Page 2 - Communique Newsletter Spring 2020

When I think of the lawn signs leading up to Manzanita Hall, and the Performance Ensemble posters on the
second floor the increased visibility of our department across campus and its vibrant programs comes to

mind. When I think of the career coaches conducting workshops and meeting with students to discuss
potential career options in the field, increased online course offerings that aid our students in having a
balanced life, and the Cohort Ambassador Program that support First Time Transfers motivated to graduate
in two years or less, student success comes to mind and will remain a key component of our department.

I am stepping down but not away. I will continue to be involved with the department. Remember that the key
to continued department success is quality teaching, service, and research/creative contributions. The
greatest of these is whatever you decide. However, being engaged and involved is called service. Service is how
the department stays alive and you have full agency over how you will serve. Service does not have to be a
workload debate or issue if you do it in your own way, on your own terms and on your own time. The key is to
serve without convoluting the service. Teaching is not service, and research and publishing is not service.
Service is the giving of oneself, time, ideas, and expertise without expectations of financial compensation. As a
department, COMS will only be as strong as the talents and contributions of its faculty and staff. Thank you
for the past two years. I look forward to seeing you all at future meetings.

Until we meet again,
Very sincerely yours,
Dr. Sakilé K. Camara

Welcoming the new chair...

Dr. Aimee Carrillo Rowe

These are strange days indeed, but still we persist. In the most imaginative
ways, we persist. I step into the position of Chair of Communication Studies in
strange days. These are days that bring out the worst in us, but call on the best
of us. These days remind us that we are accountable not just of ourselves, but
to one another. We are accountable to a family, a community, even a world. In
my role as Chair I aim to support faculty, staff and students as we struggle to
redefine ourselves. We undertake new challenges and find we must stretch to
meet the selves we are becoming. We are learning new tools of our trade: new
ways of teaching, learning, and communicating. We must find ways to create –

to write, to think, to share our ideas and research – even as we find new ways to
care for ourselves and each other from a distance. These strange days demand something new of us. I see my
job as creating and holding space for your individual – and our collective – renewal. Who will we be on the
other side of Covid-19? I hope we emerge from this pandemic resilient and transformed. The caterpillar
becomes primordial soup in the process of becoming a butterfly. Transformation entails our dissolution. It

ain’t always pretty, but rebirth is ultimately beautiful.

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