Beyond the Classroom Door

Letter to the Community from the Chair of the Department of Communications

Welcome to the Spring ’15 edition of The Front Page. The Communications Program has taken exciting strides during the year to move forward in creating a dynamic course of study for our students. Some of these steps however are taking place outside of our Blodgett home as we seek to connect our students as citizens to the larger world. Embedded into communications is the idea of community, and we in the department see our mission as moving beyond closed classroom doors. We are part of a broader community, and as media scholars, journalists, digital media makers, television producers and filmmakers, we can play a vital role in opening these doors to actively contribute. In short, we can make a difference. As seen on these pages of The Front Page, the Communications Program is moving in this direction, asking the question – what can we do to make that positive difference? And then taking the next step.

Speaking to attendees at Press Day 2015

Some of these steps can be found in the stories here. We are among the first university programs nationwide to introduce drone technology—an exciting development that will allow students to shoot aerial photography in all its remarkable splendor. Plans are in place this spring for our pilot venture. Students in the course Strategic Public Relations will be working with Operation Splash, a community conservation group seeking to clean up waters on the shores of Long Island. The class, led by Professor John Drew, will be using aerial photography as part of a broader community awareness promotional campaign for this nonprofit group.

Students will also be taking to the sky on their trip to Cuba. Drew and Professor Mark Grabowski are offering a study abroad course for next winter session to this Caribbean country. Here students will interview and report on the political and social life in Cuba at a time when barriers between the United States and Cuba are starting to yield. There are other new classes that reflect our mission to raise student awareness and social activism: Joan Stein’s class in Social Conflict and the Documentary; John Drew’s Social Media; and Brenda Laux’s Television Studio Production, among others.

We are also trying to create community here at Adelphi University. This month, students from the Communications and Political Science departments joined forces in a special panel on “Free Speech and Terrorism” held in Blodgett Hall. And then our annual Press Day and Quill Awards, the largest high school outreach event at the university with some 300 high school journalists and their faculty advisors packed into the UC ballroom for an exhilarating day.

So, I hope you will explore these stories in The Front Page—stories that reflect the dynamic quality of the Communications Program as well as our understanding that the measure of who we are is not only found inside Blodgett Hall, but also in our collective hearts and minds as we extend our reach beyond the classroom door.

Paul Thaler
Chair
Department of Communications

This article appeared in the Spring 2015 edition of The Front Page, the Department of Communications newsletter.