Feature Story: College Of Communication Arts & Sciences At 50
A half century after its founding, MSU’s pioneering College of Communication Arts & Sciences continues to lead the nation.
1955 was a special year in MSU history. The university, the nation’s pioneer land-grant college, celebrated its Centennial. In 1955 we also saw the debuts of some bigtime entities—McDonald’s, Disneyland, and . . . the new College of Communication Arts & Sciences (CAS) at Michigan State University.
MSU’s CAS was established on July 1, 1955, as the first of its kind in the United States. The original multifaceted mission of the college to this day affects the identity and adds to the strength of the college. In half a century, CAS has matured into one of the largest and most respected colleges of communication arts and sciences in the nation, with almost 35,000 alumni. More than 150 outstanding alumni have been recognized over the years, and 50 of them have posted essays about their memories of the college in a special 50th anniversary web site at cas.msu.edu/about/cas50. In essay after essay, one hears the story of how CAS has advanced knowledge and transformed lives.
The essays not only speak to the success of the college, but also prove the wisdom of its founding. Today more than 3,500 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students are enrolled in 16 degree programs within the College’s five departments: Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing; Audiology and Speech Sciences; Communication; School of Journalism; and Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media. With nationally ranked programs and internationally renowned faculty members, CAS remains a state-of-the-art facility and think tank that prepares students for careers in communication, including emerging careers in such areas as video game design, electronic retailing and mobile commerce, health and risk communication, intellectual property, environmental journalism, virtual reality, digital media arts, and genetics of human communication.
Former students, current successes
CAS graduates are recruited by top employers in the field, including Fortune 500 companies. They can be found throughout the ranks of international advertising and public relations agencies, major newspapers, information technology companies, and health communication organizations. Many have reached the absolute top echelons of their fields. Just as importantly, many doctoral students went on to become fellows of national communication associations, carrying MSU’s communication legacy worldwide.
Many alumni play key roles in organizations that are national household names. In television, for example, Gene Jankowski, ’69, rose to become chairman of the CBS Broadcast Group. Kay Koplowitz, M.A. ’68, was the founder, president and CEO of U.S.A. Network, one of cable TV’s biggest successes, while Susan Packard, ’77, M.A. ’79, founded the successful HGTV channel. W. Clark Bunting, ’77, is executive vice president of Discovery U.S. Networks Group. Dennis Lewin, ’65, was a major pioneer of television sports coverage, bringing a string of innovations to ABC’s Wide World of Sports. James Osborn, ’53, was president and general manager of WXYZ-TV 7 (ABC), while James H. Quello, ’35, was one of the most influential members of the Federal Communication Commission.
Alumni have enjoyed success at the highest level of journalism, with Carole Leigh Hutton, ’78, and Ben Burns, ’63, M.A. ’68, rising to become editor of the Detroit Free Press; in education, with Barbara Roberts Mason, ’63, becoming president of the Michigan State Board of Education; in advertising, with Anthony Hopp becoming chairman and CEO of Campbell-Ewald; in business, with Michael B. Budman, ’68, enjoying success as president and CEO of Roots, the world’s leader in casual sportswear; in culture, with Peter Gent, ’64, becoming a best-selling novelist with North Dallas Forty; and in Hollywood, where Frank Price, Hon. D., ’03, as chairman of both Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures, produced many of the nation’s finest films and literally pioneered the framework of the film and television industries.
Alumnus Leland K. Bassett, ’68, chairman and CEO of Bassett & Bassett, Inc., a firm based in the Detroit area, believes CAS fits perfectly with MSU’s overall mission. “Michigan State University has the led the nation and the world in pioneering the development and application of knowledge for practical uses to benefit humankind for 150 years,” he notes. “The MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences (CCAS) has deepened that mission as it observes its 50th Anniversary.”
Keeping pace and setting records
Over its first half century, CAS excelled at teaching, research and outreach—the holy trinity of MSU’s land-grant mission. The college has been innovative and attuned to the dynamic changes taking place in the field.
