Giving Back

We often hear from Alumni how much their experience in Communication at UCSD shaped the way they look at the world, the way they write, express ideas and think about their work. Ucsd's communiocation department has a tradition of innovation that goes back several decades now, to the early 1970s. But it has always been a challenge to keep this tradition alive for the next generation of students, and never more so than it is today with the University as a whole facing a severe budget crisis. Your help to the Department can play a crucial role in allowing todays and tomorrow's students to benefit by the kind of education you experienced at UCSD. To give back, please visit UC San Diego Online Giving, and select Social Sciences as the area and Communication Fund 57051) as the fund under Option 2 on the Gift Designation page.

Here are some of the programs your gifts can help support:

Student-Alumni Interaction

Our new initiatives to build community between students and alumni will need support if we want to maintain them over time. The production of the newletters and organization of events that bring alumni to meet with students, for example, is handled through a new course called Representing Communication. This is supervised by a faculty member, and supported by hiring a Teaching Assistant each quarter.

Enhancements to the Undergraduate Curriculum

The department hires many part-time instructors to expand course offerings to our students. One of the biggest challenges is staffing smaller hands-on classes, some of which are taught by local media professionals.

Graduate Fellowships

Attracting first rate graduate students is crucial to the maintining a strong academic department. Departments are judged by their peers for their contribution to producing new knowledge, and one of the main ways they do this is through their graduate programs, training a new generation of scholars. A strong graduate program is important for attracting the best faculty. The graduate students also play a key role in undergraduate instruction as TAs, and, later in their careers, often as instructors. UCSD often has trouble competing with other institutions to provide funding for graduate students. There is a particularly big challenge funding international students; our department has a strong reputation around the world and we get many strong applications to our Ph.D. program, but have to turn most down.

Support for Undergraduate Research and Production

Many of our undergraduates undertake ambitous research or media production projects, often for an Honors Seminar the Department introduced in the 1990s. Your support can help them with travel, production expenses access to media archives and other expenses that are very difficult for most undergradutes to pay out of their pockets.