School of Communication

Dean O'Keefe's Fall 2007 State of the School Message

Each fall I provide our community with an overview of the State of the School. It provides an overview of the past year’s student and faculty achievements as well as reports on current events that are shaping the School. In this year's message, I cover recruiting and retention, international programs, the American Music Theatre Project, our new graduate writing M.F.A. program, and facilities.

We Continue to Enjoy Unprecedented Success in Recruiting

Building on our successes of recent years, in 2006-07 we once again achieved spectacular results in recruiting new students and faculty to the School.

  • In undergraduate admissions applications were up 17% (a total of 1789); the number of admitted students was down very slightly (a total of 428), so our selectivity dropped to 24%, the best value in the past decade. Our yield remained high: 231 students decided to join us at NU, a yield of 54%. Test scores and grades continued to improve: the average SAT Verbal+Quantitative score was 1400 (up 6 points from last year) and average class rank remained high at 94%.
  • In graduate admissions we also enjoyed a high yield, with over 80% of admitted doctoral students choosing to enroll in SoC programs. All the master's degree programs once again brought in full classes of outstanding students, as did the new doctor of audiology (AUD) program.
  • In tenure-track faculty recruiting, we were successful in hiring every one of our first choice candidates.
    • Theatre searched for a new assistant professor in the area of costume design and found an exceptional candidate in Ana Kuzmanic, who recently earned her MFA at Northwestern and already has become nationally prominent costume designer.
    • Performance Studies filled two positions, one with an assistant professor (Ramon Rivera-Servera, formerly of Arizona State University) and one with a professor (Soyini Madison, formerly of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Both of these faculty carry on our distinctive tradition of combining ethnographic work on communicative practices with the organization of performances and exhibitions as a vehicle for scholarship.
    • Communication Studies hired two faculty in partnership with the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science: the first, assistant professor Paul Leonardi, recently completed his doctorate at Stanford and is a specialist in organizational communication and technology; the other, professor Noshir Contractor, was formerly on the faculty of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and is a leading figure in the study of social networks, network technologies, and new organizational forms.
    • The Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders hired a new assistant professor, Dongsun Yim, who just completed a post-doctoral position at Stanford and is a specialist in child language disorders.

We were also pleased that we were able to retain every faculty member who was recruited by a competing peer institution, despite seeing an extraordinary increase in retention cases: 15% of our faculty were recruited by other programs in 2006-07. A key factor in these cases was funding provided by the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper endowment, which is used to augment faculty salaries in just these circumstances.

The School of Communication is Going Global

You have probably heard the news that the School of Communication is partnering with the Medill School of Journalism to propose building a branch campus of Northwestern in Education City, Qatar. This branch campus would offer undergraduate programs in journalism and media studies and executive education in media management.

We have been working with the Qatar Foundation since June 2006 to plan this project, and discussions are moving forward very well. We are quite optimistic that an agreement will be signed this fall, and if this happens, we will welcome our first freshman class to Education City in September 2008. Assuming the project moves forward, a full story will appear in the spring issue of Dialogue.

AMTP Enters a New Phase

The American Music Theatre Project (AMTP), funded under the "NU Scripts and Scores" initiative, enters its fourth year, having been renewed for a second three years of operation by Central Administration.

Last year saw the debut of two new AMTP works, Asphalt Beach in Fall 2006 and In the Bubble in Summer 2007. Both plays were critical and educational successes. AMTP is also building exciting new partnerships. The Goodman Theater has announced that our summer 2006 AMTP show, The Boys are Coming Home, will be the final show of its 2007-08 season. NU faculty member and noted playwright Rebecca Gilman will work with the artistic team this year to sharpen the book. Everyone is excited to see how the play develops at the Goodman and beyond.

AMTP has brought a wonderful group of theater professionals to campus to work with SoC students and faculty. We have benefited from collaborations with Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party), Michael Greif (Rent, Grey Gardens), Oscar Eustis (New York's Public Theater), Gary Griffin (The Color Purple), Eric Whitacre (Paradise Lost), Tina Landau (Chicago's Steppenwolf company) and many other outstanding artists.

