Empowering Voices: SCFMS's Mission and Vision for a Just and Creative Future

Mission 

The School of Communication, Film, and Media Studies (The SCFMS) advances knowledge and enhances praxis across its constitutive programs, namely human communication,

digital media, film studies, and public relations. The pursuit of social justice and equity drives our scholarship and teaching. Our student-centered curriculum and teaching practices work to foster a critical and creative citizenry. 

We engage with digital and analog forms of media and communication, strategically integrating theory and practice and creating friendly, productive, interdisciplinary collaborations. These efforts can take an overlapping variety of forms across research, teaching, and service. The SCFMS fosters adaptability within an ever-changing world in which different media literacies and communication competencies are demanded of us to address issues of global and local importance. 

Vision 

We see the SCFMS as a place where theory is applied to practice. It is a site of inclusivity, equity, and diversity, allowing members to belong to a safe, productive, and creative community. We believe in excellence in teaching and scholarship, promoting strong citizenship among ourselves and our students. Our vision is to improve the world in which we live through media and communication. 

Values 

• Diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of our work and curriculum. 

• Ethical decision-making in the creation and study of communication, film, and media    

• The advancement of theory, research, and practice.      

• Excellence in teaching and mentoring across all modalities   

• The facility of designing meaningful verbal and nonverbal messages with rhetorical sophistication and respectful social awareness 

• Human connection and self-discovery as central to academic inquiry and social development  

• Creating an engaged citizenry via our curriculum that supports the democratic process   

• Interdisciplinary rapport and collaboration between humanities and social sciences approaches.