The University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 32, No. 14, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 12, 2003 Page: 1 of 12
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University of Dallas. Irving, Texas
February 12. 2003
Officials propose communications major
by Elisabet Pierucci
Contributing Writer
A proposal is being drafted
for a new rhetoric and
communications major, Dr.
Scott Dupree, professor of
English, said last week.
Dupree has been asked by
professors from various
departments to coordinate the
drafting of the proposal, which
is only the first step in the due
process of adding a new major
to Constantin College.
Dupree said once the
proposal is complete, it will be
presented to the curriculum
committee. Pending approval at
each level, it will be presented
to the faculty senate, the board
of directors, and the president of
the university.
Dupree hopes to have the
proposal ready this semester in
order to begin taking the
necessary steps for approval.
"If everybody likes the idea,
if everybody approves, if the
money is there, it is conceivable
that the new major might be
offered in fall 2004;' he said.
Although still in the
preliminary planning stages, the
idea for the Rhetoric and
Communications major is based
on the classical rhetorical
tradition, expanded to
incorporate journalism, radio,
video, and other contemporary
media.
Dupree acknowledged that
the words "rhetoric" and
"communications" sometimes
have negative connotations
"Rhetoric has come to mean
insincere or meaningless talk,"
he said.
With the creation of the
major, Dupree would like to
recover the whole meaning of
rhetoric and communications
since he believes rhetoric is
central to the liberal arts
tradition.
"Rhetoric is at the core of
liberal arts... it's no accident that
in a democracy rhetoric became
so important," he said
Acknowledging that rhetoric
can be misused, he stated that an
important component of the
major would be a study of ethics.
Dupree views the new major
as a natural progression for UD
and intends it to be "an
interdisciplinary program that is
very, very structured for the
major and very focused on
ancient rhetoric tradition."
Dupree also expressed a
desire to add forensics, debate,
and public speaking to the UD
life.
"Students could have a debate
as they did in ancient times over
who is the greater poet, Virgil or
Homer," he said.
More importantly, Dupree
would like students to leave
see Major, page 4
Beating out a win
Photo by Eric Martinez
Matt Defusco, Kevin St. Cin and Danny Mehaffey tackle an SMU player. The UD Ground-
hogs beat the SMU Mustangs 18 -15 last Saturday at their 2 p.m. game. The score
included senior Pat McEwen's first goal ever. Other scorers included Nick Widdich and
Tyson Marx with field goals. The Hogs' next game is Saturday at 2 p.m. on the Catherine
field versus SW Texas.
Spring phonathon
goal set at $100,000
by Rebecca Leland
News Editor
The office of institutional
advancement's annual fund
officers anticipate raising over
$100,000 at this spring's
phonathon, Charles T. Moss,
annual fund officer, said.
Faculty, students, alumni,
and parents from the three
schools at University of Dallas
- the Braniff Graduate School,
Constantin College, and the
Graduate School of
Management - will place
phone calls for two hours each
night for three weeks.
Phonathon organizer and
annual fund officer Lisa
Nguyen expressed enthusiasm
about the upcoming event,
noting that after exceeding last
semester's goal of $200,000,
they expect to exceed their
present goal of $100,000 this
semester as well.
All funds raised cover
operating costs of the university,
a large chunk of which includes
utilities, the officers said.
The phonathon campaign
also encourages alumni,
parents, and benefactors to
become involved in university
activities, Moss said,
emphasizing how important the
phonathon has become for
alumni relations.
"It allows us to communicate
with the alumni and for them to
communicate with us in an
impromptu way. We don't mind
spending 15 or 20 minutes on
the phone to update them or
introduce them to our website,"
he said.
Lectures and annual events
(like Groundhog) can also be
promoted over the phone in
those few minutes, Moss said.
Organizers have found that
see Phonathon, page 3
No Man's Land begins semester-long Dante forum
by Meghan Kuckelman
Co-Editor in Chief
The showing of the film No
Man's Land last Thursday
kicked off a semester-long series
of films and symposiums in-
tended to focus on themes de-
veloped in Dante's Divine Com-
edy.
Hie project, sponsored by the
office of academic deans, is an
extension of the learning com-
munities formed last semester
for incoming freshmen.
"The forum series idea came
about as a result of our conver-
sations first semester in the
learning communities," Dr.
Claudia MacMillan, associate
dean of Constantin college, said.
The forum serves as a means
of maintaining the level of con-
versation, though now including
the entire student body
MacMillan calls the forum a
sort of intellectual recreation. In
subsequent years she hopes to
focus on other core works sub-
stantial enough to sustain the
recreation of the university for
a semester Plato's Republic is
high on that list.
MacMillan hopes the forum
will be "a means for showing the
students that these works are not
just part of the classroom," she
said. "They live in your imagi-
nation."
MacMillan said Dr. Scott
Dupree, professor of English
and Blakley library, places the
forum series "somewhere be-
tween Charity Week and a lec-
ture series."
When the idea first came up
last semester, its proposed events
included writing and art con-
tests, lecture series by UD pro-
fessors, and discussions with
well-known scholars in the field
of the chosen work.
Time and financial con-
straints forced the program to be
see Dante, page 4
A student
reads the
Divine Comedy
in Braniff
Foyer, where a
poster of
Dante's stop
midway in
life's journey
hangs.
Photo by Meghan
Kuckelman
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Hendrickson, Janet & Kuckelman, Meghan. The University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 32, No. 14, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 12, 2003, newspaper, February 12, 2003; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201372/m1/1/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Dallas.