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Communication Studies
Buckley Center 262, MSC 59
5000 N Willamette Blvd.
Portland OR 97203
503-943-7229
cst@up.edu

Communication Studies: Welcome

Welcome to the Department of Communication Studies. We’re dedicated to explaining how people use communication to exert influence and construct knowledge, identities, relationships, and societies. Here you’ll find exciting courses, motivated professors, and challenging major options that help you build the communication insights, ethics, and skills that give you a big advantage in 21st century life and work.

“Communication” is the key term of the age in which we all live, which increasingly advantages those who can explain and shape communication dynamics in everyday living. Persuasion, leadership, and cultural influence take place in settings ranging from face-to-face negotiation to media outpouring that reaches millions in a moment. As a communication studies major, our programs offer you three unique advantages:

consistent focus on key leadership abilities,
access to the best available theory and scholarship on communication processes, and,
hands-on practice using your growing insights.

Your coursework helps you learn to negotiate and persuade, orally communicate ideas and plans, probe for underlying meanings, teach others, and solve problems in teams, abilities that key success in a wide variety of occupations and settings. Your classes and projects reflect state-of-the-art insight in building and evaluating powerful messages: our program’s unique mix of social science, humanism, and professional training assures you’ll have the insight, abilities, ethical basis, and knowledge employers prize and healthy communities need.

We offer both undergraduate and Masters-level programs of study. Our Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree offers liberal arts concentrations in media studies and journalism. Our Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree program in organizational communication gives more specialized instruction in professional aptitudes associated with workplace and community roles, readying you for skilled work managing human resources, public relations, and other key roles. And our courses in the University’s core curricula develop the interpersonal, speaking, and teamwork facilitation abilities you’ll need to succeed as a student and beyond.

At the graduate level, Communication Studies’ Master of Science (M.S.) program in management communication – offered in cooperation with UP’s Pamplin School of Business Administration – develops students’ professional aptitudes in workplace settings. Our Master of Arts (M.A.) program more broadly enables students to advance their abilities and understandings within a range of rhetorical, journalistic, and organizational communication expertise.

The complexity and challenges of our world demand rigorous preparation, and you’ll find that in your studies here. Our curriculum is led by eight full-time faculty members dedicated to excellence in teaching and mentoring students; each is an active scholar and valued contributor to professional, campus, and community conversations. We’re all devoted to helping you develop the knowledge, ethical foundation, and abilities necessary for success, service, and satisfying living.

We hope you’ll visit to meet our faculty, staff, and students. Please contact our office at (503) 943-7229 or (800) 227-4568 with any questions or requests for more information. We look forward to meeting you.

Cordially,

Jeff Kerssen-Griep
Chair, Communication Studies Department
kerssen@up.edu

"Since graduating from UP, I have found the education that I have received at the University of Portland to be comprehensive, well-rounded, and applicable and relevant to the professional world. The curriculum, integrating philosophy, theology, and culture, has made me a more effective scholar and a more well rounded person.

"I had the opportunity to study abroad for a year in Salzburg, Austria, which was a life-changing experience. I had the opportunity to travel to the four corners of Europe and see some of the world’s most exciting cities and oldest landmarks. My year abroad was the highlight of my college career.

"As the Communication and Development Coordinator at the University of Southern California’s Medical Group, I often am able to apply what I have learned during my undergraduate studies to my job. Working in a healthcare environment, there is an inherent need for cultural competency and understanding, both of which I learned while earning my Communication degree. Additionally, a large part of my job entails with people on many levels in different environments. Studying communication at UP provided me the tools to adapt to many different areas and groups.

"While at UP, I had the opportunity to participate in a number of extracurricular activities that I might not have been able to at a larger university, such as the speech and debate team. UP allowed me to be involved and not fade into a mere “number” within the undergraduate population.

"Most importantly, I value the lasting relationships I built with friends and professors. Being such a small school, the University of Portland is a tight-knit community of students, staff, and faculty. I still keep up with many of them since graduating."

Megan Morris, '08

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