.

Objective 2.2:  Maintain an active and nationally competitive Intercollegiate Speech and Debate (Forensics) Program.

Strategies:

·        Employ a Director of Forensics (at the level of full-time lecturer).

·        Recruit quality Speech and Debate students locally, regionally, and nationally.

·        Recruit quality Speech and Debate TAs.

·        Publicize yearly achievements of the Speech and Debate squad.

Assessments: 

·Individual and team competitive performances and results.

·Numbers of students participating.

·Level of outreach activities.

Objective 2.3:  Advance study of Communication at Texas Tech through general
 education courses.

Strategies:

·        Expand the availability and flexibility of our general education courses.

·        Continuously monitor how COMS general education courses match and interface with transfer courses from community colleges and other universities

Assessments: 

·General education enrollment data.

·Feedback from students and departments regarding our general education courses.

·Grade distributions for general education courses.

·Data regarding transfer issues, cases, and effectiveness.

Objective 2.4:  Enhance undergraduate student academic development.

Strategies:  

·        Provide financial support for graduate students to travel to academic conferences.

·        Provide mentoring for graduate students in teaching and research.

·        Provide opportunities for service learning projects as appropriate.

·        Identify and assess student achievement of expected learning outcomes.

Objective 2.5:  Enhance graduate student academic development.

Strategies:  

·        Provide financial support for graduate students to travel to academic conferences.

·        Provide mentoring for graduate students in teaching and research.

·        Provide opportunities for service learning projects as appropriate.

·        Identify and assess student achievement of expected learning outcomes.

Assessments:

·Number of graduate student presentations.

·Number of graduate students attending conferences.

·Amount of money to support TA travel as budget allows.

·Exit survey comments.

·Collect data on degree of learning objective attainment and make appropriate adjustments based on this data.

Objective 2.6:  Enhance graduate student professional development.

Strategies:  

·        Provide career mentoring for graduate students.

·        Maintain departmental records of jobs and placements for graduate students.

·        Provide appropriate guidance for thesis and independent research projects to be used as professional or career development projects.

Assessments:

·Type and rank of job obtained.

·Secondary job acquisition or promotions.

·Feedback from graduate students.

·Graduate student surveys.

Assessments:

·Retention data.

·Student exit surveys.

Goal 3.  Advance Research

Benchmarks

·         Achieve national standards of research productivity.

·         Pursuit of research grants.

Objectives:

Objective 3.1:  Enhance regional and national presence in research.

Strategies:  

·        Faculty active in presenting research at state, regional, national, and international conferences.

·        Faculty publishing in highly ranked discipline journals.

·        Faculty seeking external funding for research.

·        Provide funding for travel to scholarly conventions as the budget allows.

·        Expect tenure track faculty to maintain active and focused research programs that are published in top ranked discipline journals.

·        Funding for graduate student travel to scholarly conventions as the budget allows.

Assessments: 

·Annual reports of faculty research activity/productivity.

·Number of conference presentations.

·Numbers of graduate student papers presented at conferences.

·Numbers of graduate students attending conferences.

·Numbers of grants attempted by and awarded to faculty.

·Research productivity in department as compared to similar peer research departments in the discipline.

Objective 3.2:  Encourage Graduate Student Participation in Research

Strategies:  

·        Encourage TAs to actively participate in scholarly conferences at the state, regional, national, and international levels.

·        Provide funding for TAs to travel to research conferences.

Assessments:  

·Annual reports on innovative technology use in classroom.

·Teacher reports on student effectiveness with communication and technology.

·Student perceptions of competency.

·Student performance on assignments that use the internet and other technology.

Goal 4.  Engagement and Partnerships

Benchmarks

·         Foster community involvement activities.

·         Foster contact with businesses and agencies.

·         Foster interdepartmental collaborations.

·         Foster partnerships with off campus organizations.

Objectives:

Objective 4.1:  Facilitate departmental engagement with community.

Strategies:  

·        Maintain contact with forensic coaches and students, regionally and nationally.

·        Provide guest lectures in the community and on campus.

·        Maintain and grow projects such as the South Plains Public Address Archive.

·        Include service learning components in courses when appropriate.

·        Maintain a strong internship program.

·        Invite alumni involvement in departmental activities.

