About the Senior Capstone
All communication students are expected to complete a 4-credit, communication-related capstone course in their final semester. In each capstone course, students complete a culminating project that integrates their learning from previous coursework.
Please note: if you are double-majoring in another degree for which a senior project is required, you must complete that senior project instead of a capstone course.
The capstone is a one-semester project that involves empirical research, library investigation, or an on or off-campus applied learning experience. Regardless of the format, the project will culminate in a significant paper. Course sections are overseen by faculty within each concentration to foster integration of prior coursework, and should be selected in consultation with academic advisors.
HYBRID designation for capstones indicates that the courses have group meetings together and then one-on-one, individual meetings with instructors during remaining weeks.
See Sr. Capstone page for further information.
We follow the NCA Ethics Credo for Ethical Communication (Approved by the NCA Legislative Council, 1999; Reaffirmed by the Legislative Assembly passing the report and recommendations of the Taskforce on the Public Policy Platform, 2011. Reaffirmed by the Legislative Assembly with edits, 2017).
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 National Communication Association, 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 individuals, 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.
Prerequisite: Students must have received a C- or higher in College Writing in order to enroll in the Capstone in their Senior Year.