The history of our founder and our school within the Purdue College of Liberal Arts.
About the Lamb School
Even though Purdue has offered speech courses for over 100 years, the Department of Communication was founded just 60 years ago. As of July 1, 2011, the department was renamed the Brian Lamb School of Communication. In the span of several decades, the Brian Lamb School of Communication has earned prestige and respect as a distinguished school with thousands of successful alumni across the globe.
The first communication course offered at Purdue was in the Fall of 1907, and it would be considered a speech communication course. In 1915, Purdue offered the course ENGLISH 14 – Public Speaking, which is considered the predecessor to COM 114. In the Fall of 1931, a Speech major was announced, just two years after the declaration of an English major. Speech was considered part of the English Department until 1947, until it became its own separate entity. In 1969, the department was renamed “Communication.” The Department of Communication was part of the School of Science, Education & Humanities (HSSE) until 1989, when it was reconstituted with other departments to create the College of Liberal Arts. In 1993, the Communication department was moved into Beering Hall, where it is currently located.
Majors and minors
According to the Lamb School website, there are currently 419 undergraduate majors, 49 graduate students, and 300 graduate students in the online Master’s program who are studying communication at Purdue University.
As the Lamb School continues to grow, more majors and minors have been established for undergraduate and graduate students looking to pursue a degree in communication. As of Summer 2020, the degree plan for undergraduate students underwent a couple changes in order to add more concentrations and degree requirements to aid scholarly and professional growth.
The concentrations currently available for undergraduates are Business Communication, Communication of Science and Technology, General Communication, Health Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Media and Mass Communication, Political and Civic Communication, and Public Relations and Strategic Communication.
Students also have the option for a Degree in 3, an accelerated undergraduate program in which students can obtain a Bachelor’s Degree in three years.
Undergraduate students outside of the Lamb School also have the option for a Communication Minor, which consists of 15 credit hours of required COM courses and electives.
Graduate students have the opportunity to develop their own major and minor, and study Health Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Media Technology and Society, Organizational Communication, and Public Relations.
Brian Lamb
Brian Lamb, from Lafayette, Indiana, had always had an interest in different methods of communication. At age 17, he became a broadcaster for a local radio station where he was able to interview legendary musicians such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. In 1963, he received a Bachelors in Speech from Purdue University and then enlisted in the Navy, where he served for 4 years. Before creating C-SPAN, he was a White House Office of Telecommunications Policy staffer, a congressional press secretary, and the Washington Bureau Chief for Cablevision magazine.
He is best known for creating and hosting C-SPAN, the private nonprofit cable news station, that is known for its coverage of public and governmental affairs in Washington D.C. This cable news network has been providing live coverage of presidential press conferences, Senate Hearings, coverage of the House and Senate, and interviews since its creation in 1979. He was CEO and part of C-SPAN for 35 years, before stepping down in 2012.
C-SPAN reaches over 100 million households, and consists of three networks: C-SPAN, C-SPAN2, and C-SPAN3. There are over 260,000 hours of televised footage which are accessible online on the C-SPAN Video Library. The archives are stored in Washington D.C. and in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Brian Lamb is one of two Purdue alumni who have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He received the award in 2007 from President George W. Bush for his work in C-SPAN and his dedication and continuation of providing Americans with unbiased political communication.
Brian Lamb continues to work with students and faculty within the Lamb School to foster creative, innovative, and honest work within the field of political communication.
CCSE
The Center for C-SPAN Scholarship & Engagement, or CCSE, is a national research center within the Lamb School. It was established in 2017 and focuses on discovery, learning, and engagement with the C-SPAN Archives. Brian Lamb works closely with the CCSE and frequently interacts with the student community. The CCSE also hosts an annual Maymester course in which students can learn about political communication at the C-SPAN headquarters in Washington D.C.
The Maymester course, which specializes in political communication, is an intensive two weeks and is worth 3 credit hours. Students get the ability to work daily with Brian Lamb, as well as meet senators, lobbyists, journalists, and other prominent members of the political communication scene within the Capitol. Students live in the heart of Washington D.C. and take the metro to C-SPAN, as well as explore the U.S. Capitol Grounds, restaurants, historical sites, and more.
The Lamb School is proud to uphold the values of our founder, and strives to further the education of students and to use communication as a tool to enact positive change in the world.
Emily Sullins (Class of ‘22) is the Content Coordinator at Boiler Communication. She is from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Please reach out with any questions.