The coming year will provide yet more opportunities for our students and excitement for music theatre lovers. The next AMTP show, Dangerous Beauty, will premiere next summer in late July. This show, based on the fictionalized life story of a 16th century Venetian courtesan, will present our undergraduate and graduate students with exciting challenges as they design and perform this magical play. For more information on this and other projects, visit http://www.amtp.northwestern.edu.

This is a good opportunity to once again thank Barbara and Gary Marshall, John and Patricia Shields, Celso Gonzalez-Falla and Sondra Gilman, Barbara Whitman and David Carlyon, Tom and Louise Middleton, and all the other donors who made this year's AMTP program possible.

We Celebrated Writing and Writers

The School of Communication has been a springboard for success in dramatic writing, with many alumni building successful careers as writers in the entertainment industry. This success has sparked the development of new undergraduate and graduate writing programs in the School, and our alumni have been critical to this initiative.

We are particularly grateful to the friends and alumni who make time to visit campus and work with our students. Last fall Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report) made time in his busy Homecoming schedule to meet with our faculty and students, and in the spring a panel of television and film writers talked with our students about their work. On the panel were Margaret Nagle (Side Order of Life), Jeff Pinkner (Lost), Rick Cleveland (Six Feet Under, West Wing), Justin Spitzer (The Office), Jenna Bans (Desperate Housewives), and Aaron Rothman (Comedy Central).

We are also grateful that Greg Berlanti (Brothers and Sisters) has established an endowment to support our writing programs. The income from this endowment will allow us to expand the number of playwriting classes offered each year. His generous gift will mean that many more students will be able to develop their abilities as writers.

We Are Building New Spaces for New Programs

We have already completed renovation of a second floor space in Frances Searle to provide a home for our new Center for Technology and Social Behavior. Led by Communication Studies Professor Justine Cassell, this interdisciplinary center brings together faculty from psychology, linguistics, communication studies, computer science, and other fields in engineering, to study the ways in which digital technologies interact with, and potentially enhance, human communication.

Renovation of the basement of the Frances Searle Building is also well underway. This project will create new access to the basement and a new graduate education center in that space for the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. The new center will offer excellent accommodations for professional students earning degrees in speech/language pathology, learning disabilities, and audiology as well as for the doctoral and postdoctoral research students in that department.

Finally, the renovation of Annie May Swift is finally moving forward. This project will restore the first and second floors with historical accuracy. We will also restore the auditorium, create much better space on the garden level of the building, and build a graduate student center on the third floor. The McCoy Center (WNUR) has been moved to Louis Hall, permitting the construction of a new black box studio theater on the north side of the building. We expect to see the Departments of Performance Studies and Radio-Television-Film move back into their new space in late spring 2008. A celebration of theatre and performance studies at Northwestern will open the newly renovated space, and we will provide information about that festival as plans become firm.

Alumni Support Made the Difference

As I look at the successes of 2006-07, I want to extend my personal thanks to everyone who contributed to the School's annual fund. It is the primary source of funding for the special programs that attract outstanding students and for the research support that helps us recruit and retain the best faculty; it provides resources for all our student activities and new initiatives.

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Dean O'Keefe's Fall 2007 State of the School Message

Each fall I provide our community with an overview of the State of the School. It provides an overview of the past year’s student and faculty achievements as well as reports on current events that are shaping the School. In this year's message, I cover recruiting and retention, international programs, the American Music Theatre Project, our new graduate writing M.F.A. program, and facilities.

We Continue to Enjoy Unprecedented Success in Recruiting

Building on our successes of recent years, in 2006-07 we once again achieved spectacular results in recruiting new students and faculty to the School.

We were also pleased that we were able to retain every faculty member who was recruited by a competing peer institution, despite seeing an extraordinary increase in retention cases: 15% of our faculty were recruited by other programs in 2006-07. A key factor in these cases was funding provided by the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper endowment, which is used to augment faculty salaries in just these circumstances.

The School of Communication is Going Global

You have probably heard the news that the School of Communication is partnering with the Medill School of Journalism to propose building a branch campus of Northwestern in Education City, Qatar. This branch campus would offer undergraduate programs in journalism and media studies and executive education in media management.

We have been working with the Qatar Foundation since June 2006 to plan this project, and discussions are moving forward very well. We are quite optimistic that an agreement will be signed this fall, and if this happens, we will welcome our first freshman class to Education City in September 2008. Assuming the project moves forward, a full story will appear in the spring issue of Dialogue.

