Communication Club

The Communication Studies department invites all WSU students to join Communication Club.

Lambda Pi Eta

Communication Studies majors or minors may be eligible to join Lambda Pi Eta if they meet the following requirements:

• Completed 60 credit hours (12 must be Communication Studies courses)
• 3.25 GPA in Communication Studies courses
• Full-time student

Learn more about Winona State's Nu Pi chapter.

A speech tutor is available through Communication Studies. The tutor can assist with all parts of the speech-writing process. Visit the Speech Tutoring webpage to learn more about tutoring and how to sign up for an appointment. 

The Communication Studies department offers many internship opportunities for all students.

The Gary Evans Scholarship is open to students in good academic standing with personal or professional accomplishments and promise of ability in communication studies.

The Frederick & Dina Derocher Communication Studies Mentorship Scholarship in Honor of Professor Rita Rahoi-Gilchrest is open to undergraduate junior and senior Communication Studies majors with at least a 3.0 GPA and financial need. An essay submission is required as well.

In the department of Communication Studies, we believe in communicating clearly, honestly, openly, and with compassion. We offer here the NCA Credo for Ethical Communication as foundational to how we conduct ourselves as faculty and to set expectations for the ethical communication of our students.

• Questions of right and wrong arise whenever people communicate. Ethical communication is fundamental to responsible thinking, decision making, and the development of relationships and communities within and across contexts, cultures, channels, and media. Moreover, ethical communication enhances human worth and dignity by fostering truthfulness, fairness, responsibility, personal integrity, and respect for self and others. We believe that unethical communication threatens the quality of all communication and consequently the well-being of individuals and the society in which we live. Therefore we, the members of the Communication Studies Department at Winona State University, endorse and are committed to practicing the following principles of ethical communication:
• We advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to the integrity of communication.
• We endorse freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of dissent to achieve the informed and responsible decision making fundamental to a civil society.
• We strive to understand and respect other communicators before evaluating and responding to their messages.
• We promote access to communication resources and opportunities as necessary to fulfill human potential and contribute to the well-being of families, communities, and society.
• We promote communication climates of caring and mutual understanding that respect the unique needs and characteristics of individual communicators.
• We condemn communication that degrades individuals and humanity through distortion, intimidation, coercion, and violence, and through the expression of intolerance and hatred.
• We are committed to the courageous expression of personal convictions in pursuit of fairness and justice.
• We advocate sharing information, opinions, and feelings when facing significant choices while also respecting privacy and confidentiality.
• We accept responsibility for the short- and long-term consequences for our own communication and expect the same of others.

(Source: NCA Credo for Ethical Communication)

Academic integrity and professional behavior are expected of students during all academic and Communication Studies sponsored activities. Failure to demonstrate academic integrity and/or standards for student behavior may result in failure of a course, dismissal from the Communication Studies program, and/or dismissal from Winona State University. Decisions regarding sanctions for violations of academic integrity or for standards for student behavior affecting course grades will be made by the course faculty. Decisions regarding sanctions involving dismissal from the Communication Studies program will be done in consultation with the teaching faculty. Recommendations for dismissal from the Communication Studies program will be made by the Communication Studies Student Conduct Committee and voted on by the department faculty. Decisions regarding University sanctions will be referred to the University Office of Student Conduct and Citizenship.

As noted by the Winona State University academic integrity policy, the following are examples of behaviors are considered unacceptable and viewed as violations of the academic integrity policy:

• Cheating: Using or attempting to use unauthorized materials in any academic exercise or having someone else do work for you. Examples of cheating include looking at another student's work, bringing an unauthorized "crib sheet" to a test, obtaining a copy of a test prior to the test date, or submitting homework borrowed from another student.
• Deception and Misrepresentation: Lying about or misrepresenting your work, academic records, or credentials. Examples of deception and misrepresentation include forging signatures, falsifying application credentials or transcripts, and misrepresenting group participation.
• Enabling Academic Dishonesty: Helping someone else to commit an act of academic dishonesty. This would include giving someone else an academic assignment with the intent of allowing that person to copy it or allowing someone else to cheat from your test papers, quizzes, assessments or other course materials.
• Fabrication: Refers to inventing or falsifying information. Examples of fabrication include inventing data for an experiment you did not do or did not do correctly or making references to sources you did not use in academic assignments.
• Multiple Submissions: Submitting work you have done in previous classes as if it were new and original work. Although faculty may be willing to let you use previous work as the basis of new work, they expect you to do new work for the class. Students seeking to submit a piece of work to more than one class should seek the permission of both instructors.
• Plagiarism: Using the words or ideas of another writer without proper acknowledgment, so that they seem as if they are your own. Plagiarism includes behavior such as copying someone else's work word for word, rewriting someone else's work with only minor word changes, and/or summarizing someone else's work without acknowledging the source.

If a student demonstrates violations of academic integrity, faculty members are obligated to follow university procedures as published in the current undergraduate catalog under Academic Integrity.

Standards for student behavior are identified in the Winona State University Undergraduate Catalog and can be reviewed on the Student Life & Development website.

In situations where students are charged with violations of academic integrity or student behavior conduct, students have the right to due process and to fair consideration of any appeal. Students may appeal decisions regarding academic integrity or unprofessional behavior by submitting a formal grievance as described in the WSU student grievance procedure.

Students who feel that their academic work has been evaluated unfairly may appeal their grades through the Winona State University Grade Appeal process.

Students' Rights

These include, but are not limited to: fair evaluations, advisement and academic counseling, assistance in identifying and meeting learning goals. The Communication Studies department strives to provide an environment of mutual respect, cooperation, fair treatment, stewardship of resources, integrity, and quality education and services. Even with this commitment, problems and concerns sometimes occur. Resources and procedures are available to students and other parties for appealing decisions or policies, addressing concerns, resolving grievances and complaints, and dealing with retaliation. Students, faculty, staff or other constituents who have a concern are expected to follow established policies and procedures for a concern or complaint.

Concerns that are violations of Minnesota State or Winona State University (WSU) policies are addressed through existing Minnesota State and WSU policies and procedures, including but not limited to:

• Minnesota State Board Policies 3.8 and 3.81 Student Complaints and Grievances and Procedures
• WSU Student Grievance Procedure
• WSU Academic Integrity Policy
• WSU Suspension Appeal Process
• WSU Grade Appeal Policy - Academic Policies and University Requirements 2017-2018
• Master Agreement between the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees and the Inter Faculty Organization 2013-2015 Article 28 Grievance Procedure: "The IFO and the Employer agree that they will use their best efforts to encourage an informal and prompt settlement of any complaint…"

General Complaint Resolution Process

Concerns or complaints about the Department of Communication Studies are addressed in the following general process - 1) The Dean of the College of Liberal Arts will recommend that the person filing the concern, grievance, or complaint discuss the matter directly with the party(ies) involved and seek resolution to the problem, 2a) If the matter remains unresolved for the person filing the concern, grievance, or complaint, the Dean will work with the person filing such to continue the process for seeking a resolution to the problem, 2b) If the complaint is against the Dean, the Vice President for Academic Affairs or designee will serve in this role, 3) If the matter still remains unresolved, the person filing the concern, grievance, or complaint will be referred to the applicable policies and procedures for Winona State University and Minnesota State.

(Sources: College of Nursing Academic Integrity and Student Behavior Policies; Winona State University Academic Integrity and Student Behavior Policies; Winona State University Catalog; Winona State University Policies and Procedures; Minnesota State Policies and Procedures; The Interfaculty Organization Master Agreement)