History of communication at GC

From Elocution to Television: A Communication Department Evolves

From the beginning, Goshen College has encouraged students to become excellent communicators. Throughout the years, GC students have developed life-long skills in speech and writing classes and in related co-curricular activities.

Today's communication department evolved by fits and starts - from a school of oratory to a department of speech to a department of communication with a related program in theater. The department's current emphasis have their roots in the vision of the faculty, the emergence of new media technologies and the acceptance of new media by church leaders.

The founders clearly recognized the value of instruction in communication. The 1898 catalog lists an instructor in language and elocution. An advertising course was offered in 1904. One year later, a school of oratory began and the first peace speech contest took place.

Meanwhile, the Record was born in 1903 as a monthly magazine, becoming a biweekly newspaper in 1936. An annual, The Reflector, was published from 1904 until 1908, when the Mennonite Board of Education suspended it because its jokes, pictures and etchings offended too many church constituents. The annual was reborn as the Maple Leaf in 1915.

The school of oratory died in 1913 after director Boyd D. Smucker resigned,but communication continued as part of the curriculum. The arrival of John S. Umble as a professor of English in 1925 marked the beginning of a new era. He taught speech courses, developed a strong debate program, revived the peace speech contest and became an active promoter of Goshen College. Pearl Klopfenstein Miller became a valued colleague to Umble in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1938 the college had organized a department of speech, which offered advanced courses such as persuasion and the interpretation of contemporary American poetry.

John Umble's son, Roy, who joined the faculty in 1946 after having completed his doctorate in speech at Northwestern University, chaired the department and directed forensic activities during two decades of rapid change, both in the world of communication and in the Mennonite Church. He educated the church to the power of drama as a communication tool. He brought full-length play to Goshen College, initially as activities of on-campus literary societies and later as all-college events. Plays were performed in Assembly Hall (Ad 28) and after 1950 in the Union. He later taught classes in play production,acting and directing.

Radio burst upon the American scene in the 1920s, and television followed in the 1940s, but not until 1958 did the response to the prodding of professor Henry Weaver, Roy Umble helped WGCS-FM begin broadcasting, and he eventually offered courses in radio production.

As Umble became more involved in theater and radio, he gained a colleague to head the speech program. Al Albrecht, with a doctorate from Indiana University,was appointed to the faculty in 1964. Besides teaching, he directed the forensics program and chaired the communication department during the 1970s until 1984.

All the while publications continued, with many of the churchÍs nascent leaders testing their skills as Record or Maple Leaf editors. A journalism course was offered by the English Department in the 1940s. However,in 1964 J. Daniel Hess, who earned his doctorate in mass communication from Syracus University, became the first full-time professor with this special interest.

Hess, a member of the English department, proposed forming a communication department while serving as an early SST leader in Costa Rica. The department,created in 1972, grew rapidly. After a few years the department planned a new communication center, but high cost estimates resulted in a structure fitted primarily to the needs of the theater program. The John S. Umble Center was dedicated in 1978, and Umble directed ShakespeareÍs "As You Like It" as the inaugural play.

In 1982 Lauren Friesen joined the department as the first full-time director of theater. He taught new courses in theater, and the Umble Center helped generate more student interest in performing plays, so the department added a theater major in 1988.

While television had been addressed in classes as a subject of critical concern, the department did not become involved in video production until the 1980s. A federal grant funded the purchase of video cameras for the Instructional Materials Center, and IMC director William F. Miller offered the first video production course in 1984. Since then students have produced several video yearbooks, and the first ongoing video program, GC Journal, premiered in 1991-92. GC Journal goes out to the campus via the cable system on alternate Fridays.

Today [as of 1992] the communication department has the equivalent of almost four full-time faculty members and serves approximately 60 majors. The 316 graduates who have majored in speech, communication and theater have contributed to church and society as announcers, editors, publicists, reporters and speech pathologists. They have also become attorneys, business executives, minister and teachers.

Beyond the department, thousands of GC students have gained confidence in their abilities to speak and write by participating in communication classes and co-curricular activities. While the department has changed to accommodate changing patterns of communication in the church and society,the faculty still stresses fundamental speaking and writing skills as the keys to successful communication in daily life.