The Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts offers exciting focused and interdisciplinary programs in Art, Communication, Music, Multimedia, and Theatre Arts.  All undergraduate students in the College have the option of enhancing their majors with international perspective and experience through the Global Scholars International Option, a strategic choice in the competitive arena of the world marketplace. (Advertising, Public Relations, Radio and Television Broadcasting and Production, Journalism, Global Communication, Photography, and Speech Communication), (Applied Instrumental and Vocal Music, Music Composition, Conducting, Theory, Music History, Music Technology, and Music Education).

Our Focal Points

The students and faculty of the Slane College are distinguished by three important focal points inspired by Albert Einstein who said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” which is a way of saying that acquiring knowledge in the information age is not enough.  It is rather the special ability to use that knowledge in new ways, from new perspectives that makes leaders and innovators:

• Imagination - Making mental images of how reality might be
• Creativity - The human power to manifest or bring into being those images
• Communication - Communicating those images to others

The College supports its outstanding students with $160,000 of annual Talent Scholarships and its faculty with Professional Development grants to pursue their research, creative production, and innovative teaching.

Funding and Accreditation

• The Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts is named in honor of Henry Pindell Slane, former publisher of the Peoria Journal Star.  His generous gift provided an endowment that supports the resources to insure the integrity of our programs for years to come.  As one of the very few named colleges in communications and fine arts, the Slane Endowment provides an exclusive and powerful designation for our graduates.  The Endowment supports scholarships for students, professional-development projects for faculty, international initiatives, interdisciplinary programs, and our outstanding facilities and technology.
   
  
• The undergraduate program in Music is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, and the undergraduate and graduate programs of the Department of Art are accredited by the National Association of the Schools of Art and Design.  The Department of Theatre Arts is in the process of seeking accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Theatre.
   
• Bradley University is accredited as a master’s-level degree-granting institution by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
  

Focus on Great Learning

• The faculty of the Slane College have advanced degrees from prestigious graduate schools.  They are accomplished scholars noted for their award-winning creative work, books, research and theoretical articles, presentations, and adjudications. Eight College faculty members have won the University’s highest awards for outstanding scholarship, teaching, or professional service.
   
• The key element of teaching in the Slane College is mentoring, the close personalized one-on-one attention to students that has always been the favored method of instruction in the creative disciplines of our departments.
   
• At Bradley, classes are taught by faculty, not graduate teaching assistants.  There are 14 students for every professor.
   
• Every student has a department faculty advisor assigned to help with class selection, program development, and career choices.
  
  

State-of-the-Art Facilities

• Of the 11 academic buildings on Bradley’s campus, 5 are facilities of the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts: The Hartmann Center for the Performing Arts is home to the Department of Theatre Arts with a mainstage theatre seating 300, a laboratory theatre with a capacity of 75, scene shop, dressing rooms, costume shop, art gallery, and design lab.  The Dingeldine Music Center is the campus concert hall with a capacity of 440.  Constance Hall of Music contains classrooms, practice rooms, offices, and the music technology lab.  The Heuser Art Center houses the Department of Art with studios for faculty and students, a graphic-design computer lab, and a gallery.  The Caterpillar Global Communications Center houses the offices of the Department of Communication and outstanding high technology serving all departments in five computer labs, seven multimedia classrooms, an interactive videoconference center, a fully equipped television studio with nine video editing suites and five audio editing suites--making it the premier one-stop, fully interactive, multimedia learning facility in communications and fine arts in the country.
  
