Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
Associate Chair Report
Anne Marie Todd, Associate Chair
This new trial position is designed to support our department community and involves
coordinating and supporting co-curricular events and social activities.
In this first semester of the Associate Chair position, I’ll be taking the pulse of department
faculty and staff to learn what events and activities matter to you, how you’d like to be
involved, and your ideas about the department community. This will include surveying
tenure-track faculty about “indirect instructional activity” or 0.2 service assignments. Look
for a survey from me and please fill out!
Fall 2012 Associate Chair Activity:

Interpret survey responses to develop plan for year and share with faculty.
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Organize and support department co-curricular events suggested by department
community. For example:
o
organize co-curricular events such as COMM Career Day, COMM Week and
graduation
o
support co-curricular activities such as Califia, Forensics Intramural
Tournaments, Research Scholar Slams
o
organizing department community-building events such as Winterfest and
Spring Picnic, and supporting others such as Graduate Mixers.

Serve as an Undergraduate Advisor
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Send out COMM Events (Thanks to Stephanie for starting this and keeping it going
for 4 ½ years!)
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Other responsibilities gleaned from department survey
I’m excited to work in this new position to support our department community!
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
Curriculum and Assessment Report
Shawn Spano, Acting Curriculum and Assessment Chair
Accomplishments – Last Year
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Continued assessing GE courses, utilizing the meaningful but not overly onerous
process that the Department has used for the past few years.
Thanks to the course Coordinators:
10 - Spano
20 - Gao (lecturers) and Deanna (GTAs)
21 - David
40 - Andy
41 - Federico (transition 41 course coordinator to Gomez for AY 13/14)
74Q - Gao
100W - Kathleen
174 - Rona and Priya
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Initiated discussion and conducted preliminary assessment of Program Learning
Outcomes for the department, utilizing the WASC matrix.
Revised Program Learning Objectives (PLOs) for FIP courses as specified in the
WASC Program Learning Outcomes matrix. This enabled us to get to the
“Developed” stage (a big accomplishment).
Finalized core content areas for Comm 101C.
Developed draft language for faculty to use on their syllabi about the use of
electronic devices in the classroom.
Chair participated in college-level curriculum and assessment meetings
Plans for the AY 2012-12
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Continue GE course assessment. Note the new CLO for Comm 20/20N this semester:
Students will be able to assume the ethical responsibilities of the public speaker,
including basic understanding of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the
access and use of the information.
Continue work on assessable Program Learning Outcomes (for FIP courses, PLOs 1 –
6). The goal is to move from the “Developed” stage to the “Highly Developed” stage.”
This will involve developing explicit criteria statements, such as rubrics, and
identifying examples of student performance at varying levels for each outcome.
Continue to participate in college curriculum and assessment meetings.
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
Graduate Committee Report
Kathleen McConnell, Graduate Program Coordinator
1) The 2011-12 school year saw __13____ graduates from our M.A. program. Exams: 6,
Theses: 5, and Projects: 2
2) ___12___ new students joined the program in fall 2011. Two students from that cohort
have since left (one moved on to a doctorate program in sociology at UC Davis) bringing us
to ten. ___14___ students are joining the program this fall from an applicant pool of 27 (plus
10 incomplete applications).
3) In spring 2012, Richard Bui became the program assistant and will continue in that
position in the 2012-2013 school year. He has been a tremendous help with applications
and other projects.
4) This past spring with Richard’s help, we published the inaugural issue of Ethos, the
newsletter for the M.A. program. Ethos will be archived on our program website beginning
this fall.
5) I will be holding a second workshop on conference submissions August 26. Four students
have signed up. They will be preparing submissions for Western States.
6) New university policy regarding 299 and 298 units:
This policy is relevant to any graduate student who meets the following criteria:
1) Currently enrolled in thesis (299) or project (298) units and transcripts read "RP" (for
"report in progress) for those units.
2) Have completed all other course work and will not be enrolling in any other courses in
the fall.
3) Have completed all other degree requirements and have only to finish the thesis or
project.
And to:
4) Students considering the thesis or project option.
SJSU's Academic Senate has adopted the following policy (policy F11-2) effective fall
2012
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
Graduate students with an RP grade in a thesis (299) or project (298) course in the S12 or
later semester are required to enroll in the 1-unit special session course, UNVS 290, and to
re-enroll each semester until completing their degree.
The "RP" grade is similar to an incomplete and is given when a student enrolls in 299
(thesis) or 298 (project) units in one semester but does finish the thesis or project in that
semester. The "RP" grade rolls over the units to the following semester.
