Monday, October 17,1988 The Battalion Pages Speech department boasts larger- than-expected growth n no’ll By John C. Curry Reporter Listen closely. You just might hear the roar of | one of the fastest growing speech communica tion departments in the nation right here at Texas A&M. Chances are, even the roar will sound | professional and crystal clear. From the first 50 students who enrolled in Fall 1985, the speech communication program of the [Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts has witnessed an explosion of [growth beyond its planners’ wildest dreams. Bill Owen, assistant professor of speech com- Imunication and one of the five original architects [of the program, said he did not expect the over- Iwhelming success that the department has expe- [rienced. “We predicted that at the end of four years Ithere would be about 200 majors in the depart- |ment,”Owen said. Owen, however, underestimated the numbers. The program now has 546 majors. It has the fifth-largest enrollment in the College of Liberal Arts. Susan J. Vernon, coordinator of advising in the department, said the department has experi enced massive growth because of its flexibility and the current popularity of liberal arts majors in the business world. “The department has a wide appeal because our students have a variety of options for ca reers,” Vernon said. She said speech communication students typ ically end up in one of four business areas: tradi tional business, supportive business, teaching or professional careers. Traditional business careers are those that start in sales, advance to marketing and eventually graduate to management, she said. Supportive business careers are those such as public rela tions, advertising and labor relations. The only drawback to a liberal arts degree in a business world is that the liberal arts major ini tially may have to be more assertive than busi ness majors in seeking a job with certain compa nies, Vernon said. “The department has a wide appeal because our students have a variety of options for careers.” Susan J. Vernon “Once they get their foot in the door, they are at least as successful as business majors,” she said. Denise Wilfon, senior speech communication major and social coordinator of the Speech Com munication Association, said she plans to make a mark on the business world. “I have a marketing minor and plan on going into sales first, then move up the corporate lad der and become CEO (chief executive officer),” Wilfon said. On the other hand, Michele DeHoyos, presi dent of SC A, plans to make a career of interna tional relations. “Speech communication is a well-rounded de gree,” deHoyos said. “I would lijce to use my management and organizational-communication skills with my fluent Spanish and work in inter national relations.” Vernon said the teaching and professional avenues are further examples of the flexibility of a speech communication degree. Owen agreed. “I’m extremely pleased with the number of speech communication majors at tending law school,” he said. Vernon said the flexibility of the degree is the product of the department’s curriculum. “We require five basic courses that offer a blend of the different aspects of speech commu nication,” she said. “Students also take five elec tives and can use these with their minor to focus themselves toward a career.” The department’s curriculum includes instruc tion in all divisions of speech communication. including public speaking, group communica tion, persuasion, technical speaking, argument and debate, and interpersonal communication. The department also offers a special topics class featuring classes such as “Rhetoric of the Cold War” and “Cross Cultural Communica tions.” She said the curriculum is geared toward cre ating a balance of analytical and speech commu nication skills, which will help to maximize thought and production, she said. In addition to pursuing law and master’s de grees, Vernon said recent graduates have found positions with Continental Airlines, Embassy Suites Hotels, Capitol Records, First City Na tional Bank, Neiman-Marcus and many other large corporations. Wilfon attributes the success of the depart ment to its originality. “The broad spectrum of classes is appealing,” she said. “Your whole outlook on life is so dif ferent and you see things differently than busi ness majors, who are too focused.” ‘Mikki Maus’ has debut in Soviet Union festival MOSCOW (AP) — Here he’s called “Mikki Maus,” and the 60- year-old American has surprisingly good rapport with Soviet youngsters for an international film star making his first live appearance in the Soviet Union. Sunday evening at Moscow’s 2,500-seat Rossiya Theater, with a police cordon worthy of a minor head of state outside, the first Soviet festi val of Walt Disney animated classics opened with a showing of “Fantasia” and a visit by Mickey Mouse himself. Standing about 5 feet 6 inches in his clunky black patent leather shoes, Mickey, played by Gabriella Spieth from Walt Disney’s West German of fice, strolled waving down the theater aisle to the strains of “Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It’s Off to Work We Go.” In a juvenile version of the Mos cow superpower summit, Mickey was given a big hug and a keg of honey by Misha the Bear, mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The lights dimmed and the Ros- siya’s screen filled with the image of Donald Duck in the 1941 short sub ject “Donald’s Crime,” in which he purloins the contents of a piggy bank to finance a nightclub outing with Daisy, then suffers pangs of con science. In a Russian-language voiceover, minus the squawking tones in which Donald usually speaks in English, French and other