Creating a communications community

Communication Awareness Week at Portland State, with the theme “Talkin’ is Rockin'”, kicks off today from 5 to 6 p.m. with a tattoo and piercing forum.

The week-long event is meant to reactivate the Communication Studies Student Organization. The event starts today and runs until Thursday, ending with an informational fair.

“We want to bring awareness to the communication studies department,” said Johanna Cole, event co-organizer. “We would like to build a better sense of community within the department as well as attract new people to the discipline.”

For two years the Communication Studies Student Association has been dormant due to the lack of student interest.

Cole said the communication studies department is not very unified and does not “really have a sense of connectedness.”

In addition, the organization hopes to appeal to incoming students and undergraduates.

The communication professors thought this would be a good way to bring visibility back to the organization. Chelsea King, event co-organizer, started working on the project beginning in spring term.

This project was created as an alternative to the communication studies graduate thesis.

On Wednesday communication majors and graduate students will present their research materials.

In “Stand and Deliver,” forensic students will have the opportunity to speak in public. The event will be from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Smith 228.

An information fair will be on Thursday, from 12 to 2 p.m. in Smith 228.

The association plans to help orient new and returning students with the department, recruit more members and “help them form a sense of ownership within the department.”

For more information, contact [email protected].