There are no class meetings for the course as it is supervisory in nature; however, there will
be a fee associated with UNVS 290 of approximately $280.“Stopping out,” or voluntary
absence from the university, will not be permitted in the sense that registration will be
compulsory for this unit each semester. Failure to register will result in a hold being put on
graduation until the unit is retroactively added; a late fee will be associated with the
retroactive action.
The policy applies only to students who are taking no other courses. Students who have RPs
on their records only prior to S12 are not subject to this policy unless they earn another RP
in subsequent semesters. In addition, students on university-approved, formal leaves of
absence will also be exempt from this policy.
All degree requirements must have been completed, as once students are converted to
“special session eligibility” status, they will not be able to return to regular session
status. Should any requirements other than the thesis or project remain, special permission
will have to be obtained from the Associate Vice President or Associate Dean of Graduate
Studies & Research to return to “non-RP status.” The basis of this stipulation is that,
whereas it is conceivable that students are working on theses or projects before completing
the remainder of their degree requirements, they should continue to take units in
those subjects each semester.
The policy includes language that allows for a waiver of UNVS 290 enrollment if the student
can document a lack of reasonable attention or guidance by the thesis or project advisor. If
the student has been prevented from making satisfactory progress toward completion
of the culminating experience by the advisor, the case can be presented in writing to the
Associate Dean of GS&R.
How to register:
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
Registration for the 1-unit UNVS 290 course must be delayed until students are given the
opportunity to enroll in other courses. If a student has an RP and does not enroll in other
courses, he or she will be switched at the add deadline of the semester to special session
status. Thereafter, he or she will be able to register for UNVS 290. He or she will have until
the end of course instruction that semester to register for the course. Registration will be
online through the International & Extended Studies (IES) website at:
http://special.sjsu.edu/pdf/registration-add-or-drop-form.pdf.
In each subsequent fall and winter semester, the student will have to register for this course
and will be precluded from registering for any other. The RP grade in the project or thesis
course remains on the official record until a culminating memo is submitted by the graduate
advisor to the Office of Graduate Admissions & Program Evaluations (GAPE), the course
instructor in which the RP was received has petitioned for a grade change, and the student
has submitted a current Application for Award of Master's Degree form to GAPE.
Explanation of this policy and implementation plans for the new "RP Policy" have been
posted on the Graduate Studies & Research website under
Curriculum: http://www.sjsu.edu/gradstudies/curriculum/
Reminders:
1) Spring Graduation: Students seeking to graduate by May 2013 must apply for graduation
by February 15th, 2013.
2) Removal of Incomplete and In-Progress Grades: When you sign off on a student’s thesis
or project, please let me know so that I can prepare a memo of culminating experience.
Please also be sure to remove any incomplete or other in-progress grades for culminating
experience units from the student’s record.
3) Thesis Coordinator: Rona Halualani (Fall 2012).
4) Graduate Committee Schedule: Thurs, Sept. 20 from 9:00 am to 11:00 am; Thurs, Oct. 18
from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm; and Tues, Nov. 13 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. These dates are
available on the department website along with due dates for culminating experience
proposals. Please work with advisees to ensure they meet the deadline.
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
COMM Center Report
Roxanne Cnudde, Acting Director, Communication Center
Quick View Of Important Dates:

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Applications for Coach and Consultant positions due midnight on Wednesday.
August 22nd; include a cover letter and resume. Coaches contact
roxanne.cnudde@sjsu.edu; Writing Consultants contact monica.peck@sjsu.edu.
Coach/Mentor/Consultant Training: 8/24 and 9/7, 9am-1pm; attendance to both
sessions is required
Center Opening Day: Monday, September 10th
Center Closing Day: Thursday, December 6th
For faculty information at your fingertips at all times see the COMM Center pbworks page:
https://sjsucommprofs.pbworks.com/w/page/52264813/COMM%20Center
COMM 198
We need Coaches and Writing Consultants! Please encourage your second-semester juniors
and senior COMM majors to apply!
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
Applications for Coach and Consultant positions due midnight on Wednesday.
August 22nd; include a cover letter and resume. Coaches contact
roxanne.cnudde@sjsu.edu; Writing Consultants contact monica.peck@sjsu.edu.
Recruitment and registration for COMM 198 is vital for this program and
resource to continue. We will conduct recruitment mid-semester, so we will
contact you then to schedule a time for us to come into your class for a few minutes
to discuss 198. And/or present the information yourself.
