University of Michigan. Department of Communications.

The Department of Communication came into existence on July 1, 1979 as a result of a merger between the Department of Journalism and the speech component of the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre. This merger represented the culmination of almost a decade of discussion.

In the early 1970s some members of both predecessor departments noted significant overlaps within the two unit's missions, prompting discussions regarding the possibility of a departmental merger. These discussions received considerable impetus in 1974 when the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LS&A) Performance Evaluation Committee took official notice of the two departments' similarities and recommended the possibility of a merger be seriously explored. In 1975 the LS&A College Priorities Committee noted the Performance Evaluation Committee's suggestions, and reaffirmed the importance of serious merger discussions. The Department of Journalism moved quickly to implement the committee's recommendations, and by the Spring of 1977 had put forward a formal merger proposal. The Department of Speech Communication and Theatre was, however, unconvinced that a sufficient rationale existed to justify a merger and, while open to discussion, put forward no merger plan of its own. Finally, in early 1978, as LS&A dean Billy Frye announced his plans to establish a special faculty committee to examine the situation, the Department of Speech Communication and Theater offered for discussion its own merger plan.

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