Center News

Faculty Helping Faculty

Kim Cuny, Erin Harrison, & Jenny Southard, Communication Studies

Since 2002 our award winning University Speaking Center has helped faculty from across campus teach oral communication competencies to their students. This year the center is offering timely new online support services. No matter what teaching model a class is following, we can save faculty time while supporting the oral communication needs of their curriculum.

The Speaking Center is ready to develop and facilitate instructional workshops for student audiences at the request of faculty. When faculty invite us “into the classroom” to support their teaching, our faculty and graduate students will work with them to develop a workshop, micro learning videos, and/or canvas module that focuses on the oral communication goals identified by the faculty member. These programs will be provided remotely using a platform such as Zoom.

We understand that each discipline has their own ways of communicating. We embrace supporting those specifics on any topic regarding public, interpersonal, and group communication. We can facilitate a workshop remotely yet still live for a face-to-face or online class, we can provide a module for faculty use in Canvas, or send micro-learning videos if you are looking for something shorter. We have provided more details on our website

While all of our work has temporarily moved to the online environment, we remain a judgment-free space in which our primary goal is to meet student-speakers where they are at in their speaking process. In addition to our instructional support services, we support student- speakers through consultations with trained tutors. 

During tutoring consultations, we provide a safe place for student speakers to get feedback, ask questions, and have conversations about their own public, interpersonal, and group communication. Some student-speakers make appointments to receive support on completing the oral communication elements of course assignments, while others have personal or professional oral communication goals they wish to focus on. As with our instructional services, faculty requiring students to schedule consultations can work with us to tailor consultations to their specific needs. More details about our online consultations can be found on our website as well.

In addition to the adaptations made to our services detailed above, we are excited to announce the creation and implementation of additional resources to meet the needs of this unprecedented moment. We have a new section on our website with resources designed specifically for faculty teaching oral communication competencies. We will continue to update it as additional resources become available.  Next, we have created a Consultation Scheduling Questionnaire for those wanting to include consultations in their course design to gather information that will ensure we provide students with support tailored to meet the oral communication goals identified by faculty. Also, by popular demand, we have added to our homepage an online appointment scheduling request form for students. 

We do not take the “one size fits all” approach, so if you have ideas for how the Center can best support you and your students, we want to work with you to bring those ideas into reality! After all, we are YOUR Speaking Center!

We stand ready to help, contact us directly when you’re ready

Kim Cuny, Director kimcuny@uncg.edu

Erin Harrison, Associate Director edellis@uncg.edu

Jenny Southard, Coordinator jskelly@uncg.edu