With courses checked into the students’ Aeries accounts, a new school-year rests on the horizon with a new department. Skimming through the student handbook during the class selection process, you may have noted several changes, including the branching out of the English Department to the Communications Department.

Set as courses in the new Communications Department, Speech and Debate, Journalism, and Yearbook Production will no longer remain as English Electives; however, Creative Writing and Mythology will remain as English Electives.

“Many classes were in [the English Department] because they really had no where else to go,” said Mrs. Sharon Rubalcava, Assistant Principal of Academics. “Then the question came up, ‘Why is English still housing communication like classes?’ With the support of Mr. Laaperi and Mr. Deely, it was presented to have a Communications Department, as to build upon these types of classes, and they agreed.”

Another reason for voicing the department split focused on the fact that “English teachers have taken leading roles in [Speech and Debate, Journalism, and Yearbook], but that is not necessarily because the courses belong in [the English Department]. Moreover, Journalism and Yearbook, especially, have budgetary needs that really should be overseen by a department head,” said Mr. McMurtry, English Department Chair and teacher of AP Language and Composition, and Mythology.

Separating the courses from the English Department gives the Communications Department the chance to take off in their own realm, allowing “students to specialize in a field that is its own academic discipline in college,” said Mr. McMurtry.

“The idea is to build a department that has one focus. As a department by itself, it can focus on what it needs to grow,” said Mrs. Rubalcava.

Growing as a department, the ‘communication-esque’ classes are now able expand in number with a new door opened for class possibilities. “I have seen ‘business writing’ courses offered at some college campuses that seem a likely addition,” said Mr. McMurtry.

New ideas for courses, such as a business writing class or the formation of a national debate team, will now be looked at by the Communications Department Chair and not the English Department Chair, allowing for more focus on both sides of the academic spectrum. “As department chair of English, I really appreciate [the department split] because I was having to oversee a great deal of the workings of Speech even though it was not really part of my department. As an English teacher, I welcome the move,” said Mr. McMurtry.

Both the students and the teachers now have the opportunity to expand their body of knowledge with our lifelong body of learners at Cathedral. “I thought it was always a disservice that the sort of skills learned in Speech are immediately relegated to ‘that’s just an English thing!’ The skills you learn in that class should be expected and practiced in all other departments,” said Mr. McMurtry.

The department split expands our college prep curriculum at Cathedral, yet does not imply that the Communications Department and the English Department exist as two disconnected zones. Both the new Communications Department and the ongoing English Department have the ability to prosper in their own sense, while still thriving together as two intertwined disciplines. “I hope to work in close connection with [the Communications Department] since our department would share many of the same learning goals for our students,” said Mr. McMurtry.