Communication Studies News
Sept. 6, 2005

New CST faculty member hired 

The Department of Communication Studies is pleased to announce the hiring of Dr. Satoshi Toyosaki as our newest tenure-track faculty member. Dr. Toyosaki just defended his doctoral dissertation (Sept. 2 in fact!) at Southern Illinois University, and joins us as an assistant professor. He is teaching four sections of CST 110. His office is located in 319 CFA.

His research interests are in interpersonal and intercultural communication, as well as in teaching methodologies. The department expects that he will be teaching a variety of courses in our department, including CST 302 - our new research methods class. 

This faculty position was one of only two new tenure-track faculty positions created campus-wide in anticipation of the Fall 2005 freshman enrollment increase. We are grateful to Dean John Mason and Provost Elizabeth Hitch for their support of our department in allowing us this continuing position. 

Please join us in welcoming Satoshi Toyosaki to the CST department!

Joyce Pillsbury joins CST department

Please join the CST Department in welcoming Joyce Pillsbury, our new office program assistant. Joyce has been working on campus in various positions for many years. Her daughter Becky Pillsbury was a recent CST graduate. Joyce succeeds Karen King, who retired June 6 after many years of service to the university and five years in the CST office. We wish Karen the best of happiness in all her future endeavors - those that involve wearing a red hat, and those that don't. 

CST faculty promoted

Two of our faculty were promoted at the end of the 2004-05 academic year. Dr. Linda Dickmeyer has been promoted to associate professor (with tenure). Dr. Ronda Knox has been promoted from associate professor to professor. Congratulations to both on the university’s recognition of their hard work!

PRSSA students already at work 

The CST Department's Public Relations Student Society of America chapter (PRSSA) has already gone to work. About a dozen PRSSA members and friends gathered to help La Crosse’s Family Radio Group carry out the “Back to School Bash” for middle school students at Valley View Mall on August 27. More than 400 middle schoolers attended the event where they enjoyed food, soft drinks and entertainment as a reward for doing their back-to-school shopping at the mall. The PRSSA group provided event coordination assistance and security during the evening event.

PRSSA students are planning to attend the PRSA national conference in Miami later this fall. If you would like to know more about this, contact any of the officers. Meetings are planned on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m., with the first meetings on Sept. 13 and Sept. 20. PRSSA dues are $50 for the year, which includes $9 for local chapter dues.

Class project – Dr. Linda Dickmeyer

Last fall, residents in the La Crosse Housing Authority participated in a class project with Dr. Linda Dickmeyer and students from her Family Communication class.  Students were paired up with residents to meet residents and hear their ‘life stories’ for documentation as part of a class assignment. Each resident was subsequently presented with a written copy for them to keep.

Several of the students and their partners built friendships and some have kept in touch with each other. One of the residents, Gene King and his students Amy & Lindsay even made the front page of the La Crosse Tribune. The Housing Authority was given a national housing association award for this innovative activity.

The project will resume this fall, as Dr. Dickmeyer carries out another partnership between CST students and residents who live in Stokke Tower and Becker Plaza apartments. We will offer updates on this project as it proceeds.

The Caregiving Journey

Dr. Pat Turner, along with Adam Strand, CST major (telecommunication emphasis), produced a video, "The Caregiving Journey," for the La Crosse County Aging Unit.  This was a semester-long project with completion over the summer. The video premiered on Wed., August 24, at the La Crosse County Public Library. Dr. Turner was awarded a $2,000 grant to make this video production.

‘How I spent my summer,’ faculty style

CST faculty members had a productive summer. Here’s some of the activities they were involved in:

Dr. Scott Didkmeyer and Dr. Linda Dickmeyer have two publications forthcoming. They are:

Dickmeyer, S. G.  (forthcoming).  The management of meaning: Communicating organizational culture at the Best Companies to Work For in America.  In G. A. Fitzgerald and Y. Ju, Professional Communication.  New York: McGraw-Hill.

Dickmeyer, L. B., & Dickmeyer, S. G.  (in press) No Laughing Matter!  Chapter in J. Keyton, and P. Shockley-Zalabak (Eds.), Case studies for organizational communication: Understanding communication processes. Los Angeles, CA:  Roxbury Publishing Co. 

Scott was a keynote presenter at the 2005 Engaging Theory: Transforming Organizations conference in Colorado. Scott gave one of four presentations at this exclusive conference designed to create stronger, more ethical organizations by sharing the research of top academic scholars with consultants and practitioners.  He and his co-presenters engaged the participants in an in-depth discussion of the opportunities and challenges involved in translating strong organizational communication scholarship into training and development seminars that meet the needs of executives, managers, and employees in organizations. Other presenters included top Organizational Communication scholars Sue DeWine, Gail Fairhurst, and Joann Keyton. 

