Jun 10, 2025  
2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog

Communication Studies Minor


Advisor: Lee Mayfield
Email: mayfiecl@jmu.edu
Phone: (540) 568-3427
Websitehttps://www.jmu.edu/academics/undergraduate/minors/communication-studies.shtml

The minor in Communication Studies is designed to provide students with principles and theories of communication processes that shape our relationships, workplaces and social change. Students have flexibility in choosing courses for the minor to complement many major fields of study and prepare them to be informed and ethical communicators.

Minor Requirements


Communication Studies Minor


A minor in communication studies requires 18 hours of course work in communication studies beyond the General Education  requirement, including SCOM 240 SCOM 240L  and a minimum of nine hours at the 300 level and three hours at the 400 level.

Admission to the Minor


Admission to JMU does not guarantee admission to the School of Communication Studies. All students interested in minoring in Communication Studies must apply for a limited number of spaces by enrolling in and successfully completing SCOM 240  and SCOM 240L . To be eligible to register for these classes, students must add the minor in MyMadison by no later than March 30 for summer and fall registration and by September 30 for spring registration. Declaring the minor by this date does not guarantee availability of courses. The School of Communication Studies reviews performance in the SCOM 240 /SCOM 240L  class to make decisions about acceptance into the minor each semester.

Admission to the minor is based on availability to the most qualified students as determined by performance in SCOM 240  and SCOM 240L .

Students who are not admitted are permitted one more attempt to successfully meet performance requirements in SCOM 240 /SCOM 240L  by enrolling the next regular semester or in the summer if the student desires. For students retaking SCOM 240 /SCOM 240L  (whether repeat or repeat/forgive), the school will look only at their highest grades earned when evaluating their second attempt.

Once admitted into a Communication Studies minor, a student cannot retroactively apply more than nine hours of SCOM courses, including SCOM 240  and SCOM 240L , to their minor (SCOM 121 /SCOM 122 /SCOM 123  does not count towards those nine hours).

Total: 18 Credit Hours