AMTP Enters a New Phase

The American Music Theatre Project (AMTP), funded under the "NU Scripts and Scores" initiative, enters its fourth year, having been renewed for a second three years of operation by Central Administration.

Last year saw the debut of two new AMTP works, Asphalt Beach in Fall 2006 and In the Bubble in Summer 2007. Both plays were critical and educational successes. AMTP is also building exciting new partnerships. The Goodman Theater has announced that our summer 2006 AMTP show, The Boys are Coming Home, will be the final show of its 2007-08 season. NU faculty member and noted playwright Rebecca Gilman will work with the artistic team this year to sharpen the book. Everyone is excited to see how the play develops at the Goodman and beyond.

AMTP has brought a wonderful group of theater professionals to campus to work with SoC students and faculty. We have benefited from collaborations with Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party), Michael Greif (Rent, Grey Gardens), Oscar Eustis (New York's Public Theater), Gary Griffin (The Color Purple), Eric Whitacre (Paradise Lost), Tina Landau (Chicago's Steppenwolf company) and many other outstanding artists.

The coming year will provide yet more opportunities for our students and excitement for music theatre lovers. The next AMTP show, Dangerous Beauty, will premiere next summer in late July. This show, based on the fictionalized life story of a 16th century Venetian courtesan, will present our undergraduate and graduate students with exciting challenges as they design and perform this magical play. For more information on this and other projects, visit http://www.amtp.northwestern.edu.

This is a good opportunity to once again thank Barbara and Gary Marshall, John and Patricia Shields, Celso Gonzalez-Falla and Sondra Gilman, Barbara Whitman and David Carlyon, Tom and Louise Middleton, and all the other donors who made this year's AMTP program possible.

We Celebrated Writing and Writers

The School of Communication has been a springboard for success in dramatic writing, with many alumni building successful careers as writers in the entertainment industry. This success has sparked the development of new undergraduate and graduate writing programs in the School, and our alumni have been critical to this initiative.

We are particularly grateful to the friends and alumni who make time to visit campus and work with our students. Last fall Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report) made time in his busy Homecoming schedule to meet with our faculty and students, and in the spring a panel of television and film writers talked with our students about their work. On the panel were Margaret Nagle (Side Order of Life), Jeff Pinkner (Lost), Rick Cleveland (Six Feet Under, West Wing), Justin Spitzer (The Office), Jenna Bans (Desperate Housewives), and Aaron Rothman (Comedy Central).

We are also grateful that Greg Berlanti (Brothers and Sisters) has established an endowment to support our writing programs. The income from this endowment will allow us to expand the number of playwriting classes offered each year. His generous gift will mean that many more students will be able to develop their abilities as writers.

We Are Building New Spaces for New Programs

We have already completed renovation of a second floor space in Frances Searle to provide a home for our new Center for Technology and Social Behavior. Led by Communication Studies Professor Justine Cassell, this interdisciplinary center brings together faculty from psychology, linguistics, communication studies, computer science, and other fields in engineering, to study the ways in which digital technologies interact with, and potentially enhance, human communication.

Renovation of the basement of the Frances Searle Building is also well underway. This project will create new access to the basement and a new graduate education center in that space for the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. The new center will offer excellent accommodations for professional students earning degrees in speech/language pathology, learning disabilities, and audiology as well as for the doctoral and postdoctoral research students in that department.

Finally, the renovation of Annie May Swift is finally moving forward. This project will restore the first and second floors with historical accuracy. We will also restore the auditorium, create much better space on the garden level of the building, and build a graduate student center on the third floor. The McCoy Center (WNUR) has been moved to Louis Hall, permitting the construction of a new black box studio theater on the north side of the building. We expect to see the Departments of Performance Studies and Radio-Television-Film move back into their new space in late spring 2008. A celebration of theatre and performance studies at Northwestern will open the newly renovated space, and we will provide information about that festival as plans become firm.

Alumni Support Made the Difference

As I look at the successes of 2006-07, I want to extend my personal thanks to everyone who contributed to the School's annual fund. It is the primary source of funding for the special programs that attract outstanding students and for the research support that helps us recruit and retain the best faculty; it provides resources for all our student activities and new initiatives.