The Baruch College Faculty Handbook

The Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute

Last updated on 2/3/09

 

Founded in 1997, the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute spearheads efforts to infuse oral, written, and computer-mediated communication into the curriculum by emphasizing a philosophy of teaching rather than a quantification of communication-intensive activities.The Institute promotes the idea that it is more helpful for students to receive formative feedback on a few assignments than to tack on assignments and point to the number of pages produced by students. The Institute defines communication as a purposeful activity imbedded in a discipline or context; it is the locus in which learning and teaching takes place.What communication means (and what good or bad communication means) depends on the discipline and individual faculty members.The Institute advocates having students encounter as many different forms of communication in as many disciplines as possible over a course of study. Since students will not become good communicators by taking isolated Communication Intensive Courses (CICs), the Institute promotes a coordinated effort across the disciplines to encourage students to see themselves as communicators, to value the importance of communicating their ideas well, and to see themselves as life-long practitioners of communication.

 

The Institute facilitates the infusion of communication into the curriculum in a variety of ways—primary through communication-intensive courses. CICs are developed by faculty in conformity with the Faculty Guidelines for CICs with the support of the Institute’s professional staff.These courses do more than push students to write, speak or use computers.An “intensive” experience in communication engages students in the full range of intellectual and practical processes that go into producing effective communication.That means covering not only grammar and usage, pronunciation and intonation, but habits of mind, analytical tools, and audience adaptation, as well as respect for the differences among the various modes of expression at play in academic and professional environments. The Institute provides faculty and students in CICs with support by trained communication consultants and CUNY Writing Fellows and an outside assessment on the impact of the CIC experience on the students’ ability to communicate.It provides professional development for faculty through department-based meetings and one-on-one consulting with faculty.It sponsors faculty-led luncheon seminars on issues relating to communication in the disciplines, innovative approaches to teaching content matter and communication and challenges faced by infusing communication into a course or discipline. It sponsors an annual symposium on communication and communication-intensive instruction that brings together leading educators and business professionals from across the country to discuss fundamental issues of communication.

The Institute also supports faculty research and facilitates curricular reform through its Resource Room (dedicated to communication and pedagogy), a state-of-the-art Apple lab, and a webpage that provides useful information for students and faculty.

Also see the CIC Guidelines.

Location: 137 East 25^th Street, 3^rd floor
Director: Mikhail Gershovich, 646-312-2062
Telephone: 646-312-2060; 646-312-2061 (fax)