Welcome Back Fall 2023

Welcome Back!

As the first week of classes ended, the department held its official kickoff event with a round of introductions for all faculty and graduate students followed by a reception at Moody’s Kitchen. A new group picture was taken as well.

At the kickoff event, department chair Craig Scott previewed some of the many events planned for the year. He also made several introductions:

• Mark Strama starts his first full year with us. He is a Professor of Practice and Director of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life. 
• This will be Jenn Porras’s first full year with us as Graduate Coordinator. Welcome Jenn!
• We have several new lecturers this fall mostly covering classes of the faculty who left us this past year: Natalie Andreas, Jenifer Sarver, Christa Rose, and Denise Patrick. 
• Mia Duffy was introduced as our new social media intern. 
• We also note that Scott Stroud has officially become a full Professor, Larry Schooler is now an Assistant Professor of Instruction, and Stacey Sowards has begun her term as our new Associate Chair.

The main set of introductions was led by Graduate Advisor René Dailey and Graduate Coordinator Jenn Porras, who asked each person in attendance to list one thing they loved, one thing they did not like, and one thing they wanted to do. Amid the diverse responses, it seemed clear that the department generally loves cats, hates the Texas heat, and is looking forward to ICA in Australia.

The week before classes began, Dailey and Porras welcomed 14 new graduate students with a series of orientation events to help prepare them for the program. In addition to training from the university and from our Center for Advancing Teaching Excellence, the new cohort had a full day of orientation activities in the department. After some informational sessions, the new cohort had lunch with the faculty, met Yohanna Tesfai and other leadership from the Communication Studies Graduate Community (CommSGC), and talked with current students. The CMS Graduate Student Orientation Day ended with an Amy’s Ice Cream social for the full department.