At the Valenti School of Communication, our mission is to produce educated, tech-savvy and ethical graduates. Our students possess the desired mix of analytical and critical thinking skills and command the cognitive, research and professional skills required to excel in this ever-changing, challenging – yet exciting digital world.
HISTORY
1927: The University of Houston is founded as a junior college.
1928: The campus-wide publications club, The Cougar, is organized, and its first newspaper is pressed.
1934: The University of Houston becomes a four-year university.
1934: The first edition of the "Houstonian," the University of Houston’s yearbook, is published.
1935: The Cougar goes from semi-monthly to weekly publication.
1942: The Press Club is organized to promote better cooperation between the various publications facilities on campus.
1943: Jack Valenti begins working as a news editor for The Cougar before he leaves for military deployment.
1949: The Radio Broadcasting program is formed in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
1950: The existing journalism program became the journalism and graphic arts program in the undergraduate course catalog for the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
1951: The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences changes its Radio Broadcasting Program to Radio and Television.
1953: John C. Schwarzwalder, a professor in the radio-television department, establishes KUHT-TV. The station first signed on the air on May 25, 1953.
1962: The journalism and graphic arts program is separated, placing journalism and graphic arts under respective concentrations as journalism and art.
1963: UH Alumnus Jack Valenti is appointed to the first Board of Regents.
1963: The communication arts program is formed within the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences as a combination of the former radio and television and journalism programs.
When the merge of the programs takes place, communication arts gives students the choice of multiple media through which they can study communication in the ever-changing world encompassing it.
1968: Members of the communication arts department petition for a building to be constructed specifically for their students.
1970: A committee of communication professors is appointed to begin planning construction of a new facility for the department.
1972: The communication arts department proposed B.A. programs in the subjects we currently have majors in, such as advertising, public relations and media production
1973: The communication arts department gets its first facility, the T.V. Instruction Laboratory.
1977: The School of Communication at the University of Houston is approved for creation. It combines the former departments of communications and speech.
1978: The School of Communication is founded as a complete facility for communications students.
August 1978: The first semester of the newly formed School of Communication begins.
1980: The School of Communication implements its first master’s degrees in communication disorders and speech communications.
2008: The School of Communication at the University of Houston is renamed to Jack J. Valenti School of Communication in honor of the late University of Houston alumnus who served as adviser to President Lyndon Johnson and headed the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for nearly four decades.