CAS was clearly life-transforming for Barbara Everitt Bryant, M.A. ’67 (Journalism), Ph. D. ’70 (Communication), who became the first woman to serve as director of the U.S. Census Bureau. Bryant credits the College with paving her career. “Choosing to go to graduate school at Michigan State was the road I took when I came to a fork in my career,” she notes. “Making that choice set me off in new directions that resulted in a rewarding life.”
The College has kept pace with recent developments in communications. The Dept. of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media (TISM), for example has led the development of MSU’s new interdisciplinary computer game design and development specialization, which is offered to students in the departments of TISM, Art & Art History, and Computer Science and Engineering.
Another example illustrating the relevance and impact of CAS: The Bayliss Foundation has selected the college as one of 10 programs nationwide in which students will have internships at the most prestigious broadcast firms nationwide and receive scholarships to further their broadcast education.
“Looking back half a century, it's startling to realize how much communication has changed—and how much it, in turn, has transformed our world,” says Randall P. Harrison, Ph. D. ’64, currently a researcher at the University of California-San Francisco.
And the CAS faculty has adapted well to that change. CAS faculty members are increasingly active in research efforts. In the past year, they have sought more than 100 grants. Doctoral programs in the college rank number one nationally in two key areas—health communication and communication technology—according to a 2004 rankings report by the National Communication Association (NCA). According to the same report, MSU also ranks in the top four in the areas of mass communication, interpersonal communication and international/intercultural communication.
A couple of recent examples of research success at CAS:
- A multidisciplinary research team, led by Robert LaRose of the Dept. of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media and Nora Rifon of the Dept. of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing, received a 3-year, $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how home computer users can be educated to use the Internet more safely and to protect against computer viruses, worms, and online identity theft.
- Faculty member Hairong Li of the Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing recently conducted an e-government project while he was a Fulbright Scholar at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The project was a national survey of Singaporeans on how they perceive and use government websites. The findings provide evidence of the digital divide, as well as how perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and online privacy and security concerns affect levels of government web site use.
- Faculty members Mary Bresnahan and Sandi Smith of the Department of Communication have found out important cross-cultural information about campaigns to register people for organ donation. Their study investigated whether spiritual beliefs offered any explanation for why participants from Korea, Japan and the United States were willing or reluctant to register as organ donors.
- Brian Magerko is an expert on 3D and artificial intelligence computer game design. His research focuses on the design of interactive storytelling systems and how they apply to learning domains; artificial intelligence; user modeling; human and computer interaction; narrative logic, and knowledge-based systems. His research projects have included funding from the Institute for Creative Technologies for his work on interactive storytelling in games, and recent federal funding to create an interactive storytelling architecture for use in military training.
- The director of interdisciplinary research and outreach for the college, Lori Post, is the principal investigator on a 3-year, $5 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. MSU is partnering with the Michigan Dept. of Community Health, Michigan Dept. of Human Services and Michigan State Police to create an effective statewide background check a system for workers who care for terminal care patients, persons with disabilities and those requiring long-term care. Collaborators on the grant include MSU faculty from the departments of Family & Child Ecology and Agricultural Economics and MSU’s Usability and Accessibility Center.
- Journalism professor Howard Bossen is the curator of a major photography retrospective, based on research funded by MSU’s Intramural Research Grants Program (IRGP) and conducted by Bossen. Luke Swank: Modernist Photographer consists of a major book and retrospective exhibition of an early modernist photographer who was well known during the 1930s, but largely vanished after his death in 1944. The work is being featured at the Kresge Art Museum from Sept. 8 through mid-October and will be the main exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art from November 2005-February 2006.
- A team of researchers including Jill Elfenbein from the Dept. of Audiology & Speech Sciences recently identified a gene that is connected to progressive hearing loss and has received funding from the National Institutes of Health to continue its work.
