It fosters critical thinking about the ways that symbols and interactions contribute to social problems and solutions to them, to identities and differences, to organizations and work, to personal relationships and groups and to experience and meaning across cultural settings.

At the same time, the major provides instruction and practice in the skills of effective communication and collaborative problem-solving that employers are looking for—speaking, writing, reading, listening, asking good questions, utilizing media and working in groups. The mix of theory and practice gives students the tools to improve communication performance and critical awareness of it across many situations.