Reflecting Gettysburg’s longstanding commitment to academic excellence and career development, the College’s new communication studies program will ready students for a lifetime of personal and professional success.
Building upon its strong tradition of producing graduates who thrive in communications careers for top companies and organizations around the globe, Gettysburg College is proud to announce that it will add a communication studies major and minor starting in the 2025-26 academic year. Students may declare the major and minor as early as the fall semester.
The communication studies program is designed to explore the dynamic relationship between communication and society, specifically how messages shape and are shaped by individuals, institutions, and cultural forces. Gettysburg students will develop key career skills in creating, exchanging, and interpreting messages across mediums, including through writing, public speaking, digital content creation, and interpersonal communication.
“I’m absolutely thrilled for Gettysburg to offer a major and minor in communication studies. This is going to open so many doors for our students,” said Prof. Melissa Forbes, director of the Writing Center and first-year writing and lecturer of English. Forbes partnered with Prof. James Udden, chair of cinema and media studies, to design the program.
“We’re building a program that will help our students become compelling storytellers and strategic thinkers, ready to make a real difference both here on campus and in their future lives and careers. It’s been exciting to see the whole campus embrace this new program. Faculty and staff all over the College are already reaching out with ideas for new courses. This program is going to be truly special.”
Gettysburg’s communication studies curriculum is tailored to graduate students who are career-ready from Day 1. The curriculum will investigate the social, cultural, historical, political, institutional, and rhetorical contexts that impact communication processes and outcomes, covering areas such as media studies, interpersonal communication, and rhetoric.
“Every current major at Gettysburg College has its own set of communication conventions. This only makes sense because every human endeavor requires communication in some form. But knowing what we need to communicate does not mean we always know how to communicate,” said Udden. “Having this major will shift focus to what is communication itself and how to best communicate—no matter what area, no matter what issue. This is a major that potentially connects all the others.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that there will be about 109,500 job openings each year in communications, on average, over the next eight years. Gettysburg College communication studies students can likewise expect to step into a vibrant and supportive network of communications alumni upon graduation.
Today, nearly 700 Gettysburgians—roughly two percent of the College’s global network—are in communications positions at a wide range of organizations, including Google, Walt Disney World Resort, TIME, Major League Baseball, Meta, Pfizer, Prada, Forbes, Ernst & Young, IBM, HelloFresh, NFL Films, NBC, and many others.
“In an increasingly interconnected world and workforce, effective communication is paramount,” said Provost Jamila Bookwala. “With the launch of our new communication studies major and minor, Gettysburg College will empower our students to take a deep dive into learning and applying the art and science of communications so that they can pursue careers in communications-related fields and make an indelible impact in their professional lives and in their communities.”
Visit campus today to learn about Gettysburg College’s new communication studies major and minor.