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What a year! Students and faculty have been very busy. We have a new university President, France Cordova. We have a group of outstanding new undergraduate and graduate students, and there is excitement all around. We are celebrating our anniversary. The Department of Communication officially has been at Purdue for 60 years, and it's 100 years since the first speech communication course appeared in a Purdue course catalog.
I'm pleased to report that our students are doing exciting things. A group of undergraduates will be working for the English speaking media (BBC, CNN, NBC, New York Times, etc.) as "media liaisons" during the Olympic Games in Beijing. Another group of students has been working as interns for the new Big Ten Network, and our graduate students have been garnering recognition for excellence.
I'm also pleased to report that our alumni continue to do great things. Alumnus Brian Lamb received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and, locally, Sharon Versyp finished her first year as Purdue's women's basketball coach. I'm sure many of you have stories to report, so let us know.
We hired four new faculty members, hosted a gathering of alumni and former faculty, and co-sponsored a Health Communication conference in Beijing with Tsinghua University. As this issue of The Communicator went to press, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that our faculty was ranked 2nd in the nation (just behind the University of Pennsylvania) in research productivity for departments with doctoral programs.
It's been a great year, and it's barely begun. If you return to campus, please contact us.
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