ISC Becomes Its Own Department in College of Communication and Information

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 10, 2015) — The Integrated Strategic Communication (ISC) program became its own department this academic year — a culmination of the progress ISC has made since its inception as a major at UK about 20 years ago.

The idea of splitting ISC from the School of Journalism and Telecommunications within the College of Communication and Information was brought up about three years ago. Last spring, the process was completed, and Alyssa Eckman was tapped to be the first ISC department chair.

The split is a result of the ISC major’s dramatic growth in recent years. Within the last five years, the number of students in the ISC program has doubled. There are now more than 600 majors and pre-majors in ISC.

“ISC was becoming so large that it was, in the end, in our students’ best interest to have it break off into its own department so that we can have really focused leadership on it and to be able to give them all the attention that they really deserve,” Eckman said. “We wanted to come up with something that was best for our students, our faculty and our staff.”

Part of that focused leadership and attention will be seen at the administrative level. Students will not immediately see these changes, making this an easy transition for current ISC majors and pre majors.

“At this point it has not yet affected our students, and that was actually one of our goals,” Eckman said. “We wanted this to be a seamless transition that would not confuse matters with students, not make students nervous in any way and to just assure that everything went smoothly for them as they more forward with their ISC major.”

Looking forward, these changes at the administrative level will make the process of updating curriculum a little bit faster. In an ever-changing field like ISC, it is crucial to continue offering courses that reflect the knowledge and skills needed in the profession. Making ISC an individual department will allow for these changes to be made more smoothly than ever before.

What hasn’t changed is the relationship ISC has with the other units and majors in the college. There are still many partnerships and shared programs. In fact, many staff employees' positions have not changed since the split.

Eckman noted that the ISC major is heavily focused on building and maintaining identity, so it only makes sense to ensure that the ISC major creates its own identity as a separate entity.

“We can now establish an identity and now be more easily recognized on a local, state, regional, national level for what we are, which is a very unique undergraduate program. We have 13 outstanding faculty who are leading researchers and teachers. They help make this major very special, ” Eckman said.

Unique it is. When ISC was first developed as an undergraduate major at UK, it was one of the first of its kind. At that time, most universities only offered ISC, or similar programs, as master's degrees or higher. ISC evolved from the advertising major originally offered at UK.

In the early 1990s, Professor Scott Whitlow found a need to derive a completely new major to give home to public relations students spread throughout the majors in the college and those students interested in the overall marketing communications field.  She worked tirelessly to create and establish the ISC major, from pitching the idea to creating the coursework.

“Doing it so quickly [and] smoothly took laser focus, confidence, eons of late nights and a jolt of heartbreak,” Whitlow said. “The effort ensured that I produced a cogent, comprehensive proposal package that achieved its first level approval signature [in 1996].”

The proposal process went seamlessly, and after minor additions and small changes, the major was launched in the 1997 spring semester. Whitlow still plays a key role as an ISC faculty member overseeing the required professional internship course and teaching the program’s capstone course, ISC 491.

Eckman also has deep ties to the ISC program at UK that date back to the creation of the ISC major. It seems fitting that her connections come full circle as she takes the leadership role as department chair.

While pursing her doctoral degree from UK, she worked at the Lexington Herald-Leader and was assigned as Professor Rick Roth’s teaching assistant for ISC 261 in 1997, and there were fewer than 30 students in the course. These days, about 75 to 80 students are enrolled in ISC 261 each semester, across multiple sections.

Eckman began her UK teaching career as a visiting lecturer in 2002, and has since held roles including associate professor and ISC sequence coordinator.

“The reason I went into higher education was because I love to teach,” she said.  “That’s what it’s always been about for me. We have great students in ISC, which makes my job a lot fun.”

While her new position as department chair will reduce the number of classes she will teach, Eckman has found other opportunities to practice her passion.  She leads ISC 261 lectures this fall and will teach a study abroad ISC course titled "Advertising and Public Relations in London" with Beth Barnes, interim director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications and interim assistant provost for internationalization, during the 2015-2016 Winter Intercession.

MEDIA CONTACT: Blair Hoover, (859) 257-6398; blair.hoover@uky.edu