COMM 80
Workshops
The pilot of the new workshop format was a hit last semester! Please let us know what
workshops you would like to facilitate this semester, email sjsucommcenter@gmail.com.
Some brief info:



Workshops are typically 1 hour and 15 minutes with a pre and/or post activity
(which should take approx. 45 minutes; for a total of 2 hours for the workshop and a
activity). W
Workshops are scheduled during a typical class times (such as 10:30-11:45, noon to
1:15, etc.); this allows students to fit the workshop into their schedules.
Schedule: http://commcenter.sjsu.edu/workshop_schedule/
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
Modules
The modules offered through the Center to COMM 80 students will now be available online
through CANVAS), and while each is unique, they involve a combination of self-paced work
accessed through CANVAS and interaction with a Coach. Please keep in mind that students
must now enroll in COMM 80 to access modules and receive workshop credit. Encourage
students to enroll in COMM 80 and assign them specific modules, while offering an alternate
assignment to those who can’t/don’t enroll in 80. Remember, the modules are “graded” by
Coaches—less work for you, but all the benefit for students!
Modules tailored for COMM 20
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Speech Outlining
Audience-centered language
Impromptu
Speech Review (famous and student speeches)
Accent and Articulation (Vowels and Consontants)
100W Modules:
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Theory to Narrative
Extranormal
Modules for all:
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Library Research
APA
Professionalism
Interviewing
Recruitment and registration for COMM 80 remains essential. Please contact Shannon
Doyle Shannon.doyle@sjsu.edu to schedule a time for us to come into your class for a few
minutes to discuss 80. And/or present the information yourself. The unit is no additional
charge for full-time in-state students.
The Space and Technology

Cameras are up and running! Students may come in and practice with a Coach and
review their recording.
Goals

Ongoing development of modules and workshops
o Further support for 40 and 41 (we listened to your feedback during
assessment)
o Further support for 100W
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
We want to create modules and workshops (COMM 80), and coaching opportunities
(COMM 198) that fit in with the learning objectives for your courses and our
department, while also being able to serve a broader audience.
Please contact Roxanne Cnudde Roxanne.cnudde@sjsu.edu with your questions and
suggestions. Here’s to a great semester!
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
Forensics Report
Genelle Austin-Lett, Director of Forensics
Dear Colleagues:
The faces of forensics are changing. Tina Lim and I look forward to working with three new
coaches:
Mary Anne Sunseri
Teresa Teng
Stephanie Anderson
We are indeed saddened by the departure of Bettina Brockman and Marjorie Hazeltine who
added so much to our coaching staff.
Our intercollegiate team finished the Spring semester on a high note.
NCFA Spring Champs hosted at Chabot College on 2/10-2/12 2012. 32 schools
participated. There were 383 entries in individual events, 17 JV parliamentary debate
teams, and 30 novice parliamentary debate teams.
Sweepstakes: San Jose State, 3rd place in University Sweepstakes
Individual Event Results:
Aaron Correll 3rd place Open Duo
David Khedry 5th place Open Extemporaneous
Ashley Love 5th place Novice Impromptu, 7th place Novice Extemporaneous, 3rd place
Novice Dramatic Interpretation
David Miles III 10th place Novice Impromptu, 2nd place Novice Poetry
Shacori Poole 1st place Novice Prose
Avesta Sabetian 12th place Novice Impromptu, 4th place Novice Extemporaneous, 2nd place
Novice Informative
Katrina Swanson 4th place Open Extemporaneous
Matthew Zweier 3rd place Open Duo
Debate Results:
Ryan Gallagher and Avesta Sabetian 1st place team in Novice Parliamentary Debate
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
Katrina Swanson and Matthew Zweier 1st place team in JV Parliamentary Debate
Aaron Correll 9th place speaker award in Novice Parli
Avesta Sabetian 10th place speaker award in Novice Parli
Katrina Swanson 4th place speaker award in JV Parli
Matthew Zweier 6th place speaker award in JV Parli
New Mexico Western States
1st Place Sweeps.
Open Parli: Matt/Katrina 3rd place; Katrina 5th speaker
Novice Parli: Avesta 8th speaker; Ashley 7th speaker; Ryan 5th speaker; Aaron 3rd speaker
and Avesta/Ryan and Aaron/Ashley closed out Novice Parli! With Avesta/Ryan winning on
their first 3-0 decision in an elim round.
