Educational Administration and Supervision Commons^™

The Ata Placement Service Survey, J. Robert Willis, Amy Mohwinkel, Greg Holland

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This report analyzes theatre employment vacancies listed in the American Theatre Association Placement Bulletin across a twelve month period from June 1984 through May 1985. The review includes 930 separate listings, most of which concern higher education positions yet also encompass roles in secondary schools, community theatre, children’s theatre, professional companies, and arts administration. Of the total listings, approximately 62 percent represent full time faculty appointments, with the majority categorized at entry level ranks such as instructor or assistant professor. Data reveal a pronounced emphasis on design and technical theatre roles, although the descriptions frequently request generalists capable of teaching …

Marketing Your Consulting And Professional Services, Dan B. Curtis

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

Reviews the book "Marketing Your Consulting and Professional Services," by Richard A. Conner and Jeffrey P. Davidson (1985). Published by John Wiley and Sons.

The New Debate: The Phd Versus The Mfa Degree, Milly S. Barranger

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This introductory essay frames a disciplinary debate concerning the appropriate terminal degree for theatre faculty in higher education. It summarizes recent trends indicating growth in MFA programs and a decline in PhD programs, raising questions about the relationship between academic norms and professional artistic preparation. The author recounts the decision by the American Theatre Association to sponsor a formal debate and identifies the opposing positions represented. The essay serves primarily to situate the exchange that follows, noting the significance of the discussion for faculty training, program identity, and hiring practices within theatre education.

A Survey Of Communication Research Centers, Barry S. Sapolsky, Nancy Byrd

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This article reports the results of a national survey designed to profile communication research centers affiliated with American universities. The study sought to document the number of centers, their organizational structures, staffing patterns, facilities, funding levels, research activities, and methodological orientations. Seventy six centers were identified through directories and institutional inquiries, and data were collected through a mailed questionnaire followed by telephone follow up. Forty centers completed the instrument. Findings indicate significant variation across centers, but the typical unit had operated for approximately thirteen years, was housed within an academic department, and maintained five dedicated rooms, limited staff support, and …

Technology And Communication Careers: Analysis And Conclusions From Case Studies, Ralph R. Behnke, Chris R. Sawyer

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This article analyzes how technological competence influences employment outcomes for communication graduates and synthesizes conclusions from multiple case studies. The discussion argues that employers increasingly value supplemental technology skills even when a position is not explicitly technical, since such skills signal adaptability and support advancement within firms. Communication curricula are presented as well positioned to integrate both general communication training and exposure to media production, computer assisted writing, and research applications. Interviews with students and advisors suggest that technological familiarity raises the probability and scope of employment by enabling contributions in survey research, telemarketing, training and development, media production, security …

Communication In The Health Professions: A Survey, Richard N. Armstrong, Gordon R. Owen, Phillip Mcfarland

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This article reports findings from a national survey examining communication training among nurses, dentists, and physicians. A ten item questionnaire was mailed to 1800 members of three major professional associations, yielding 513 usable responses. Over half of respondents had received formal communication instruction, most commonly nurses, followed by dentists and physicians. Training formats included dedicated courses, communication units within other courses, and in service workshops. Listening, interviewing, and nonverbal communication emerged as the most frequently taught and most valued skills. Notably, most training was delivered by instructors outside the communication discipline, raising questions about curricular coordination and disciplinary visibility. A …

The Beginning Course As A Recruiting Vehicle For Speech Majors, Willard C. Booth

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This article argues that the introductory speech communication course functions as a critical site for attracting majors to the discipline yet often fails to achieve this potential due to student misconceptions and ineffective instructional approaches. It identifies negative pre college speech experiences and departmental image challenges as barriers to student engagement and recruitment. The essay reviews motivational factors that influence student interest in speech communication, including career preparation, affiliation with a supportive academic community, and opportunities for personal growth. It contrasts student expectations for overcoming shyness and achieving correct speaking with faculty emphasis on logic, persuasion, organization, and delivery. The …

