The Communication Studies Department was created in 1972 out of the Communication Department (1967-72).  Twenty years before, in 1952, a speech major and a Speech Department were formally established.  The curriculum was designed for students interested in teaching speech, pursuing graduate study or entering professions associated with public address, theater arts, or speech therapy. (Paul H. Boase,  et al., "A Word Fitly Spoken," Alumni Magazine, February 1964: 10-15)

From its founding, Oberlin was preoccupied with how learned men and women came to appreciate the classical foundations of rhetoric.  Later on the emphasis was on content, organization and style as well as on the delivery of speeches.  Oberlin was a school for ministers, teachers and social reformers, all callings that revolved around effective communication skills.  The pioneering work of 19th century faculty, such as Oberlin's James Monroe and William Benton Chamberlin, in the field of rhetoric and belles-lettres is significant.  In the 20th century the banner to communicate effectively was carried forward by Professors J. Jeffrey Auer and Robert G. Gunderson.  The Speech Department, a natural outgrowth of this interest, followed.  The Department's offerings in Speech pathology also had historic precedent in the nationally renowned work of Oberlin Professor R.H. Stetson.  Stetson's 1927 work, Motor Phonetics, laid much of the groundwork for the modern discipline of Speech Pathology.

The mission of the Speech Department was to offer a broad array of courses to majors, speech training to students majoring in other disciplines, and to  supervise extracurricular activities in debate, public speaking and theater performance.  Consisting of four faculty members, the Speech Department offered three major areas of study: Public Speaking, Drama, and Speech Pathology.  The interest in professional training in theater lead to expanding that program by creating a new Theater Arts Program in 1965.  The latter became the Dance and Theater program in 1974. Neither program had any more campus support than did the Speech Department.  Thus, by the time the Communication Department was organized in 1967 under the leadership of Daniel Goulding, drama was dropped from the curriculum.  Instead, the new department decided to take a new direction (e.g., embrace the burgeoning forms of media, develop classes in "Mass Communication" and "Theories of Film").

The Communication Department, consisting of three and then four faculty, continued to offer Speech Department classes in two areas of emphasis: public speaking and speech pathology.  The extracurricular activities of the antecedent department were also continued, namely the Forensics Union and the Speech Clinic.  The Communication Studies Department (1972) expanded the areas of emphases so that by the early 80s they included Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Mass Communication; Technologies of Information Management and Transmission.  The Department offered an average of 18 courses, plus four seminars and senior honors.  Winter Term courses were also offered.

The most important extracurricular activity of both the Speech and Communication Studies Department was the Forensic Union.  Intercollegiate debate officially began at Oberlin in 1897 when the contests went from intramural to intercollegiate.  In 1927 the Forensic Union was founded.  In a 1977 memo from the student director of the Union to the College Long Range Planning Committee, the purpose of Forensics was described as:

"... an opportunity for students to develop and perfect their communicative abilities through participation at various tournaments; to elect working on forensics as a Winter Term project; to qualify for membership in a nationally recognized honorary society; and to provide an avenue for Oberlin College to compete intellectually with other universities/colleges...."

The Forensic Union was open to all Oberlin students.  In addition to the Intercollegiate competition, Forensic Union members presented programs to campus and community groups and participated in two college sponsored competitions.  The two competitions were known as the Class of 1915 Discussion Contest and the Grove Patterson Public Speaking Contest.  Campus-wide budget cuts in the mid 1970s made it necessary for the Union to go from a departmentally funded group to a student club.  The Forensics Union ceased to exist after academic year 1978-1979 when it was disbanded for lack of student participation.

In 1962, Oberlin College, with leadership from Paul Boase, created a Clinic to diagnose and treat speech and hearing disorders.  Known as the Oberlin Speech Clinic, it was a joint effort of Oberlin College and the Oberlin Public School's Board of Education.  Lecturer Ronald Williams, an African-American, was the first head of the Clinic.  He also acted as the Speech Therapist for the town's public schools.  In 1964, the department started a speech and hearing screening for all incoming freshman.  Williams left in 1966 and was replaced by Wallace Dean Wolfe, who directed the Clinic for the duration of the Communication Studies Department existence.

Out of the Speech Pathology curricula initiative grew the student exchange program between Oberlin and Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C..  At the time, Gallaudet College was the only liberal arts college for the deaf in the United States.  The Exchange Program started in 1974, following the Winter Term project of two Oberlin students.  Students from Oberlin went to Gallaudet and students from Gallaudet came to Oberlin for one semester during their sophomore or junior year.  The program was open to majors and non-majors.

In order to remain relevant, the department developed other special programs.  For example, in 1975, Internship opportunities were added as a part of the Communication Studies curricula.  The internships were work-study programs in film and video production, broadcasting, cable television, community action programs and Urban Studies.  These were offered during the first or second semester of the Junior year.  Seven years later, in 1982, the department organized the Communications Laboratory.  This gave majors and non-majors access to state of the art electronic computing equipment and instruments to tap into the growing field of electronic communication and to study language development and disorders.  In the same year, though less vital, was the initiation of a Semiotic and Film Studies in Paris program.  Conducted through the Paris Inter-University Center for Critical and Film Studies, under the sponsorship of the University of California, Oberlin was a member of this consortium of colleges.  Other campus-wide programs were offered, including: Winter Term projects, honors work, Senior Scholars status, and a minor as well as a major in the department's fields of emphases.

In the early 1980s, the faculty acted on the disbandment of the department.  President S. Frederick Starr and Arts and Sciences Dean Robert Longsworth were approached, and they were agreeable to allowing the process of review to go forward.  A very strategically planned disbandment procedure was adopted.  This allowed all majors time to complete their degrees, and all faculty members to find suitable places in new departments.  By unanimous vote of the faculty, and by approval from the EPPC and GF, the major was suspended in 1985 and the department disbanded in 1986.  Neither student dissatisfaction nor administrative pressure led to the break up.  Rather, it was a decision made by faculty members who recognized their tenuous place in the College community and worked to leave the department before it disintegrated into something none of the current faculty members wanted to be a part of.  All of the faculty members recognized the problematic disparity of the department's course offerings and their differing fields of interest.  Although attempts were made to rectify this problem, no real advances were made over time, since the size of the teaching faculty never adequately met the demands placed by such a large number of focuses.  They also recognized that some of the students sought a more hands-on approach to Communication Studies, which was in direct opposition to Oberlin's liberal arts ideal and the mission of the department.  These issues, added to the lack of academic respect the faculty argued they received from many of their peers (who without reason questioned the rigor of the department's course offerings), led them to this decision.

Note: In 1986 the Communications Studies Department faculty was: Daniel J. Goulding, transferred to the Theater Arts Department; Wallace Dean Wolfe Director of the Speech Clinic, transferred to head the Summer Teachers Academy; Christian Koch, transferred into the Computer Science Department; and Judith Beinstein Miller, transferred into the Psychology Department.