The department provides a liberal-arts-based undergraduate education that prepares students to meet the complex communication challenges of the 21st century. It provides top-ranked doctoral education and is a national and international leader in research and knowledge dissemination.

The department has three areas of specialization. The rhetoric and discourse specialization focuses on how citizens use public argumentation and other rhetorical processes to bring about cultural, social, and political changes. The media studies specialization focuses on modern media in their cultural, economic, historical, political, and social contexts to understand how society and social relations shape and are shaped by media practices. The interpersonal communication and relationships specialization focuses on how the communicative practices of relating in everyday life construct, shape, sustain, and change who people are as individuals, as well as the quality of their lives.

The Department of Communication Studies encourages exploration of the practical, political, social, and aesthetic dimensions of symbolic exchange and awareness of the relationships among these dimensions. The department has produced many influential scholars and artists and has been a hub for the intersection of programs and projects of the University and other institutions.