Who's Mr. Staff: Cheap Labor Or Valued Resource?, Rhonda Kekke

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This article examines the expanding reliance on part time faculty in community colleges and evaluates its implications for instructional quality, institutional priorities, and the academic profession. It situates the rise of adjunct employment within the economic pressures and enrollment growth of the 1970s, noting a shift from hiring specialized community experts to employing academically credentialed instructors who sought full time positions but entered contingent roles due to limited full time hiring. While acknowledging benefits of adjunct specialization, the discussion highlights concerns about diminished instructional resources, reduced faculty availability, and weakened institutional integration among part time instructors. A review of national …

The Use And Abuse Of Part-Time Faculty, Wendy L. Wilson

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This article explores the benefits and challenges associated with part time faculty positions in higher education, emphasizing the structural inequities that shape adjunct employment and its consequences for morale, instructional quality, and institutional life. While acknowledging intrinsic rewards such as teaching fulfillment, personal development, and professional exposure, the discussion underscores the material and symbolic disadvantages that accompany contingent appointments. Core concerns include low pay, limited access to benefits, absence of advancement incentives, exclusion from departmental governance, and insufficient orientation and logistical support. The analysis highlights how these conditions contribute to disillusionment, weakened commitment, and diminished teaching motivation. Proposed strategies for …

Part-Time Faculty: Properly Using And Not Abusing, Anita Taylor

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This article examines appropriate and inappropriate institutional uses of part time faculty, emphasizing the value of contingent instructors while cautioning against employment practices that undermine educational quality and equity. It identifies several legitimate functions for part time appointments, including graduate assistantships with adequate supervision, specialized professional instruction, staffing flexibility in response to enrollment variability, and roles for retired faculty or individuals seeking shared positions. The discussion also highlights practices that warrant scrutiny, such as using part time teaching as an informal audition for full time positions or enabling moonlighting across nearby institutions, both of which may narrow applicant pools and …

Leadership Roles Of Chief Academic Officers, Michael Osborn

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

Reviews the book "Leadership Roles of Chief Academic Officers" edited by David G. Brown (1984). Published by Jossey-Bass Inc.

Think Tank Theatre: Decision Making Applied, Sara Gabel

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

Reviews the book "Think Tank Theatre: Decision Making Applied," by Donald A. Borchardt (1984). University Press of America.

Aca News

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This document contains the introductory pages of the 1986 Bulletin of the American Communication Association (Issue 55), including front matter such as the masthead, editorial information, association officers, and membership details. It provides a snapshot of organizational leadership, publication structure, and professional association membership at that time. This material serves as a historical record of the association’s administrative framework in the mid nineteen eighties. All listed contact information is archival and no longer current.

The Argument From Setting: Theatre In The Liberal And Fine Arts, John Gronbeck-Tedesco

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This essay analyzes how the institutional setting of theatre programs within either the liberal arts or the fine arts shapes the assumptions guiding administrative argument and decision making. The author contends that academic leadership operates through the exchange of reasoned claims and that coherent argumentation requires shared first principles. Program location provides such grounding by offering distinct philosophical orientations for justifying resources, curriculum, and program direction. The essay distinguishes liberal arts education as centered on generating interpretive knowledge about the human condition through evidence based inquiry, while fine arts education focuses on creating artistic analogues of human experience that communicate …

The Practical Issues, Vincent L. Angotti

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This essay examines the practical consequences of locating theatre programs within liberal arts or fine arts academic structures. It argues that institutional placement is often determined by historical and administrative convenience rather than coherent philosophy, yet this placement significantly shapes power, resource allocation, and evaluation standards. The discussion contrasts liberal arts environments, where theatre is justified as part of broader humanistic education and cost pressures are diffused across large colleges, with fine arts settings, where vocational preparation dominates and theatre units face intensified budget scrutiny. Faculty evaluation challenges emerge in both contexts, particularly in balancing scholarly and creative work and …

Arts Funding, Patrick D. Mcdonough

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This essay offers practical guidance for funding the arts from the vantage point of a foundation administrator. It argues that effective strategies focus on local and state level funders rather than a small group of national foundations, noting that there are about twenty two thousand American foundations, only one hundred forty four with assets above fifty million dollars, and that most concentrate on needs close to home. The discussion urges partnership with regional corporations that link giving to marketing and public responsibility, and it recommends formal preparation through Council for the Advancement and Support of Education training and a two …