Scott received an $800 Summer Stipend Grant, College of Liberal Studies, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to fund summer work to complete the Diversifying the Faculty training seminar, facilitator and participant packets. 

Dr. Ronda Knox was a driving force behind the School of Arts & Communication’s new academic advising page that was put together over the summer. A grant from Academic Initiatives funded the development of the page. Terri Swanson, manager of the CST web site, created the new SAC advising page. If you haven’t seen the page yet, here’s the link: http://www.uwlax.edu/ls/advise.htm

Dr. Laura Nelson has several publications forthcoming, all of which resulted from a discussion with a colleague about President Bush’s ‘No Child Left Untested’ initiative: 

Tracz, S. M., Nelson, L. L., Newman, I., & Beltran, A.  (Forthcoming).  The misuse of ANCOVA: The academic and political implications of type VI errors in studies of academic achievement.  Accepted for publication in Multiple Linear Regression Viewpoints.   

Tracz, S. M., Newman, I., Nelson, L. L., & Beltran, A. (2004).  How ANCOVA Can Be Misused In Studies of Achievement and Socioeconomic Status: The Academic and Political Implications of Type VI Errors.  Paper presented at the annual conference of the Mid-Western Educational Research Association, Columbus, OH. 

Tracz, S. M., Nelson, L. L., Newman, I., & Beltran, A.  (2004, April).  The misuse of ANCOVA: The academic and political implications of Type VI errors in studies of achievement and socioeconomic status. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

Dr. Jim Putz spent a couple of weeks in Japan this summer. Dr. Putz will be teaching CST 110 in Ireland next summer. If you or someone you know is interested in an international study experience, see Dr. Putz soon.

Dr. Doug Swanson helped with final approval of galley proofs for a new book to be published later this year for media/ journalism scholars. Swanson wrote the book’s chapter on ‘Job Satisfaction in the Media Professions.’ The book is Opposite Forces: Issues and Conflicts in American Journalism to be published by Lawrence Erlbaum; editors are Cindy Price and Bala Musa.

 Don’t miss the CST core changes + new courses

The 2005-07 university catalog reflects changes in the CST curriculum. The news item about this (from CST web site, Dec. 2004) is repeated here for those of you who may have missed it:

Communication Studies students will have a chance to learn more about different aspects of the field – thanks to changes in the core curriculum and new CST courses that have been developed. 

The changes will appear in the 2005-07 UW-L Undergraduate Course Catalog. Effective with that catalog, the CST major will be a 39-credit hour degree (all emphasis areas), with 12 hours required in the core and two fewer hours required in electives than called for in the current catalog.

This change in the core requirements will not affect current CST students (who will complete the core requirements in the catalog under which they entered UW-L). However, all students may take advantage of exciting new courses offered for elective credit (CST 240 and CST 380 – see below).

The changes were initiated by the CST Curriculum Committee (Drs. Billmeyer, L. Dickmeyer, Piehl, Rodrick, Swanson, and Tollefson) which was formed as a result of discussions at our beginning-of-the-year faculty retreat. The CST C-C worked hard to refine the core curriculum and achieve several objectives. We want students to have a stronger understanding of the role and impact of communication theory – so a new (required) theory course was created. We want to separate the theory issues from research methodology issues – so we created two new required courses (the theory course and a methods course) to take the place of the current required CST 300 course. Finally, we want students to have higher-level experience with the CST literature throughout the core curriculum, so CST 290 is being dropped and its outcome goals will be included in other courses in the core.

The new required core courses, effective with the Fall 2005 catalog:

CST 301, Theories of Communication, 3 cr.

CST 302, Research Methods in Communication, 3 cr.

Again, current students will be expected to complete the core requirements in the catalog under which they entered UW-L. There may be some adjustments necessary as we bring CST 301 and 302 online and drop CST 300 – however, current students should not be concerned about their ability to complete degree requirements. The CST Department will work with all students to assure that they complete core requirements as expected. (Some course substitutions may be necessary on an individual basis – see your faculty adviser if you have questions.) Key words: “Don’t panic – everything will work out ok!”

The two new elective courses which will take effect with the 2005-07 catalog are CST 240 (developed by Dr. Kurt Billmeyer) and CST 380 (developed by Dr. Scott Dickmeyer): 

CST 240, Fundamentals of Computer Mediated Communication, 3 cr.

CST 380, Communicating Leadership, 3 cr.

Courses that will be deleted from the catalog are:

CST 290, Research Tools for Communication Studies, 1 cr.

CST 300, Theory and Research in Communication Studies, 3 cr.

CST 400, Ethical and Legal Issues in Communication Studies, 3 cr.,