Mark Bunting Dallas: University of Texas at Austin’s College of Communication

I received my degree from the University of Texas at Austin’s College of
Communication, where I have recently taken on a new role as a
Professor, teaching the first of its kind High Tech Marketing
Communications. The University of Texas at Austin was formally
established in 1883 and was famous for its oratory instruction under
Edwin DuBois Shurter. UT Austin established the Department of Public
Speaking due to the popularity of the subject, and the department that
would eventually become Communication Studies. A growing interest in
broadcasting led to the creation of the Department of Radio, Television,
and Film. In 1921, a radio station was established on campus that
conducted experimental work in radio communication, and in under a
decade, the team had created the first television broadcast in the
state. The Communication Sciences and Disorders program was founded in
1941 in conjunction with the University of Texas at Austin Speech and
Hearing Clinic and the development of coursework leading to Texas
Education Agency certification. This program was the first of its kind
created in Texas.

The School of Communication was first recognized in 1965 as the
amalgamation of the School of Journalism, the Department of Speech, and
the Department of Radio, Television, and Film. Three years later, a
three-building communication complex was created to house the
departments, and at the same time, a new Department of Advertising was
born out of an accredited sequence of advertising previously part of the
Department of Journalism. In 1979, the School of Communication was
renamed the College of Communication, and a few years later, the three
buildings of the communication complex were officially titled the Jesse
H. Jones Communication Center.

Today, the School of Communication exists as the Departments of
Advertising and Public Relations; Communication Sciences and Disorders;
Communication Studies, Radio, Television, and Film; and the School of
Journalism, which was renamed in 2000 to establish its academic position
relative to peer programs. I am excited to continue the school’s record
of progress and innovation by teaching the newest techniques for
advertising in today’s high-tech world.