IEs: OPEN
Duo: Matt/Aaron 1st place
ADS: Katrina 2nd place
CA: Matt 1st place
Poetry: David 2nd place
EXT: Katrina 2nd
David 3rd;
Prose: Aaron 2nd
Katrina 4th;
Informative: Avesta 4th
Junior
ADS: Katrina – 1st
CA: Matt 1st
Poetry: David 1st
DI: Ashley 1st
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
IMP: David 1st
Matt 2nd;
Katrina 3rd;
Aaron 4th;
Ashley 6th;
Extemp Katrina 1st
Prose: Aaron 1st
ROME
Katrina Swanson, semi-finalist in Impromptu
Aaron Correll and Ashley Love, 7th place debate team with a 3-1 record
Novice Nats – PA.
5th in Communication Analysis – David Miles
Finalist in Sales Impromptu David Miles
6th in Informative - Avesta Sabetian
10th speaker overall Avesta Sabetian
Spring Fling
1st Place Duo – Rebecca Kellogg and Katelin Z-K
2nd Drama Interp Rebecca Kellogg and Katelin Z-K
3rd Poetry Chris Harrell
1st Parliamentary Debate Breann Loughran and Chantel Steburg
3rd speaker – Breann Loughran
6th speaker – Ryan Gallagher
5th Parliamentary Debate team – Waseem Ballou and Ryan Gallagher
7th Parliamentary Debate team – Jeremy Shiffman and Alex Geise
Our more experienced students judged at the Spring Fling and helped coach our new
recruits. They have also volunteered to coach at local area schools and conduct Comm 80
workshops.
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
Tina Lim has been leading the three summer coaching sessions along with help from the
new coaching staff. We’ve got the potential for an incredible season. We have a strong core
of returning competitors who are working on exciting new events. What I so like about this
team is their choice of topics. They never select fluff. Already the team has been preparing
an After Dinner Speech on “How to be a politician”;
two Communication Analysis speeches focusing on the rising popularity of “manly” reality
shows; and many more.
The core group (Matt, Katrina, Avesta and Ryan) are all working on events ... a lot of other
folks show up and participate in the impromptus and watching/bonding, so there is lots of
team spirit.
As always the intramural tournament is key in recruiting students for our traveling team.
Give your students the perfect opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned all
semester. On Friday, Nov. 30th encourage your students from Comm 20 to compete with
one of their persuasive or informative speeches and equally encourage Comm 40 students
to compete in Parliamentary Debate.
This tournament allows your students to put their learning where there mouths are. This
type of competition outweighs a written exam for students in a performance class. Please
help us enroll students in the upper division forensics units. See where you can include the
intramural as part of your class activities. Please think of the different ways this tournament
can help your students.
The one problem we continue to face is students turning up to compete after the
registration deadline. We’ve discovered it’s because the students did not enroll in either
Comm 191 A (Comm 40) or 191 B (Comm 20). We email the students directly on those
rosters with registration deadlines as well as sending a notice to all Comm 20 and 40 faculty
members.
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
We know you can’t account for every student to be in class when you announce the
deadlines, but we’ve had to turn away individuals showing up the day of competition and
expecting to compete.
To remedy this, please encourage all students in your Comm 20, 40 and performance
classes who intend to compete to sign up for one unit of 191 A (Comm 40) or B (Comm 20)
or C (performance students). When we send the registration information, please forward it
to your students on the class roster.
While we have many of your students competing, we need more people available for
judging the morning debate face-off and afternoon intramural from 8-6 PM on November
30th..
With the talent we have and the students you recruit, this could be an incredible season.
Our first tournament is Sept. 28-30 at San Francisco State.
Please complete the recruitment sheets as soon as possible. In all the other Communication
classes, we need students who want to take judge training, judge the intramurals, or join the
intercollegiate squad.
If you have any questions on how forensics involvement can help your classes, don’t
hesitate to contact any of our coaching staff.
Have a great semester!
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
Internship Program
Tabitha Hart
I am very pleased to be heading the Communication Studies Internship Program. I extend
my thanks to Richard Webb, the outgoing Director, for sharing valuable information and
insight on the program and how it is structured.
Plans for AY 2012-2013
My plans and proposals for the Internship Program in AY 2012-2013 fall into four broad
categories: promotion, directed outreach, documentation, and electronic/online migration.
Promotion
Promotion of the Internship Program will be tailor-made for and directed towards two
primary groups: SJSU Communication Studies undergraduates and local San Jose
organizations and employers. The purpose of the promotion will be:
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To increase both student and organization awareness of the Communication Studies
Internship Program, its benefits and outcomes
To increase both student and organization participation in the Communication
Studies Internship Program
I foresee this promotion happening in multiple ways, for example via:
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The creation and distribution of a prospectus
Short in-person visits to Communication Studies classes
Short, regular messages on social media channels like Twitter and Facebook
Information and links on the Internship Program web page
Announcements on the Communication Studies website.
