To examine the current status of speech and theatre departments in small (1000 to 3000 students) U.S. liberal arts colleges, 24 colleges in the Midwest and Great Lakes areas were surveyed. The survey revealed that the colleges organized speech and theatre in one of four ways; they either (1) combined departments, (2) split the two into separate departments, (3) subsumed both under a third department, or (4) had either a speech or a theatre department. Survey findings indicated that reasons for departmental splits included fighting between the divisions and administrative pressure, while combined departments were the product, in part, either of strong departmental conviction that both speech and theatre are part of communication or of a fear that division would weaken one or both parts of the department. The survey also revealed that in some cases separation strengthened each branch and that some combination departments appeared to be two departments under one head. The lack of consistency among college programs is indicated by the great number of names given to college speech communication departments. (MM)