Greetings from the Department of Communication! Our Department continues to grow in popularity and visibility, and we will be welcoming five new faculty members when we return to campus in Fall 2021. In Storrs, we will welcome Drs. Jocelyn Steinke, Jiyoun Suk, and Elizabeth Hintz. Meanwhile, in Stamford, we will be joined by Drs. Tyler Page and April Yue, as part of a new initiative to offer the major in its entirety on both the Storrs and Stamford campuses. For more on our new colleagues, their research, and their teaching expertise, please see https://comm.uconn.edu/faculty.

Not only are our new hires working at the cutting edge of Communication research, but they will be providing critical training to our students in marketing and public relations, science and health communication, and social media analytics. Their expertise will help our grads remain at the forefront of the skills employers seek – as evidenced by our 90% placement rate one year after graduation.

We are very proud of all we do here in Communication, but we could use your help. Due to cuts in state funding, we were already looking at budget reductions in the coming year. With the added financial impact of the COVID pandemic, we are more reliant than ever on alumni contributions to continue providing the quality academic experience our students deserve. For example, the software that we use to teach big data analytics costs $250 per year, per lab desktop. Our production courses are reliant on aging equipment, while our students pay out of their own pockets to travel to conferences and network with employers.

Please consider donating at http://s.uconn.edu/commsupportfund. No amount is too large or too small, and your tax-deductible contribution will help ensure that we can continue to provide a great academic experience and a valuable degree to future Huskies.

Yours Sincerely,
Ken Lachlan
Professor and Department Head