Ideally I would also like to have set presentations (whether Power Point, Prezi, or other
formats) created, whether by me or participating students or a combination. It would also
be rewarding to recruit Communication Studies students to create short video
presentations about the Internship Program. These could also be used for promotional
purposes, and would simultaneously give students an opportunity to put their skills to
practice.
Directed Outreach
Currently our students are the primary source of internships, i.e. students approach the
Director with a specific internship or lead in mind. Going forward, it would be beneficial to
build up a database of internships that students could potentially participate in. To this end
I will conduct directed outreach to local companies and organizations in order to identify
their need for interns, such that students can be matched with them.
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
Documentation
In order to communicate the value of the Communication Studies Internship Program and
to track its future development, I would like to build a set of tools for additional information
sharing and data collection. This would include things such as a FAQ sheet, a concise “task
analysis” explaining how students and organizations can participate, a set of exit questions,
and/or a follow-up interview.
Electronic/Online Migration
To enhance access to and use of the information pertaining to the Communication Studies
Internship, and to reach out to a broad audience, I plan to migrate information sharing and
collecting to online platforms. This will not replace face-to-face communication; rather, it
will replace paper-based forms and assignments and hopefully increase occasions for oneto-one communication with the students and organizations participating in the program.
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
2012 Communication Studies Study Abroad Program Report
Andrew Wood and Minna Holopainen
The SJSU Communication Studies department sponsored two study abroad trips in 2012,
sending 10 students to Jyväskylä, Finland, and 14 students to Beijing, China.
Finland
Finland-bound students participated in the Creativity and Innovation Programme at JAMK
University of Applied Sciences from May 25 through June 10, choosing two courses from 12
options that included Business, Recreation, Hospitality, and Communication Studies (some
course options could count toward GE Area V).
JAMK also offered weekend excursions to neighboring cities and countries: Helsinki
(Finland), Tallinn (Estonia), Stockholm (Sweden), and St. Petersburg (Russia). Cost for the
program was about $2,200 per student (not including airfare and excursions).
A group of graduate students from JAMK are scheduled to attend a weeklong program at
SJSU in October 2012. One highlight: an opportunity to participate in a three-hour Global
Dialogue with COMM 105P, COMM 74Q, COMM 41, and EDCO 289 students on October 24th.
Dr. Shawn Spano and Minna Holopainen are organizing this event.
China
China-bound students completed COMM 161F (Communication and Culture) at
Communication University of China from June 18 through July 10, applying cultural
communication theories to explore Beijing as a site where the modern project is affirmed,
challenged, and transformed. Given the uniquely applied nature of this course, some course
substitutions were allowed for graduate students and students who had taken other
versions of COMM 161F.
Along with on-campus coursework and Beijing excursions that included guided visits to
Tian'an Men Square, The Great Wall, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven, some
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
students organized weekend trips to Shanghai and Hong Kong. Cost for the program was
about $2,500 per student (not including airfare and excursions).
Upon their return from Beijing, all students were sent an anonymized survey to assess their
reactions to the course. 10 of 14 participant responded. Feedback indicates a strongly
favorable reaction to the class and associated activities, with 10 out of 10
respondents reporting Full Agreement [the most positive option available] with the
following prompts: "This class … increased my understanding of communication and
culture" and "This class … made a positive contribution to my professional goals." Full
survey results are available upon request.
Recruiting for 2013 Finland and China study abroad trips begins this September.
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Committee and Program Reports
August 21, 2012
CFA Report
Rick Webb
On July 27, a tentative agreement was reached between CFA Bargaining Team and the
Chancellor’s office. Union members have until August 30 to vote for or against ratification
of the contract. The contract, if approved, would be in force until June 30, 2014.
The economic and political climate places public employee unions in a defensive bargaining
position. This contract isn’t great, but we can live with it, and hopefully it demonstrates
willingness to collaborate rather than selfishness.
Preserves important rights and benefits that were under attack, including current pay and
benefits (no imposition of higher employee contributions for health care).
Restores the Equity Pay Program (2007—2009). Eligible faculty only received an
adjustment for the first year, not the second year of this two-year program. To be
implemented on a campus-by-campus basis.
Compromises: No GSI or SSI increases for 2012—2013 and 2013—2014.
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