Dear President Devorah Lieberman, Provost Jonathan Reed and Dean Brian Clocksin:

University of La Verne alums are writing this letter to stop the administration from breaking up the Communications Department. We are asking the University to reconsider and look at the value these areas of study provide to the university and to society as a whole. Across the country, newspapers are being shut down and schools are cutting their journalism programs at the expense of students. We ask the University of La Verne to stand up and be the exception to these national trends. 

The Communications Department provides students with an education in journalism and public relations that expands to television, radio, writing and graphic design. Much like the real world, students from different majors come together to produce a product, like the weekly Campus Times, LeoFM or Foothill Community News. Students have the opportunity to learn from each other and take classes that put them outside their comfort zone. With the Communications Department, the University funds the few publications in the area that are imperative to question authority and to maintain an informed community. Gutting the Communications Department would be a loss to the community and would decrease the value of students’ education.

We are asking for University of La Verne’s administration to keep the Communications Department united so that a cross-disciplinary approach can continue to reflect the changing media landscape. Students deserve the right to remain in a department with communications at its nucleus in order to learn from each other and from media professionals that encourage us to pursue ambitious projects. As a result, much of the work students have produced in the department has helped them get media jobs across the country.

Universities with strong, competitive communications programs are those that fund media centers that remain integrated. University of La Verne’s award-winning Communications Department has the potential to grow, but that cannot be possible with division or cuts. We ask that the Communications Department be funded and pushed to compete with other universities, not for it to shrink, blend in and be forgotten.