The speech office, once a large department and now Dartmouth's smallest academic division, is now located in just one room of the Asian Studies Department in Bartlett Hall.
Five highly popular courses are taught every year by a senior lecturer, Jim Kuypers.
In the late 1970s, Kuypers said, the speech department was abolished under the condition that the College should keep eight to 10 public speaking courses.
The speech office, founded in 1980, then comprised from three to five people before faculty slots were cut four years ago due to lack of funding, Kuypers explained. He is now the only representative of the discipline at the College, teaching one more class each year than regular faculty members.
Despite high student demand, the speech office is not offering the minimum of classes envisioned by the Board of Trustees. Kuypers said he is forced to turn away as many people as he accepts into his classes every term.
Kuypers has been meeting with Dean of the Faculty Ed Berger and Associate Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities Barry Scherr, both of whom he called "very supportive," to discuss the possibility of expanding the speech office.
"They are open-minded and really seem to want to help," Kuypers said.
Re-establishing the Speech Office to its originally foreseen size would result in more course sections for the students. Additionally, the division could reinstitute speech courses for faculty members -- which were "wildly popular" when they existed previously, according to Kuypers.
He said that in the ongoing discussions, the possibility of offering a speech minor has also come up.
Kuypers received his B.A. in Communications Studies at Florida State University, took some time off to study Chinese and then returned to FSU to pursue a Master's degree.
"My first course there dealt with rhetorical theory and I fell in love," he said.
He specialized in rhetorical theory and criticism and received a doctorate from Louisiana State University, which has one of the oldest speech departments in the nation.
He went on to teach at FSU, Florida Atlantic University, the University of Iowa and LSU and has been at Dartmouth for three years.
"Dartmouth is a fantastic school, and the opportunities here are wonderful for students and faculty," he said. "I particularly love the interaction between faculty and students."
He calls this interaction "very precious," as it allows professors to develop and maintain closer relationships with their students even after graduation. He added that while graduate programs may offer this interaction, this involvement with undergraduates is unusual.
Adding that he enjoys being a part of what he calls Dartmouth's "culture of teaching," he said, "being a good teacher is respected and expected here."
Although Kuypers said he enjoys teaching at Dartmouth and is happy about the support he receives from the Deans, he said "I don't think I would be doing my duty as the sole representative of the Speech Office if I didn't say the College could do better."
Kuypers described the deans as "very helpful, conscientious and supportive," and added that he was very optimistic about the future development of the speech office.
Asked about speech departments at other Ivy League universities, he said immediately "There aren't any. This office of speech is the only presence of rhetoric in the Ivy League."
He explained that nationally, over 55,000 students graduate with a bachelor's degree in communications annually, while 500 receive a master's.
As students are not required to take speech classes, Kuypers said, "the courses are only really noticed by word of mouth." He stressed the importance of oral presentations and added "We're not in a position to train any more Daniel Websters."
Jil Carey '99 is currently taking Speech 25, "Persuasive Speaking," which she describes as "really fun." She said she took the course because she took speech in high school and knew that she enjoyed it.
She explained that presenting the speeches in front of such a small class is a useful exercise against stage-fright.
"It's a small environment. It's supportive and also challenging," she said, as she described how students observe and learn from each other.
Kuypers said he attends an occasional lecture presented at the College, but does so as a member of the Dartmouth community, not from an occupational point of view.
As faculty advisor for Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, Kuypers said he enjoys being involved in student activities and incorporating their concerns into his classes.
"I like finding out what the students are doing. It makes teaching easier when you know the students better," he added.
In his free time, Kuypers said he enjoys hiking and taking walks with his German shepherd. In fall, he said, "the scenery is otherworldly."
Although he sometimes also goes cross-country skiing, Kuypers, who hails from Florida, said "fall and spring here are really winter to me."
