Table of Contents

Part 1. Benefits to Higher Education
Chapter 1. Communication Centers and Retention in Higher Education: Is There a Link?
Chapter 2. Speaking Our Minds: Communication Centers and Critical Thinking
Chapter 3. Communication Centers and Liberal Arts Education: Problems and Possibilities Associated with Cross-Disciplinary Engagements
Chapter 4. The Communication Center: A Critical Site of Intervention for Student Empowerment
Chapter 5. The Role Becomes Them: Examining Communication Center Alumni Experiences
Part 2. Challenges to Today's Centers
Chapter 6. Ethics and the Communication Center: Chameleon or Tortoise?
Chapter 7. The Blind Leading the Blind? An Ethnographic Heuristic for Communication Centers
Chapter 8. Learning to Tell What You Know: A Communication Intervention for Biology Students
Chapter 9. Using Theory and Research to Increase Student Use of Communication Center Services
Chapter 10. Focusing on Faculty: The Importance of Faculty Support to Communication Center Success
Part 3. Alternative Models for Communication Centers
Chapter 11. Communication Center Ethos: Remediating Space, Encouraging Collaboration
Chapter 12. The Combined Centers Approach: How Speaking and Writing Centers Can Work Together
Chapter 13. Course Management Systems: Creating Alternative Avenues for Student Access of Communication Centers
Chapter 14. Virtual Communication Centers: A Resource for Building Oral Competency
Chapter 15. The Implementation of Computer-Mediated Communication in Communication Centers
Part 4. New Directions in Consultant Training
Chapter 16. Technology Tutoring: Communication Centers Take the Lead
Chapter 17. Using Empathetic Listening to Build Client Relationships at the Center
Chapter 18. Best Practices in Communication Center Training and Training Assessment

About the Author

Esther Lee Yook is Speaking Center Director and faculty of communication at the University of Mary Washington.
 
Wendy Atkins-Sayre is assistant professor of communication studies and Speaking Center Director at the University of Southern Mississippi. 

Reviews

“Publication of findings pointing to the value of communication centers and speaking-intensive across-the-curriculum programs in higher education has, until now, failed to keep pace with the success of these endeavors. Professors Yook and Atkins-Sayre have assembled the finest minds and energies in this compilation to demonstrate the long-term and wide-ranging advantages available to schools that have embraced such learning enhancements. The wisdom shared in each of these essays reflects decades of experience, relentless testing of theory and revising practices to make possible the advancement of these initiatives so future practitioners will be better equipped to meet the particular needs of the institutions they serve. As enriching and long-overdue as this scholarship may be, the voices behind it would surely agree, that the difference revealed by students who have participated in these programs will be the finest legacy of the pioneering contributors to this essential text.”
*Linda Hobgood, University of Richmond*

“This volume offers a variety of interesting ideas that point to the power and promise of communication centers as they support communication across the curriculum. Directors and administrators will benefit from such discussions as how such centers enhance critical thinking, ways of conceptualizing the tutorial process, and the use of computer-mediated communication for virtual tutorials.”
*Kathleen J. Turner*

"The editors and contributors are prescient in identifying the need for this compendium of valuable essays. This edited volume on communication centers is a must-read for any faculty member or administrator involved in or considering a center. When we developed our center in the early nineties at the University of Colorado, we would have benefited immensely from access to such useful information."
*Sherwyn Morreale, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs*