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.

A major concern of the Speech Communication and Theater departmental leadership was the possible dismemberment of the department in any merger. The department as constituted had three major components: speech and hearing sciences, theatre, and speech communication. Sentiment for an independent theater department was strong. As early as 1974 individuals involved in theatre work had suggested the formation of an independent department. LS&A's College Priorities Committee, while acknowledging that the speech and hearing sciences component of the department was first rate, had concluded that it was an area of study that did not really belong among the humanities. The clear implication was that in any major departmental restructuring this element of the program would likely be spun off into a new "scientific" home. Journalism's primary interest was in merging only with the speech communication component of the department. Thus Speech Communication and Theater, as an existing entity, could foresee little gain but much loss in any department merger.

In October 1978 the special committee appointed by Dean Frye submitted a terse report in which it generally recommended the division of the existing speech department along the lines feared by Speech. The committee concluded that sentiment for a separate theatre department had grown so strong that its establishment seemed certain. The committee recommended that the remaining two components of the department be located in other departments through a process of mutual negotiation, with the speech communication element to be merged with an expanded and renamed Journalism Department. In January 1979 Dean Frye informed the faculties of the Speech Communication and Theater Department and the journalism department of his intention to recommend to the Regents formal action along the lines outlined by the special committee. In March 1979 the Regents heard and accepted the dean's report, authorizing the establishment of two new departments within LS&A, the Department of Communication and the Department of Theater and Drama.

While the Regent's action formally resolved the structural issues, there was still at issue a question of the centrality of the new Department of Communication to the basic mission of LS&A. While the excellence of the program offered through the department was generally acknowledged, the LS&A College Priorities Committee, in 1975, had stated that, "[The CPC] does not regard Journalism as of central importance in a liberal arts education." The fundamental question facing the new department, then, was not a matter of demonstrating its excellence, but rather in demonstrating its importance to the humanities. The arena for the continuing discussion of this issue was the budgetary reduction process of the early 1980s. Communication had lost several tenure track positions as a result of the merger, and in the next few years three more tenure track positions were lost as a result of budgetary considerations. While the department survived, it did so in a somewhat reduced form.

In 1995, a review committee evaluated the future of the graduate-level journalism degree program and recommended that a Certificate in Journalism be explored. The committee also recommended that the Masters in Journalism degree program within LS&A not be relocated and that a moratorium be placed on admissions to the program in the Fall of 1996. The recommendations followed an earlier faculty committee which advised that the Department of Communication be restructured for undergraduate and doctoral study of mass communication. The resulting Department of Communication Studies was intended to focus on the study of the process of mass communication, rather than the preparation of journalists.

From the guide to the Department of Communication (University of Michigan) records, 1926-1995, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)