Public university governing boards exist to serve the people of their states. It should, therefore, be easy for the public to know what governing bodies are doing. University governance, however, isn't always as transparent as it should be. Often, the public is given little advance notice of when and where meetings will be held and what issues…

The presence of volunteers, both affiliated and unaffiliated, and the influx of donations during and after an emergency can be addressed through a comprehensive emergency operations plan (EOP). Education agencies and their planning teams must consider developing a system that addresses the different types of donations and volunteers, how they will…

How might a theory of communicative rationality be applied to policymaking to secure the morally justifiable administration of public education? In answer, Darron Kelly uses conceptual resources found in Habermasian practical discourse to outline development of a survey instrument. The survey is designed to measure constituent satisfaction with…

Schools are typically highly structured institutions, so any shifts in processes can potentially generate anxiety, confusion, and even anger among staff. As such, when there is frequent change, initiatives often fail to achieve their intended goals. Well-intentioned initiatives can go awry when not consistently implemented correctly by all staff;…

The activity permits students to reflect on the ways their own identities are privileged or further marginalized during the recruitment process. Students determine ways to re-create job descriptions that remove inequitable language, such as shifting from trait-based language to behavioral-based language and the inclusion of expectation-lowering…

This activity offers students a way to engage in cover letter writing, familiarizing themselves with the style and content of these documents in a creative, fictional scenario. Students will both prepare letters and evaluate them, with options to vary the gamification of the activity included. During the debrief, students assess their experience…

This article indicates ways faculty developers can engineer forums in which they "eavesdrop" on faculty as they interact with each other and other campus personnel, including the faculty developers themselves. Eavesdropping facilitates communication as it allows for faculty developers to listen in real time to faculty concerns and…

This article uses personas to illustrate the range of technical communication knowledge work developed through its practitioners--to articulate the functions, characteristics, traits, skills, and workplace styles of positions someone in the field might pursue. Recent research has provided valuable data about the expanding and evolving skill sets…

Universities have historically fostered spaces where students, faculty, staff, and administration can fruitfully engage in discussion around contentious issues. Current political divisions have had a chilling effect on these discussions inside and outside the classroom. To nurture a campus culture of dialogic engagement, the communication studies…

Communication practitioners, especially those who facilitate training and development workshops, should focus on generational differences as a subset of their communication training efforts. This article positions the multigenerational workplace and generational differences as a relevant topic for communication trainers and provides cursory…

Organizational communication has concepts and processes that can be difficult to absorb. Using gamification as a pedagogical strategy, a semester-long project is developed to help students learn through application. The Bear Cave is a class-wide competition where students create an organization and seek a fictional investment of $1,000,000. In…

Cross-disciplinary manifestations of teaching and learning centers' traditional role in fostering community and connection among faculty are especially important amid decentralization and distributed work locations spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article details practical applications of codeless workflow automation platforms to support…

In this paper, I highlight several facets of personnel issues that can arise during one's time as a mathematics department chair and recommend communication strategies to address them. The strategies involve situations with individual faculty members, general communication with faculty, and communication with the administration.

Purpose: This paper aims to provide insight for higher education leaders about how to navigate the immediate needs and long-term needs of an institution. COVID-19 disrupted higher education in unprecedented ways, but the post-pandemic world is proving to be just as challenging--if not more so. Presidents and higher education leaders must be…

Organizational communication extends beyond communication that takes place in an organizational context to the ways communication is used to organize and facilitate activity. This article is designed to enhance organizational communication pedagogy practices by highlighting foundational concepts and content areas that should be included in…