Barbara Busse
Dean, College of Communications and Fine Arts
Barbara J. Busse, veteran faculty member and administrator, has worked at Loyola Marymount University since 1969. She is currently dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts and Associate Professor in Communication Studies. Busse is a specialist in Communication Studies, with particular interest in organizational communication, debate, conflict management and gender studies.
She was named Teacher of the Year by her students, Woman of the Year by California Women in Higher Education, and has been recognized in the California Assembly for excellence in debate education. She has served the university in a variety of administrative positions. Busse served as the university’s first associate academic vice president, was twice named acting dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts, and has been chair or program coordinator in each academic department in which she has taught.
In collaboration with her husband, she has produced several dozen volumes of research and policy briefs for the academic debate community on national and international public policy issues. For 25 years, the Busses co-directed the West’s largest summer residential debate institute, attracting high school students from throughout the United States to LMU for forensics education, and sponsored the Urban Debate Institute to bring debate education to inner city students.
Busse has been extraordinarily active in university governance, serving for years on the faculty senate, chairing the Core Review Committee, participating actively in committee work related to mission and identity, core curriculum, enrollment planning, and gender issues. She served as the Sexual Harassment Compliance Advisor for many years. In fall 2002, she celebrated the opening of the university’s Children’s Center, a development she has long supported. She is active in the community, especially as past president of a nonprofit organization dedicated to classical ballet and other forms of dance education.