Dean's Welcome

Allow me to introduce myself.  I'm Dr. Cliff Jernigan, acting dean of the School of Communication.  I've been associate dean for the past seven years and am excited to be taking temporary stewardship of this dynamic, growing school.  Before updating you on the most recent events, let me thank the former dean, Dr. Sybil DelGaudio, for her dedication in leading the school these past six years.

I'm pleased to announce that we continue to build our programs and facilities.  Construction has just been completed on a new, tiered screening room in Breslin Hall.  It will be used to screen and analyze films, and also to serve as an intimate lecture hall for guest speakers and special events.  A new black box performance space, also in Breslin Hall, allows undergraduate and graduate students to present live performances, readers theater and spoken word presentations.  Speaking of live performances, the day before Hofstra hosted the final 2008 presidential debate, the Center for Civic Engagement teamed up with the Department of Speech Communication, Rhetoric, and Performance Studies to stage a series of reenactments highlighting key moments and events in American history.  Take some time to view the photo essay of the event on the home page of the School of Communication website.

Not only have our undergraduate enrollments remained strong, but enrollments in our master's programs in journalism, speech communication, and documentary studies and production have grown considerably.  Our collaboration with local area high schools also continues to grow.  Our summer program, Documenting Diversity, has just finished its fourth year.  It teaches high school students from a variety of ethnic and social backgrounds how to create narrative videos that explore each other's lives.  This summer, we added a journalism program, Journalism-Diversity (J-DIV), which instructs local area high school students in the use of multimedia tools (flip video cameras, Web page creation, wikis, etc.) to create reports on issues in their communities.

All three departments in the school are committed to teaching students how to become engaged communicators.  It is at the heart of what we do.  Several years ago, we introduced Nassau News, our online community newsletter.  We now add HTVinteractive, or HTVi, a Web television channel featuring student work from the school.  HTVi is unique in its blend of extracurricular original content coupled with an archive of student projects in television, broadcast journalism, audio production and film.  For a first-hand look at HTVi, visit htvinteractive.com.

It promises to be an exciting year.  Whether you are an alumnus or a prospective student, please know you are always welcome here.  Feel free to contact me at Cliff.Jernigan@hofstra.edu or (516)463-5214.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,
Cliff Jernigan, Ph.D., Acting Dean
School of Communication