该专业以人类使用符号影响人们和周围世界的方式，提供了更多的理解和实践。在现代社会中，在个人，社交，工作和多元文化环境中与他人进行有效沟通的能力至关重要。传播艺术与科学专业的学生将学习批判性思考，分析和解决问题，理解和处理冲突，有说服力，影响人们，形成并保持关系，进行有效的演讲以及参与社区的公民和政治生活。该计划的灵活性为行政管理，法律，商业，卫生和公共服务等各种职业做好了准备。CAS学位也很适合同时攻读学位课程，在该课程中，学生可以自己准备好几个学习领域。
This major helps students better understand and analyze how people communicate in order to influence others and impact the world around them. The ability to communicate effectively in personal, social, professional, and multicultural situations is an essential skill in modern society. Discovering how to improve practices of communication in any of those situations--whether from a humanistic or scientific perspective--is equally vital. Students of Communication Arts and Sciences will therefore learn to argue persuasively, think critically, solve problems collaboratively, understand and manage conflict, influence people ethically, form and keep relationships, and participate constructively in civic life. The flexibility of this program offers preparation for a variety of careers, which include administration, business, health, higher education, human resources, law, public service, social or political advocacy, and more. Such flexibility is illustrated in the fact that this degree offers two different options for completion based on varying instructional and student needs (the Communication Studies option and the Foundations, Scholarship, and Practice option). For these reasons, majoring in Communication Arts and Sciences also offers an excellent concurrent degree program: a substantive understanding of human communication--which is valuable in numerous forms of personal, social, or professional life--can significantly enhance students' preparation in many fields of study.