About Communication
The Women’s College offers a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication, a minor in Communication that may be combined with other degree programs, and a communication based certificate in Conflict Management Studies.

Program Description
Women who enroll in the Communication degree can take advantage of a body of coursework that integrates the critical study and practical knowledge of both human communication and mass communication.  Communication students have access to an educational experience that examines the complex roles that human communication and mediated communication play in personal, professional, and public lives.  With a degree in communication, an individual can understand what it means to communicate effectively and to ethically communicate in our increasingly complex world.

If you are someone who strives to better understand yourself as a member of a family, a group, or a culture, then consider the study of communication.  If you are interested in the media industry or how media can affect you, the communication degree will help you to become a more critical consumer of mediated messages.  Whether you are introverted or extroverted, studying communication will offer you insight and skills.

Communication Major
The major in communication at The Women’s College offers a flexible program for students interested in communication as a field of study and/or practice.  Within the major, TWC offers four modules, or areas of concentration:

• General Communication
• Culture and Communication
• Interpersonal Communication
• Communication Management

In these modules, students can take courses in both Human Communication Studies and Mass Communications.  Each of these modules offers students the foundational knowledge and practical skills required in its particular arena of communication.  Students are required to choose and complete at least one module to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication. Finally, a “Synthesis and Strategies” capstone course will showcase the student’s acquisition of knowledge and skills in the major.

A major in Communication prepares you to better understand yourself and the world around you, whether the framework is personal or professional, local or global, face to face or mediated.  It equips you with the skills to interact effectively in our increasingly diverse and technologically changing environment.  A Communication major gives you the foundation to succeed in a variety of careers and contexts, and can be enriched by the minors offered at TWC.  For example,

• A Communication major learns the collaborative skills associated with teamwork and the major is complemented by a minor in Business, a Leadership Studies minor or certificate, or a certificate in Conflict Management Studies.

• A Communication major develops spoken and written abilities in advocacy, useful when choosing a minor in Law and Society, Gender and Women’s Studies, or a Writing certificate.

• A Communication major becomes a critical consumer and ethical creator of mediated messages, which will be further informed by a minor or certificate in Information Technology Studies.

In general, a Communication major provides a broad and flexible base that can be enhanced by any of TWC’s minors or certificates.

Communication Minor
A minor in Communication can be paired nicely with a major in Information Technology Studies (ITS) or Law and Society (LAS).

• An ITS major can use her technology skills to more effectively communicate messages in a wide variety of contexts.  And, because ITS people often work in concert with other individuals, a communication minor can help to better understand the nature of communicating in groups.
  
  
• A LAS major is interested in advocating change in her community.  What better way to accomplish change than with the oral and written communication skills associated with collaborative rather than divisive interactions?

Conflict Management Studies Certificate
The Conflict Management Studies certificate provides an area of concentration within the communication studies program.  A degree seeking student, as well as a community member, who wants an increased understanding of conflict management at a variety of levels—interpersonal, group, organizational, national and international—will benefit from this coursework.  This academic certificate, while not suggesting any official recognition or credentialing to provide services in alternate dispute resolution, will be useful across professional areas of study and in personal contexts.

What will I learn and what can I do with it?
Is there any facet of your life that can’t be improved by a better knowledge of communication and application of communication skills and behaviors? 

The human communication and mass communications integrated coursework, positioned in a liberal arts curriculum, will help you to put communication research and theory into practice in a wide array of contexts.  You will benefit from an increased understanding of collaborative as well as individual work in the classroom.  In today’s world we are immersed, and sometimes overwhelmed, by human and mass communications, you will learn how to critically analyze and ethically respond to the bombardment of messages.

The broad based nature of this degree is applicable to a wide array of careers, including

• Business, including, Human Resources, Training, Crisis Communication
• Media Technology
• Education
• Project Management and Event Management
• Public Relations and Advertising
• International Communication Consulting
• Government/Politics

Most students of communication use their knowledge in their personal lives in addition to their careers.  This degree lays the groundwork for life-long learning and personal and professional growth.

The Course of Study

The Bachelor of Arts in Communication

A major in Communication is rooted in a liberal arts curriculum, and therefore facilitates the development of general knowledge and intellectual abilities.  All TWC students take coursework that provides a foundation for required courses in the Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Language and Cultures.  In addition, the Communication major requires 45 quarter hours of courses in combined human and mass communication offerings, including a final “Communication Synthesis and Strategies” course that serves to review, synthesize and integrate individual communication coursework into a logically consistent framework.

To learn more about specific course requirements, click here.

The Communication Minor
Students minoring in communication take 24 hours in communication (HCOM, MCOM, COMN), 10 of which must be upper division.

To learn more about specific course requirements, click here.

The Conflict Management Studies Certificate
Specific courses and requirements for this certificate can be found here.

For more information contact us at womenscollege@du.edu.

Links to pages with information about Communication

National Communication Association
International Communication Association
The Media Ecology Association
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Women in Film
Public Relations Society of America
Association for Women in Communications
School of Communication, University of Denver
The Estlow Center (Journalism)
Lambda Pi Eta, TWC’s Sigma Psi chapter
Women’s Communication Network
Sisterhood of Speakers (S.O.S.)