Funding For The Arts: Legislative Sources, Robert J. Wills

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This article examines the process through which state legislatures fund public higher education and considers its implications for support of the arts. Focusing exclusively on state appropriations and excluding local, federal, and philanthropic sources, the analysis explains the central role of formula budgeting in determining institutional funding levels. Using Texas as a representative case, it outlines the multiple formulas that define institutional cost categories and describes how student credit hours, enrollment levels, and faculty student ratios determine budget allocations. The essay traces the multiyear sequence of study committees, coordinating board review, gubernatorial recommendation, and legislative action that culminates in appropriations. …

Speech Communication Profession As Seen By A President, Donald W. Zacharias

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This essay offers a university president’s assessment of the speech communication discipline and outlines challenges facing academic programs as higher education enters a period of intensified competition and financial constraint. The author notes substantial scholarly growth over the preceding two decades, marked by increased publication and methodological rigor. The discussion emphasizes that declining enrollments, limited state support, and heightened institutional competition will require departments to articulate clear objectives aligned with institutional missions and to demonstrate measurable value to students and administrators. Recommendations include narrowing curricula to avoid unfocused expansion, establishing rigorous instructional standards, prioritizing individualized communication skills training supported by …

Presidents Look At The Field Of Speech Communication: A Commentary, Donald Smith

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This commentary responds to essays by two university presidents on the condition of the speech communication discipline. The author affirms concerns about the field’s longstanding struggle to define a coherent intellectual identity, noting that communication emerged historically as a coalition of underrecognized instructional areas rather than through shared conceptual foundations. While acknowledging that disciplinary ambiguity is not unique in academia and may coexist with creativity and public appeal, the essay questions whether ambiguity can remain viable amid changing higher education environments. The author critiques tendencies toward imitative scholarship and excessive methodological debate at the expense of substantive inquiry into rhetorical …

The Ritz Bar Or Abd: In Defense Of The Mfa, Peter Garvie

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This essay argues that the Master of Fine Arts is an appropriate terminal degree for university theatre faculty and challenges the claim that the Doctor of Philosophy represents a superior credential. The author emphasizes the realities of limited employment opportunities in both academic and professional theatre and contends that neither degree guarantees entry into those markets. The essay distinguishes the MFA as an advanced practice degree grounded in performance and production, whereas the PhD certifies research competence and does not necessarily attest to teaching or creative skill. Conservatory style training within a liberal arts setting is presented as legitimate and …

A Rationale For Developing Communication Training Programs, Dan B. Curtis, Steven A. Beebe, Deems M. Brooks

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This article argues for the intentional development of communication training programs within higher education to meet expanding industry demand for communication skilled employees and trainers. The authors document substantial growth in training and development initiatives across business, government, and industrial sectors, citing national surveys and reports identifying communication as a consistently critical competency for managerial effectiveness and employee performance. They outline core communication abilities valued by employers, including oral and written communication, listening, persuasion, interpersonal relations, small group leadership, and problem solving. The discussion identifies persistent barriers in academic settings, such as disciplinary stereotypes, lack of faculty preparation in adult …

Curriculum Implications Of The New Technologies, Frederick Williams

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This article examines the curricular implications of emerging communication technologies, emphasizing that the central concern within the communication discipline remains the study of human use and social impacts of technological systems rather than their mechanical features. It argues that new media function primarily as extensions of existing forms, particularly as telecommunications and computing converge, enabling greater informational access, individualized communication, and distributed decision making. Rather than creating entirely new courses, the article proposes revising current communication curricula to reflect changes in media environments. Key areas for integration include the shift from mass communication to demassification through narrowcasting and text services, …

A Study Of Merit Pay Factors As Perceived By Members Of The Florida Teaching Profession-National Education Association, Susan Crowe Burns

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to discover which merit pay evaluation and implementation factors were considered important by members of the Florida Teaching Profession - National Education Association (FTP-NEA). Comparisons were made of opinions within various subgroups (district size, position within organization, sex, race, age, years teaching, highest degree earned, assignment, secondary assignment).

