In the fall of 1910, Syracuse University inaugurated the Department of Oratory - one of the nation’s first academic programs devoted to the study of communication and rhetoric. In the intervening 100 years, that department became part of the School of Speech and Dramatic Arts, then the Department of Speech Communication, and now continues as the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies. Throughout 2010-2011, Syracuse University and the College of Visual and Performing Arts will celebrate the centennial of the Department of communication and Rhetorical Studies through a special series of public lectures. The series includes scholars, activists, and practitioners from a wide variety of backgrounds who will all speak to the vital importance of communication in forging into the next 100 years.