Assessments:

·Annual report records of engagement and service activities of tenure track faculty and full-time lecturers.

·Intern evaluations from corporate hosts.

·Frequency and level of community and alumni involvement in departmental activities.

·Constituents’ responses to departmental outreach activities.

·Departmental newsletter.

Objective 4.2:  Maintain and grow our centrality and connection with the college, the university, other educational institutions, businesses, and agencies.

Strategies:  

·        Monitor the number of faculty who participate in the IS1100 courses.

·        Continue to host the Annual College of Arts and Sciences New Teaching Assistant Orientation Workshop.

·        Deliver guest lectures for other campus entities/disciplines.

·        Explore possible avenues of course/degree collaboration with other units on campus.

·        Pursue interdisciplinary grant funding with faculty from other units.

·        Increase visibility of our program across campus.

·        Continue a joint course with the Communication Disorders department.

Assessments:  

·Numbers of off campus partnership activities.

·Arts and Sciences New Teaching Assistant Orientation Workshop evaluations.

·Annual reports.

·Number of collaborative efforts with other departments.

·Number of collaborative grant initiatives.

Goal 5.  Recognition

Benchmarks

·         Departmental involvement in university events.

·         Visibility with our pride and tradition events.

·         Maintain a successful forensic program that is nationally competitive.

·         Maintain chapter of Lambda Pi Eta (National Communication Studies Honor Society) in our department.

·         Visibility of tenure track faculty at state, regional, national, and international research conventions.

·         Visibility of tenure track faculty in top ranked discipline research journals.

·         Placement of Masters Graduates in top ranked doctoral programs.

·         Support from department alumni.

Objectives:

Objective 5.1: Achieve greater participation in university sponsored events.

Strategies  

·        Foster faculty awareness of and participation in university sponsored events.

·        Participate in University Day activities.

·        Celebrate and post extra-curricular achievements of our majors.

·        Promote and sustain the quality of forensic competition at TTU.

·        Promote honor recognition for our Lambda Pi Eta Honor society members.

·        Encourage faculty participation in commencement exercises.

·        Host a COMS Graduate and Undergraduate Award ceremony every spring semester.

Assessments: 

·Annual reports.

·Achievements of majors.

·Performance of the forensic team.

·Number of students who graduate as members of our Communication Honor society, Lambda Pi Eta.

Objective 5.2:   Foster greater visibility for our department, college, and university.

Strategies  

·        Distribute departmental information at university days, homecoming, high school tournaments we host, and other recruiting events.

·        Publicize the success of the forensic team performances through press releases.

·        Highlight activities of our Communication Studies Honor society chapter, Lambda Pi Eta.

·        Publish departmental ads in our state, regional, national, and international research convention booklets as possible and appropriate.

·        Maintain a departmental web page.

·        Publish departmental news on web page and approproiate TTU news outlets.

·        Track how students heard about our department from surveys for undergraduate and graduate students.

·        Provide travel funding for faculty to present at state, regional, national, and international research conferences.

·        Encourage graduate students to present research papers in state, regional, national, and international research conferences.  Provide funding for this.

Assessments: 

·Undergraduate and graduate student surveys.

·Web page counter hits.

·Commencement attendance by faculty.

·Attendance to our departmental spring awards ceremony.

·Number of faculty and graduate research presentations at conferences.

·Number of faculty publications in top ranked discipline journals.

·Ph.D. programs our Masters students attend after graduating from Tech.

Objective 5.3:  Promote and market our department, college, and university.

Strategies:  

·        Maintain a good marketing presence at recruiting centers and events.

·        Distribute a departmental newsletter annually.

·        Maintain contact with alumni.

·        Maintain our forensic program visibility.

·        Publicize opportunities to contribute to our scholarship funds.

·        Seek college and university scholarship funds for Communication Studies majors.

·        Continue to seek university support for funding of marketing initiatives.

Assessments: 

·Records of alumni contacts and activities.

·Level of forensic fund raising.  Amounts of donations.

·Amount of money spent on marketing and recruiting initiatives.

·Amount of money given in scholarships.

·Number of college and university scholarships obtained.

Copyright @ Communication Studies, 10/09/02
Updated 05/09/07
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