Despite vocal opposition from some faculty members and fears of confusing students, the University Senate approved a long-debated name change for the speech communications department.

In a meeting Wednesday, the senate approved the proposal to change the name of the speech communications department in the College of Visual and Performing Arts to the department of communication and rhetorical studies. Several senators in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications complained that changing the department’s name might cause prospective students to confuse it with Newhouse.

Elizabeth Toth, associate dean in Newhouse, voiced her concern that the University Senate’s Committee on Academic Affairs chose a proposal that would help the school but would confuse prospective students.

“I believe the issue before the committee was whether to help the department [which would] lead to more student confusion. They chose to help the department,” Toth said. “We already have a department of communications in the Newhouse School.”

Newhouse professor Larry Elin, who introduced the proposal, said that faculty in the writing program also initially objected to the name change, since the writing program offers programs in rhetoric. Elin added that the alleged confusion caused by the name change might stimulate student curiosity about the department.

“This kind of confusion is not necessarily a bad thing,” Elin said. “If the student has to ask you to explain what your program is all about, that engages them and it engages their parents.”

Amos Kiewe, director of the speech communications department, defended the name change by saying the department’s name needs to be consistent with the department’s curriculum and its national organization.

“It’s unfortunate that the [Speech Communication Association] changed its name to the National Communication Association in 1997 and it took us until now to actually get to this point,” Kiewe said.

USen also addressed the possibility that the war on terror might come to campus with a presentation on the USA PATRIOT Act by Tom Smith of law firm Bond, Schoeneck and King. On Monday the university sent a letter to students, faculty and staff notifying them of university policies protecting confidentiality and PATRIOT Act provisions that may impact the university community. In his presentation, Smith advised senators on the best course of action to follow, should they become involved in an anti-terror investigation. Several senators spoke out against the PATRIOT ACT, describing it as “unpatriotic.”

USen also voted to change the name of the University Senate Committee on GLBT Concerns to the Committee on LGBT Concerns in order to reflect current national usage.

Published on March 19, 2003 at 12:00 pm