Much of what CAS does embodies the land-grant mission of applying higher education to benefit society and the public good—whether on a local or global level. For example, CAS faculty members are working closely with Olin Health Center to design and evaluate media campaigns to prevent excessive alcohol consumption and celebratory disturbances in the East Lansing community. In addition, faculty and graduate students from the Dept. of Audiology & Speech Sciences, led by faculty member Peter LaPine, have traveled to Mexico more than 15 times since 1999 to help children and families in Mexico with communication disorders, in particular, cleft lip and palate. Over the past decade, more than 100 MSU students and faculty have participated in the spring break program, along with faculty and professionals from across the university, state, and country.
The winds of change
As part of its 50th year anniversary celebration, CAS is sprucing up its distinctive brick building through a series of construction projects and assorted changes—the most massive transformation of CAS since the building's construction in 1981.
With the help of a generous gift from Deeb, the lobby is getting its first-ever face lift. Among other features, the new lobby will have flat-screen monitors, a quiet alcove for reading, and a donor wall honoring many friends of the college.
CAS has opened a new Office of Career and Internship Services to help improve opportunities for students and relationships with media industries.
Alumnus Craig Murray and other CAS “Spartans in Hollywood” have been instrumental in making possible a new “creative incubator,” a site where students from advertising, journalism, digital media, art, music and other departments on campus can come together and generate creative products.
The Dept. of Audiology and Speech Sciences (ASC) has moved completely into the Oyer Clinic, where it has consolidated its operations after being split across two buildings for a number of years. New colleagues in Retailing have moved into the Comm Arts Building, as part of the new Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing. More than 10 technology classrooms are now located in the building with state-of-the-art equipment for students to use.
Major gifts boost programs
In the past year, the college has received significant gifts to support initiatives in journalism and public relations. The Knight Foundation awarded $2.2 million to augment activities in the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, which will lead to the hiring of several new staff members. The Gerstacker Foundation awarded $500,000 to convert the Brandt Professorship into an endowed chair, which will result in an annual public relations lecture and graduate assistantship. A $320,000 gift from the trust fund of former Michigan publisher Grant Howell will be used to organize a high-profile conference on media bias sponsored by the School of Journalism this fall in Washington, D.C., as well as an annual essay contest open to students on media bias and propaganda.
New faculty additions to award-winning departments
This fall, CAS welcomes seven vibrant, research-active new faculty members to the college: Yoonhyeung Choi, who will teach and conduct research in international public relations; Constantinos Coursaris, an expert in e- and m-commerce; Cliff Lampe, who will develop a program of teaching and research in the area of online communities; Maria Lapinski, a scholar in risk communication who will be jointly appointed with the National Food Safety & Toxicology Center on campus; Carmen Lee, who will help to enhance our presence in the area of intercultural communication; and Brian Magerko, a computer game designer who combines expertise in artificial intelligence and interactive storytelling. They join an impressive lineup of faculty, 15 of whom, over the years, have received Distinguished Faculty Awards representing every department of the college: Donald Buell, Hideya Kumata, Herbert Oyer, Gerald Miller, Thomas Baldwin, Bradley Greenberg, Mary Gardner, Charles Atkin, Ida Stockman, William Donohue, Brenda Sternquist, Stephen Lacy, Charles Steinfield, Bruce Vanden Bergh, and Franklin Boster.
New dean, new era
Since 1955, CAS has been led by seven deans, including the late Gordon Sabine (1955-1960), founding dean who later became Vice President of Special Projects, Director of Admissions and Scholarships and Director of University Relations at MSU; the late Fred Siebert (1960-1967), a newspaper law authority for whom the Siebert Lectures are named; Jack M. Bain (1967-1971), who helped coordinate the college’s first alumni board; the late Herbert J. Oyer (1971-1975), who later became dean of the Graduate School; Erwin P. Bettinghaus (1976-1996), communications scholar and the college’s longest-serving dean who oversaw the opening of the Comm Arts Building in 1981; James D. Spaniolo (1996-2004), now president of the University of Texas at Arlington; and Charles T. Salmon (2004-present), Ellis N. Brandt Endowed Professor in public relations.
