note from the chair

Funding cuts won't prevent Department from serving students

Entrepreneurial vision and your support will preserve learning opportunities

By David Domke
Department Chair

The new reality for institutions of higher education in Washington state — and probably across the nation — is that we need to be entrepreneurial in finding ways to support our faculty, staff, and students. For the first time in UW history, this academic year we are receiving less than half of our overall funding from the state legislature. I expect this will be the case forever moving forward.

We’re ready in Communication.

In recent years the Department has been developing new programs that both serve the Northwest and facilitate new streams of revenue support. In particular, we have four sub-parts of our program that are “self-sustaining” — that is, they are funded directly by student enrollments, with no monies from the state legislature. These four programs are our Master’s program in Digital Media, summer-school undergraduate courses, evening-degree undergraduate courses, and online courses that we offer each quarter.

Together, these sub-parts of our program provide learning opportunities that meet the professional and lifestyle needs of our students, while also helping to provide financial support for everything the Department does. It’s a win-win. To the best of my knowledge, no other unit in the College of Arts and Sciences has near the range of self-sustaining activities as Communication does.

This spring we continue this entrepreneurial vision by taking on a new challenge — with a driving focus on supporting our students to take on dynamic challenges, inside and outside the classroom. We are hosting our first Department of Communication auction: Transforming Communities, One Communication Student at a Time. Please read more about this evening out >>

Our pledge is that all proceeds raised at this event — down to the last dime — will directly support our students. We are hopeful you will join us at this event.  The night will include hors d’oeuvres and beverages, a keynote talk by a highly successful alum, a silent and live auction, and some student stories. It will be held at the Center for Urban Horticulture just off the main campus, Thursday, April 15 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. There will be free and convenient parking.

I’d like to share one example of how contributions from alumni and friends of the Department can powerfully and positively impact our students.

In 2009, alumnus Peter Clarke established a Departmental Fund to support graduate students who are conducting research that has direct, important societal benefits and seeks to improve the lives of people who are disadvantaged or face uncommon challenges. The Peter Clarke Fund is an outgrowth of the kind of work that Clarke, a 1958 alumnus of the School of Communications and a UW faculty member 1963-1972, has conducted throughout his professional career.

Clarke is now a professor of Preventive Medicine and of Communication at the University of Southern California. He and co-author Susan H. Evans wrote Surviving Modern Medicine about how people can effectively communicate with doctors, friends, and family in seeking to make informed choices for health care. Beyond that, Clarke and Evans are co-directors of From the Wholesaler to the Hungry, an organization that has helped more than 150 surplus food rescue organizations in 45 states to launch wholesale programs that capture "edible-but-not-sellable" fresh produce and provide these nutritious foods free to low-income people through thousands of non-profit community agencies. Clarke and Evans continue to do research into helping households make healthy and appealing use of fresh foods. Clarke is a member of the Communication Alumni Hall of Fame and was the Department's 2009 Distinguished Alumnus.
 
The Peter Clarke Fund translates this vision of concern for often-marginalized members of the public into support for our graduate students. In the relatively short time the Fund has been in existence, four students have received support for research projects: two have completed Ph.D. degrees, and two more are working on dissertations.

Dr. Jessica Harvey is one of these students. She explored how parents, through communication with their children, can influence their children’s attitudes about the often highly sexual images of women and men in music videos. Harvey completed her Ph.D. in 2009 and is teaching for the Department this year.

Another Clarke Fund recipient is Justin Reedy, a Ph.D. student conducting research among Latino immigrant communities in the Pacific Northwest. Reedy hopes to learn how everyday patterns of communication develop in immigrant groupings, and how these ways of communicating can help immigrants to become part of a political system that is new to them.

As one more example, Ph.D. student Fahed Al-Sumait is undertaking his dissertation research in Kuwait, where political developments toward democracy have been largely peaceful. He is investigating important but marginal voices on democratization, with an emphasis on Muslim political actors and female politicians, both of whom bring additional agendas and perspectives to Middle Eastern politics.

All students supported by the Clarke Fund rave about the value of the funds for their research projects. For example, Reedy has this to say: “This support from the Clarke Fund is having a huge impact on my research. Without it I wouldn't be able to take on a project of this scope or study this important community in nearly as much detail. I'm really grateful to be in a Department with such a vibrant, supportive alumni community.”

Indeed. Please join us at our spring auction. Every dollar, every cent will go to support our students. The impact is real.