Mission Statement

The Communication Studies Department provides students from across the LMU community with the communication competencies necessary to pursue their personal, professional, and civic goals. Our faculty and students examine how messages and meanings are produced, interpreted, and consumed. In particular, our program rigorously engages the following:

  • The production and evaluation of communication messages,
  • The role of communication in shaping the performance of identity and community,
  • The processes and technologies by which people relate to and collaborate with each other, and
  • The importance of principled advocacy across our personal, professional and public lives.

Throughout all aspects of our program, we encourage self-reflection and critical engagement with disciplinary subject matter and contemporary social and political events at the local and global level. We encourage our students and faculty to nurture personal habits of lifelong learning and service.

In addition, our students and faculty produce scholarship that advances our knowledge of human communication, enhances the quality of public deliberation, and bridges the gap between our curriculum and real world experiences. To serve these goals, the Communication Studies Department creates an environment where students and faculty pursue scholarship, community engagement, and leadership in civic, corporate, and international arenas.

Finally, we develop students' professional competencies and enable them to maximize their post-graduation opportunities for career development. In seeing professional development as a shared responsibility, students are empowered to cultivate their communication skills outside of the classroom through engaged forms of learning and professional development.

About Our Program

In particular, our program rigorously engages the following:

  • Production and evaluation of communication messages
  • Role of communication in shaping performance of identity and community
  • Processes & technologies by which people relate to and collaborate
  • Importance of principled advocacy across, personal, professional, public lives.

Throughout all aspects of our program we encourage:

  • Self reflection and critical engagement with disciplinary subject matter and contemporary social and political events at the local and global level.
  • Students and faculty to nurture personal habits of lifelong learning and service.
  • Production of scholarship that advances our knowledge of human communication, enhances the quality of public deliberation, and bridges the gap between our curriculum and real world experiences.

The Communication Studies Department serves these goals by:

  • Creating an environment where students and faculty pursue applied education, scholarship, community engagement, and leadership in civic, corporate, and international arenas.
  • Developing students' professional competencies to maximize their post-graduation opportunities for career development.
  • Seeing professional development as a shared responsibility, where students are empowered to cultivate communication skills outside of the classroom through engaged forms of learning and professional development.

Essential Communication Skills

  1. Think critically and creatively.
  2. Generate effective arguments.
  3. Conduct rigorous research.
  4. Use new mediated technologies.
  5. Relate communication concepts to everyday practices in culturally diverse and global settings.