Welcome

Communication Studies has been at the heart of the Liberal Arts since the beginning of higher education in the West some 2,500 years ago. When the Greeks began studying the Liberal Arts, the very first subject that they focused on was rhetoric, what we now would call communication. They began with the study of communication because they knew that when people exist in a community of any kind, the three most basic skills that they need are the ability to listen to what someone else says and judge whether their comments are sensible and to devise a response. What was true 2,500 years ago is still true today. If anything, the rise of the internet makes the study of communication more important than it has been at any other point in human history.

The Communication Studies Department at KU has a long history of excellence in teaching and research. Communication Studies faculty members have been recognized many times as among the best teachers in the university. And faculty have national and international reputations as scholars in diverse areas of communication studies. The department is also the host of the KU Debate program, a program that's consistently ranked among the five best programs in the nation, along with schools like Dartmouth and Harvard. The program also hosts the inter-disciplinary leadership minor because of the centrality of communication to leadership activities.

Third KU Jayhawk Debate Reunion