When designing a contemporary curriculum in communication, it is important to adapt the specific set of skills and knowledge to the needs of the marketplace. The change in the transformation from speech to communication to communication/information technology is reflected in the various names of university departments. Schools that have changed curricula have courses not existing before--such as development communication, communication policy and planning, communication networks, and telecommunication--which answer a demand for the transformation of old knowledge to new contexts and the generation of new knowledge and new skills. A design for a contemporary curriculum in communication should have the following: (1) a recognition of the necessity for some closure in the argument of the two worlds of humanism and social science, and the realization that communication is the stronger for the existence of both; (2) a willingness to retool for the teachers as well as the students; and (3) a respect for the marketplace as being as legitimate an end for the students as being "educated" and that the best compromise is no compromise but a curriculum that gives both. With these premises, a curriculum can be prepared with an orderly sequencing of courses to create a climate for growth and with course content that indicates academic as well as occupational opportunities. Those institutions that have made the shift in their curricula without losing in the transformation will experience increasing student enrollments, a need to increase and update faculty, and a continuing demand for their students. (EL)