Undergraduate Degree Requirements | Department of Communication at USF

Requirements for the Major in Communication

A major in communication requires a minimum of 36 credit hours from departmental offerings. A final grade of "D" within a departmental course will not be counted toward a communication major. Courses may not be taken S/U where a grade option exists. As of Summer 2006, the department has initiated pre-requisites restrictions on many upper level course offerings. In order to register for many upper level concentration and departmental elective courses, students will now be required to have completed SPC 2600 and COM 2000 with a “C” grade, or better. Although a grade of “C-” will satisfy the requirement for SPC 2600 and COM 2000, it will not satisfy the pre-requisite criteria. Students who have transferred a Public Speaking course other than SPC 2600, must email the undergraduate advisor, Leslie Tod (tod@cas.usf.edu) with your U# in order to remove the pre-requisite restriction before registration. Please note that instructors will not be able to permit a student into a course that has pre-requisite restrictions, if the student has not met the pre-requisite.

I. Prerequisites (3 hours)

Students must complete SPC 2600, Public Speaking, before being admitted to the communication major. A student can be admitted to the university without SPC 2600, but it must be completed as part of the requirements for the major. A grade of "C-" is the minimum acceptable grade. In addition, admittance to the major is limited to those students who have completed at least 30 hours of college level work and have achieved an overall GPA of 2.5 or above.

II. Core Distribution Requirements (12 hours)

Students must take each of these four courses as early as possible in the major. These courses are prerequisites for taking the majority of advanced courses in the concentrations.

• COM 2000 -- Introduction to Communication (3)
• ORI 2000 -- Introduction to Communication as Performance (3)
• SPC 3301 -- Interpersonal Communication (3)
• SPC 2541 -- Persuasion (3)

III. Area of Concentration (9 hours)

Students must take a minimum of nine hours in one of the three areas of concentration.

Performance Studies

ORI 3950 Communication as Performance Lab	ORI 4931 Performance & Video	ORI 4120 Performance of Poetry
ORI 4310 Group Performance of Literature	SPC 4201 Oral Tradition

Interpersonal and Organizational Communication

COM 3120 Introduction to Communication Theory in Organizations	COM 3014 Communication, Gender, and Identity	COM 4020 Communication, Illness, Grief, and Loss
COM 4124 Communication and Organizational Change	COM 4710 Writing Lives	COM 4942 Communication Internship Seminar
SPC 3212 Communication Theory	SPC 3425 Group Communication	SPC 4305 Communicating Emotions
SPC 4310 Relationships on Film	SPC 4431 Family Communication

Public and Cultural Communication

COM 4030 Women and Communication	COM 4022 Health Communication	SPC 3230 Rhetorical Theory
SPC 3513 Argument and Debate	SPC 3631 Rhetoric of the 1960s	SPC 3653 Popular Forms of Public Communication
SPC 3680 Rhetorical Analysis	SPC 3710 Communication and Cultural Diversity	SPC 4683 Rhetorical Analysis of Mass Media
SPC 4632 Rhetoric of Social Change	SPC 4680 History and Critique of Public Address	SPC 4714 Communication, Culture, and Community

IV. Departmental Electives (12) hours

Students must take twelve additional hours of elective coursework in the Department of Communication at the 3000-level or higher, which must include at least six hours from outside the student's "area of concentration."

The following classes count as electives outside the area of concentration for everyone (regardless of the concentration chosen):

• COM 3122 -- Interview Communication
• SPC 3602 -- Advanced Public Speaking
• SPC 4930 -- Selected Topics Course (titles and topics vary each semester)
• SPC 4932 -- Senior Seminar (topics vary)

Requirements for the Minor in Communication

The minor in communication is available to students pursuing any other major at USF. The minor in communication requires a minimum of 18 hours of departmental coursework, including:

• SPC 2600 -- Public Speaking (3)

• COM 2000 -- Introduction to Communication (3)

The other 12 hours may be selected from among departmental offerings and must include a minimum of 6 hours at the 3000-level or higher. A grade of "D" will not be counted toward a communication minor. Courses may not be taken S/U where a grade option exists.