Mission & Goals

The mission of the Department of Communication at the University of North Dakota is to provide students with a broad understanding of human communication in various contexts, across diverse cultures, and through multiple systems.

The Department engages students in lifelong learning that addresses socially and globally pressing communication challenges through scholarly, creative, critical, and practical curriculum and instruction.

The Department of Communication is an academic unit of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Dakota. The Department takes a leadership role in the state of North Dakota through a comprehensive, integrated program of communication research, education, outreach, and application.

Through its undergraduate and graduate programs and its affiliations, the Department specializes in furthering understanding of how information processes and communication technologies affect and benefit diverse local and global communities.

It prepares undergraduate and graduate students for careers as ethical, knowledgeable, and skillful communicators. The Department strives towards serving those who historically have had less access to means of expression and participation.

Goals for Student Learning

We seek to achieve this mission by designing an interdisciplinary curriculum that respects the liberal arts tradition and exposes students to a variety of theoretical and practical experiences to become informed, engaged, and ethical global citizens.

1. Students will understand key foundational communication theories and best practices, and will be able to apply these concepts to scholarly and professional scenarios.
2. Students will become proficient in communicating critically, creatively, and ethically in diverse contexts and through multiple forms of media, including (though not limited to), written, oral, digital, and print-based communication.
3. Students will learn to conduct and report research in the broader discipline of Communication, including in (depending on courses/emphases taken:) journalism, digital communication, advertising, cultural, organizational, and health communication, public relations, speech communication, broadcasting, and other areas.
4. Students will demonstrate the knowledge they have acquired in their Communication coursework in an experiential learning environment, providing relevant and meaningful connections between their classroom work and the broader extended community.

Adopted January 2013