The School of Communication and Information (SC&I) is a professional school within the New Brunswick Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The school was created in 1982 as a result of a merger between the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, the School of Communication Studies, and the Livingston Department of Urban Journalism. The school has about 2,500 students at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels, and about 60 full-time faculty.
The graduate program in information has been ranked number 6 in the nation, with the specialization in school library media ranked 2nd and several other specializations in the top ten, by U.S. News & World Report.
Although SC&I was established in 1982, the roots of the academic programs housed at the school date back to the 1920s.
1926 Undergraduate program in Journalism established at Rutgers College
1927 Undergraduate program in librarianship established at the New Jersey College for Women, later Douglass College. This became defunct two decades later.
1953 Graduate School of Library Service (GSLS) opens its doors to its first class of master’s students.
1971 Undergraduate major in Communication established
1978 Name of the GSLS changes to Graduate School of Library and Information Studies
1982 School of Communication, Information and Library Studies is established. At the time of its inception, the school offered two undergraduate majors (Communication, Journalism and Mass Media), a master's degree in Library Service, and established an interdisciplinary doctoral program
1983 Names of the departments are denoted as Department of Communication, Department of Journalism and Mass Media, and Department of Library and Information Studies
1987 Master of Communication and Information Studies established
2001 Undergraduate major in Information Technology and Informatics begins accepting students
2005 Online Master of Library and Information Science program admits its first students
2009 Name changed from School of Communication, Information and Library Studies to School of Communication and Information.
Students and faculty in the Department of Communication study the nature and effects of communication on individuals, social groups, and society, including the ways in which communication is practiced in everyday life and the choices about communication that affect individuals and their situation. This program was founded as an undergraduate program in 1971.
Organizational communication, mediated communication, language and social interaction, and interpersonal communication are primary areas of faculty research with change, collaboration, culture, health, gender, globalization, identity, leadership, persuasion, policy, and relationship development prominent problem-centered research foci across areas.