Todd Chambers

Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs

Todd Chambers, Ph.D.

Sometimes it feels like we get swamped with numbers. Almost everything seems like some type of numbers game: The number of wins and losses for our favorite football team (Wreck ‘Em). How many reward points the account has. And even how many bars I have on my phone.

One thing that I can promise you about the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech University -- you will never be “just a number” to us! At the same time, the numbers you help generate are impressive!

Our CoMC undergraduate enrollment trends continue to increase and set records. CoMC recruiters shared the college story with approximately 2,500 different students during 42 high school visits, several university-sponsored events, and campus tours in the 2015-16 school year.

From Red Raider Orientation to graduation, our advising and student success team members are there to help and assist all of our students navigate their curriculum paths to squeeze the most out of their college educational experiences. Sometimes that might mean just a simple word of encouragement in the search for that “perfect internship” or something like figuring out how to enroll in our one-year M.A. program in the last semester of undergraduate coursework. In fact, our advisers had almost 3,500 advising appointments last year! It is amazing to see how much time each of our advisers is willing to invest in individual students to help them achieve success.

Another number that is impressive is related to retention and how well the college does keeping its students year in and year out. The CoMC one-year retention rate was one of the higher ones at the university – 88 percent! Even though that number is high compared to the university average, we still aren’t satisfied and have created a staff position that focuses on both recruiting and retention. And we are excited about some new initiatives we rolled out this fall to increase our retention rates.

From the “getting a job” department, the college’s career counselor mentored 265 students this past year in mock interviews, resumé development (and proofreading), and walk-in meetings. In terms of internships, almost 80 students have earned internship credit since June 2015 – we anticipate that number continuing to increase.

Behind every impressive “number,” there is always an amazing student. One of our freshman students in 2015-16 represents the fifth generation of Red Raiders in his family. Tim Hays just finished his first year at Texas Tech where he was a member of the award-winning Media & Communication Learning Community and Saddle Tramps. What’s even more amazing is how far he is from home – his hometown is in Oregon.

Another amazing student is Amanda Castro-Crist, a first-year transfer student from Amarillo, Texas. We first became aware of Amanda when we visited the newsroom of her community college newspaper and saw her name on several of the award certificates.

She embraced Texas Tech, has become one of our radio hosts at KTXT-FM, and works part-time for the university’s Office of Communications and Marketing. And to top off her first year here, she landed a summer internship with Southwest Airlines!

In the last academic year, 436 students earned their undergraduate diplomas, and every single one of those students has a story. I can’t wait to hear about them going to work for "The Today Show," Blue Apron, Weber Shandwick, NBC News’ "Meet the Press," the Dallas Cowboys, ESPN, Nexstar Broadcasting, M/C/C, Edelman, Fox Sports, Raycom Media, the Texas Rangers, Morris Communications, Ramar Communications, The Price Group, and so many others.

Our students continue to do amazing things and can use your help! Make sure you friend us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and don’t hesitate to share, retweet and like what our students are doing!

In closing, there’s one more set of numbers that I’d like for you to consider – undergraduate scholarships. I’d like to challenge you to help fund one of our undergraduate scholarships or create one in honor of someone who helped you get where you are today. Who knows? Your scholarship donation might assist that next Casey Kopp, a CoMC student who has helped us recruit so many new students to Texas Tech and our college, and who is now embarking on her own journey with a one-way ticket to Chicago after graduation! She’s going to make it just fine – like every other Red Raider I know.

Nov 10, 2021