Western languages, the duck concluded: “Crime does not pay.” There was delighted laughter and applause from the audience, which included Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov and many other Soviet VIPs and their families. As well as “Fantasia,” which was first released in 1940, the Disney an imated films “Snow White and the Seven Drawfs,” “Bambi” and “101 Dalmatians” will be shown to chil dren and their parents in Moscow, Leningrad and Tallinn. Mickey is accompanied by a con tingent of executives from The Walt Disney Co. here to investigate the business possibilities created by Pres ident Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s eco nomic and social reforms, which have also loosened controls on the media and the movies. Roy E. Disney, vice chairman of the Disney company and nephew of its founder, pioneer animator Walt Disney, said to the audience,“‘Fanta sia’ is almost 50 years overdue in coming to the Soviet Union. “Through the universal language of animation ... I feel we are taking one more step toward bringing our countries together.” Disney and other company exec utives played down the business end of their trip. But the Tass news agency said they were talking with the Soviets about cooperation in making and distribut ing films. Tass said also there was talk about jointly building a “Wonderland,” a Disneyland-style theme park already planned for Moscow. According to Sovietskaya Rossiya, a Communist party organ, the first Disney cartoons were shown in the Soviet Union at the first Moscow film festival in 1935. The cartoons, which included “The Three Little Pigs” won an award. Sovietskaya Rossiya, which com monly devotes its news columns to weighty matters like the national grain harvest, said, “Disney is a re markable master and a genius second to none.” A&M speaker: Racism threatens U.S. theater By Richard Tijerina Staff Writer Racism can only be solved if people confront each other instead of trying to solve problems separately, Woody King, a New York director, said. King spoke of the differences between white and black theater and stressed the need for both to work together to find an swers about racism in theater in a speech at Rudder Theater Friday. “What is needed is a coming toge ther,” King said. “We need a confronting of each other and to solve our problems through confrontation, instead of trying to solve them separately.” King said there were many examples of racism in American theater, especially in New York, where he is currently di recting a Broadway play called “Check mates,” starring Denzel Washington, Paul Winfield and Ruby Dee. He said the media has much to do with the racism evident in theater. He crit icized newspaper critics who do not give black plays a chance at success. “These people at the newspapers have no knowledge what black writers or black audiences are feeling when they come into this line of work,” King said. “It doesn’t matter if they get standing ovations every night. It doesn’t matter that 60 percent of the audience is black and everyone is laughing. This is just the beginning. That negative impacts on fu ture generations.” King explained two types of racism existing in theater today: institutiona lized racism and economic racism. Insti tutionalized racism deals with hardships the black actor or playwright may deal with while trying to receive recognition. Economic racism occurs when large production companies force the director or playwright to waive his or her hold on the play in exchange for the funding nec essary to put the play on. King said institutionalized racism is a major threat in American theater right now that should be addressed immedi ately. “I see a certain type of institutiona lized racism hovering above (American theater),” he said. “If you don’t change it, it’s going to strike you down late at night and you’ll wonder why. Only ideas can change anything. Only ideas can make you respected among a group of millionaires. Ideas are respected because ideas can change things.” A&M distinguished lecturer Charles Gordone, who hosted the lecture, said the best hope for change in American theater is coming from young actors and playwrights who are still in college. “I really believe the answers are com ing from the university systems where actors are coming out better trained,” Gordone said. “The question we must ask ourselves is, ‘Where do we go from here?’ We can do nontraditional casting until kingdom come, but it all comes down to who the writers are. “The writers, whether they are black, white, blue, green, orange or whatever, have to start writing about who and what we are. We come out of an educational system that pulls us together in four years, and after that four years we have a common denominator. What we do with that common denominator determines the future of America.” King agreed with Gordone’s statement and said changes in American theater will not only work to erase institutiona lized racism, but will help improve the overall quality of theater as well. “In the end, good literature is good lit erature,” he said. “Bad literature is bad literature. Good acting is good acting. Bad acting is bad acting. Once you get beyond that, you start to answer the basic questions. ‘Am I learning something from this? Is this meaningful to me?’ It’s then that you start to learn something from good theater.” DELIVERY I ON THE I DOUBLE ter W fessiof! (grain- DY erfortn i $205 i: At Little Caesars® when you order one delicious pizza, we automatically bring you two, for one low price. And we bring them fast. That's delivery on the double. Only from Little Caesarsf Little Caesar’s Mug's Northgate Now Delivers 35»■» tmi iiiih»»»i>«. ».M~10-t3-SS expires* ii'i