  

Rich Cocurricular Activities
At most larger institutions, new and underclass students are at the end of a long line of research faculty, and graduate and upperclass students claiming priority and access to their facilities.  Not so in the Slane College where our motto is “ACT NOW!” meaning hands-on activity in our splendid facilities from day one.  Slane College students participate in a the best cocurricular activities in higher education.  In 1999-2000, for example, over 600 students participated in

• 64 concerts and recitals
• 12 theatrical productions (over 300 roles and crew positions)
• 25 major art exhibitions
• Another National Championship for our Speech Team that has won one or both national championships in speech 21 times out of the last 22 years, making it surely the world’s best
• National Finalist Mock Trial Team
• The creative production of these students drew over 56,000 patrons to our campus, and another 150,000 to our off-campus performances.
• Add to that the Digital Photography web site that to date has attracted one million visitors to this international award-winning cyberspace exhibition, and that’s 1.2 million people who experience the work of our students and faculty
  
  

Endowed Guest Lectureships
Each department in the College is the recipient of an endowed lectureship that brings national and international artists and scholars to the campus to interact, teach, and create with our students.  The Robison Lectureship brings leading journalists to the Department of Communication.  The Bunn Lectureship supports residencies by leading photographers and photojournalists.  The Heydrich Lectureship brings musicians to campus who perform with faculty and students.  The Iben Lectureship funds residencies and workshops by award-winning theatre artists. The Slane Lectureship is given annually to a nationally or internationally recognized professional, scholar, or artist who speaks to issues common to all of our disciplines.

Internships and Job Opportunities

• In the Slane College, we not only introduce students to the best professionals in the world, we get them work with the best professionals.  As part of their undergraduate studies, majors in the Slane College secure exciting internships through the Smith Career Center with leading companies in communications and fine arts including Warner Brothers, Dick Clark Productions, Walt Disney, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC, ABC, CBS, HBO, FOX, CNN, the Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Caterpillar, Smith Barney, PUSH America, Art Institute of Chicago, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and the Illinois Broadcasters Association.
   
• Approximately 96% of our students are placed in jobs or graduate schools within six months of their graduation.
  
  

Distance Learning
“Distance Learning is a hot-button phrase in higher education these days.  Every institution is touting its courses where one can stay at home and learn in front of a computer or tv screen.  They are very convenient, but not necessarily exciting.  In the Slane College, “distance learning” also means “going the distance to learn.”  Here’s a sampling of where and how they go:

Expedition Courses: Three-week January and May Interim courses, on site with Bradley Faculty in

• New York City for Broadcast Journalism and Art
• Hollywood for Video Production and Public Relations
• Death Valley for Photography
• Ireland for Multimedia
• London for Theatre Arts and Music

European Summer Semester: 3 courses, 3 countries, 6 weeks, 12 hours of Bradley credit, taught by Bradley faculty in

• Ireland
• England
• Malta
• Belgium
• Austria

Directed Study Abroad: One or two semesters at a foreign university, Bradley credit for all courses taken, Bradley financial aid applies, requires no additional time and usually no additional cost--a curricular option, not a financial privilege--with such prestigious institutions as

• Institute for Italian Studies, Florence, Italy
• American InterContinental University, England
• University de Rennes, France
• University of Stirling, Scotland
• University of Vienna, Austria
• University of Hull, England
• Hebrew University, Israel
• CESMA, Spain

Visit the International Study Abroad web site for more information on these programs.

Predicting the Future
The advent of the new millennium makes all of us in higher education focus on the future for the college students and faculty of the Twenty-First Century.  In the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts we believe that the surest way to predict the future is to invent it.

To that end, we strive to bring together the best and brightest in our splendid facilities, give them the resources to do their best work, and challenge them to imagine create, and communicate the future.

JOIN US!

Students
If you are a student who responds with excitement to these educational opportunities, get in touch with us as soon as possible by filling out the interest forms of your choice available from the Departments of Art, Communication, Music, Multimedia, and Theatre Arts.  Or email the Dean of the College directly at huberman@bradley.edu.

Faculty and Staff
If you would like information on employment opportunities on the faculty and staff of the College, visit our Employment Opportunities website.

Patrons
If you would like to attend our concerts, plays, exhibitions, and public lectures visit our online Calendar of Events or call our Cultural Events Box Office at 309-677-2650.