Like fashion and automobile designs, Northwestern’s School of Communication changes with the times.
The school, which began as the School of Oratory in 1878, has since become one of the most highly regarded communication schools in the country.
“We teach speech in all settings — in clinics and research studies, on the stage, on film and online,” said Mary Kate Barley-Jenkins, the school’s director of communications.
She said that range of programs prompted administrators’ decision to change the school’s name from the School of Speech to the School of Communication in 2002.
“It seemed appropriate for our name to reflect our comprehensiveness,” she said.
Though the focus of study has changed over the years, the school has remained innovative and respected since its inception 125 years ago.
Robert McLean Cumnock, a traveling orator, founded the School of Oratory at a time when the formal study of elocution was thought frivolous.
As popular demand for the school’s programs grew, Cumnock hired faculty and built Annie May Swift Hall — the school’s home for 100 years.
Ralph Dennis, the school’s second dean, expanded programs to include public speaking, debate, theater, playwriting and speech pathology. He also began the four-year degree and created a graduate school. In 1921 the School of Oratory became the School of Speech.
Between 1940 and 1970, famous alumni such as Charlton Heston (’45), Warren Beatty (’59), U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo. (’62), and Ann-Margret (’63) graduated from the school.
“I was a student during the golden age,” said Frank Galati, a performance studies professor who received his Ph.D. from the school in 1971. “But we’ve carried on the tradition of experimentation and avant-garde sensibility.”
NU’s Debate Society, started in 1855, is the oldest collegiate debate program in the country. In 2003 the team won its 12th national championship, making it the most successful team in tournament history.
As the school begins the next chapter of its history, Galati said the school will continue to change.
“It’s exciting to know that you are part of such an amazing company and a fantastic 125-year-old institutional history,” Galati said. “We’ve expanded, grown, forged new territory — we truly are on the cutting edge of communication.”
The Daily’s Sarah Halasz and Seth Freedland contributed to this report.