Salmon served as Acting Dean from February 2004-June 2005 and was appointed Dean on June 7, 2005. He looks forward to leading the college into a dynamic future. Says Salmon, “The future of communication is inextricably linked with the future of communities, technologies, entrepreneurship and innovation. At CAS, we’re ready for this challenge and opportunity.”
FORMING THE CAS ALUMNI GROUP
By Ed Deeb, ‘60
It was 1958 when I began taking classes in the communication, advertising and journalism programs. Classes were held in the J-Building, the nickname for the old Journalism Building.
The buzz among students in the college at that time was: “When are we going to get a new building for Comm Arts like all of the other colleges have at MSU?” We kept urging the dean and the faculty to check into this and let us know how we could help. In my senior year (1959-60) we wondered why we did not even have an alumni organization like the other colleges at MSU.
Those in CCAS were a close-knit group because we were the smallest college at MSU, and one of the first graduating classes from the college. After the classes of 1959 and 1960 graduated, alumni began meeting for either lunch or dinner in the Detroit area. We usually had good attendance because we wanted to keep in touch and know what the others were doing, i.e., where were they working, what kind of work, etc. As a result, I began putting together a mailing list which eventually grew to 300-400 names of CCAS alumni.
In 1969, Acting Dean Jack Bain called me and said he heard about our alumni meetings and asked if we had a roster of the names we invited to the gatherings. I said we did, and he invited me to join him for lunch on campus to talk about officially starting the CCAS alumni association.
He asked me to work with him and the College to help coordinate the effort of selecting the first unofficial board of directors for the association, form by-laws, elect officers and hold our first official meeting, as well as to serve as organizing chairman. Dr. Bain also said that within its meager budget, the CCAS would assist the alumni group in whatever way it could.
With the help of some of the professors, Dr. Bain and I selected 12 alumni from the College who had graduated; ensuring it represented each department within the College and various geographical areas around the state.
The first Board of Directors included: Charles Barr, Bo Boettcher, Joy Buys, David DeVinney, Michael Doyle, James Faulkner, Ann Fouts, Randy Hippler, Boyd Miller, Robert Mittendorf, Juanita Muntyan, Lawrence Sarbaugh, Robert Schlater, Gordon Thomas, Sandra Walper, and myself.
We held our first meeting in a room of the J-Building, and thereafter tried to hold dinner meetings in East Lansing after working hours.
In addition to Dr. Bain, other professors included, Ken Atkin, Erv Bettinghaus, John Crawford, Leo Deal, Cameron Meyers, Herb Oyer, Frank Senger, Fred Siebert and many others.
We needed to focus on future objectives. What are our goals? What is our mission? How do we get the alumni active in the association?
In the long run, we worked with the College to learn their needs, and worked with them to show students that alumni continued to be involved. Some of the Board members felt we should have an alumni expo or various workshops and describe the “real world” to accustom new alumni to life after graduation. We ended up doing a variety of things and felt we were making progress.
On of the the more important projects we established was the yearly Distinguished Alumni Awards for each of the departments. The first several awards programs were held at brunches prior to football games. We were able to inspire many alumni to attend these brunches and cheer the recipients. Much later, the College decided to hold the awards presentations at a dinner reception, which was a better format and brought together greater alumni turnouts.
More exciting news happened when Erv Bettinhaus announced the university had approved plans to build the College’s new building, which would not only house the various departments, but also the studios of WKAR radio and WKAR-TV.
The CCAS Alumni Association was officially chartered on May 18, 1971, and has developed into a major arm of the College. We have had and currently have outstanding Board members who are dedicated to help our college succeed, while bringing respect from its student body. More programs are being discussed and developed, which will strengthen the Association and our alumni even more.
Personally, I am very proud of our College, our Alumni Association, our alumni in general, our faculty and students. Everywhere I go, everywhere I am asked to speak before students or the media, I find outstanding graduates of our College in leadership positions. We have come a long way in 50 years, and our growth has been phenomenal. That’s why we are one of the top communication schools in the nation.
