The department of communication studies has two competitive award-winning forensics teams: the debate team and the individual events team. Funding is needed to support student travel to tournaments and scholarships for students on the team. This includes transportation, hotel accommodations, and food. The more funding we receive, the more students we can support.
The department also has a graduate program; funding is needed to support graduate student travel to conferences so they can present their scholarly work. Travel to conferences can be expensive, as it includes travel (often by flying), hotel accommodations, food, and registration fees. Funding is also needed for graduate student scholarships, for both recruiting potential incoming graduate students and to reward student excellence for those in the program.
Finally, our general fund supports the overall unit, but particularly the needs of the faculty and the undergraduate students. This includes funding for travel to academic conferences for both faculty and students. In addition, the fund helps support departmental scholarships for undergraduate students, including a diversity scholarship and an involvement scholarship.