The sample included the State Board of Directors, the Board of Directors of the United Faculty of Florida CUFF-university personnel), and FTP-NEA members in two-thirds of the local affiliates. All districts with support personnel groups were included. The questionnaire was comprised of merit pay factors which were cited …

Administering The Small College Program: An Introduction, Bonnie Wilson Buzza

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This introductory essay outlines the emergence of a coordinated national effort to strengthen speech communication programs at small colleges. It contextualizes the 1985 curriculum conference at Hope College as a significant point in the ongoing development of these programs. The essay explains that earlier initiatives established a foundation of shared concerns and collaborative activity through committees, conferences, and informal professional networks. The 1985 meeting marks a transition toward more deliberate work on curriculum design, faculty development, scholarly engagement, and improved relationships between small college programs and graduate institutions that supply future faculty. The introduction further summarizes the structure of the …

Administrative Style And The Small College Context, Joseph W. Macdoniels

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This essay examines the distinctive administrative challenges faced by leaders of small college communication programs and argues that prevailing managerial models are poorly suited to the values and structures of these institutions. It begins by distinguishing administration, management, and leadership, noting that contemporary higher education privileges managerial thinking oriented toward efficiency, control, and product driven outcomes. The discussion contends that this framework conflicts with the interpersonal, process oriented commitments of communication faculty and with the collegial traditions of small liberal arts colleges. The essay outlines the limitations of the management oriented model at the departmental level, where chairs are expected …

Departmental Administration Within The Small College Environment: Analysis And Extension, James E. Roever

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This response essay evaluates preceding analyses of small college administration and extends their implications through a methodologically oriented lens. It begins by addressing the definitional challenges surrounding what constitutes a small department or small liberal arts college, noting that existing definitions remain imprecise and often subjective. Using Allan Tucker’s framework of chairperson responsibilities, the essay proposes a structured means of comparing administrative roles across institutional types. It then examines the claims raised in earlier papers, including the influence of managerial models, the limited authority of departmental leaders, the prevalence of informal communication networks, and the extensive teaching and service commitments …

Concerns, Questions, And Changes In Small Colleges, Dale M. Jackson

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This essay analyzes the distinctive concerns facing faculty and administrators at small liberal arts colleges and considers the curricular developments likely to shape the communication discipline through the remainder of the decade. It argues that although faculty share universal issues such as salaries, tenure, and job security, the small college environment introduces unique pressures. These include heavy teaching loads, broad course preparation, intensive committee work, and heightened student expectations generated by close faculty student interaction. Faculty also express anxiety over the expanding influence of vocational demands and the potential displacement of liberal education, even as they work to help students …

An Exploration Of Some Problems Confronting Speech Communication Faculty, Sandra Manheimer

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This essay examines three persistent problem areas faced by speech communication faculty at small colleges that result from limited institutional resources. The analysis focuses first on the staffing of the basic communication course, noting that small institutions lack graduate teaching assistants and therefore must consider alternative instructional formats, technological delivery systems, undergraduate facilitators, part time instructors, communication across the curriculum initiatives, or the retraining of faculty from other disciplines. The essay then evaluates the challenges of offering upper level communication courses with low enrollments, particularly courses that require a minimum number of participants for effective skill development. It outlines strategies …

Staffing The Basic Course And Still Having Flexibility To Meet Program Needs, Alan Lerstrom

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This article analyzes the use of undergraduate assistants as a strategy for staffing the basic communication course in small colleges while preserving faculty capacity to meet broader programmatic needs. It reviews literature across disciplines to identify recurrent considerations in employing student assistants, including selection criteria, training, laboratory activities, grading practices, and compensation. The analysis highlights pedagogical benefits associated with laboratory based instruction, particularly increased student participation, enhanced opportunities for practicing communication skills, and improved peer level feedback. It also addresses concerns about consistency and evaluation by describing an approach that standardizes laboratory activities while allowing individual assistants to shape group …

Approaches To The Basic Curriculum In Small College Departments, Roger Smitter, Joseph W. Macdoniels

Association for Communication Administration Bulletin

This article examines required course structures in small college speech communication programs in order to determine whether curricular patterns reveal shared organizing principles for the major. Drawing on catalog data from sixty one institutions that are either small in enrollment or limited in speech communication faculty, the analysis categorizes required courses and identifies their frequency across programs. The findings demonstrate substantial variability in required curricula, with little consistency in course titles, sequences, or theoretical foundations. Public speaking emerges as the most common requirement, yet it is mandated at fewer than half of the institutions studied. Introductory courses vary widely in …