Promoting a More Inclusive Communication Curriculum Using Inter-University Faculty Collaboration as a Model.

A strategy for promoting a culturally inclusive college communication curriculum was developed based on collaboration between two faculty members from the School of Communication at Howard University in Washington, D.C. (HU) and Ohio Dominican College (ODC). In particular the African American HU professor served as a mentor to the ODC professor so as to engage in curriculum development that would promote more inclusion of African-American perspectives in the ODC communication curriculum. The program lasted 3 years and focused on strategies to elicit change from the faculty rather than from the administration through the review of current courses to determine where important Black contributions may be added and to rework course syllabi to reflect the contributions of African-Americans to the discipline. The mentor and mentee worked to revise five of the mentee's courses. Interaction between the participants occurred via mail, the telephone and fax machines. In addition the two participants visited each other's campuses for research, attendance at classes, and general observation. The participants found the collaboration to yield tangible results in curricular development and less tangible but positive results in the experience of consistent interaction with a colleague from another institution. Attached is a student exit evaluation survey developed in the course of the collaboration. (Contains 22 references.) (JB)