BEN DAVIDOFF

A group of students gathers outside the Social Sciences building yesterday afternoon after the end of a class lecture. The Social Sciences building is a common location for large lectures, such as those in the communication department. The communication department is currently setting new standards to limit class sizes, which have become very large.

Friday October 12, 2001

Officials say department looking to set stiffer standards, hire more faculty

With a student-faculty ratio of more than 100-to-1, the communication department is setting stiffer standards for majors and enlarging faculty size.

Michael Dues, department head of communication, said University of Arizona Provost George Davis is allowing the communication department to hire more professors for next fall despite the 60-day hiring freeze imposed by UA President Peter Likins.

The communication department currently has 953 students enrolled, and fewer than 10 professors.

Davis said the university has already committed $280,000 to the department for more graduate teaching assistants and $64,000 toward fall enrollment.

Davis has also approved the hiring of a full-time professor for fall semester and has approved a search for another full time faculty member to begin working in fall 2003.

"We clearly are being given priority," Dues said.

Dues said that if the hiring freeze were to fully affect the department, only half of the seniors majoring in communication would be able to graduate next school year.

"We simply wouldn't have seats available in the classes," he said.

Dues said Davis is working closely with the department. He said the freeze is not an attempt to ban the hiring of new professors, but gives the administration more control over the decisions.

"In the immediate future, what's on my mind is to increase the number of faculty so they're in a better position to serve students effectively," Davis said.

Tougher standards are also being set on students wishing to major in communication. Starting next fall semester, students wishing to major in communication must receive acceptable grades in each of two introductory classes - introduction to the study of communication and introduction to research methods in communication - to be considered a communication major.

"You need at least a C in both or a B in one of the two classes," Dues said.

Davis agreed the department was "in the hole" and is working to bring it up to par with other universities.

"Owing to specific political factors of the university, the communication department has not been taken too seriously."

Dues also said other departments across the nation are experiencing the same crunch of students wishing to attain a degree in communication. He said this is due to the steady growth of the field of study.

Geoffrey Baum, director of public affairs for the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, said there are 1,700 students enrolled and more than 120 full- and part-time faculty involved in the program. Baum said the school is still trying to expand to keep their classes small. Baum said communication class sizes average from between two students to 200.

"We would really like to keep offering smaller classes for our students," Baum said.