On Nov. 13, 2025, West Texas A&M University’s (WT) Department of Communication hosted “Can You COMM?” as a part of its ongoing subscription series.
“Can You COMM?” was the second event held during the 2025 fall semester after “Hope is the Thing with Feathers,” which was held on Oct. 16. The Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities hosts the series, with this year marking the 16th season.
Professor and Associate Dean of Communication Dr. Kristina Drumheller explained the purpose of the subscription series.
“Its goal is to bring in members who come to our events and get to know what we do in this college,” Drumheller said. “So that hopefully they might want to donate, they might want to support in other ways, like providing networking opportunities for our students [and] scholarship opportunities. By exposing different members of the community to our events, they know what we’re doing and what they might want to give to.”
Drumheller continued to describe the activities included in the event, such as trivia, design and archives stations.
“So, the ‘Can You COMM?’ subseries was designed so that [participants] could come and actually do hands-on interactive events,” Drumheller said. “A lot of times, events are performances, and so they’re just members in an audience. We wanted them to actually interact and to do things. We wanted them to see all of that stuff. A space like ours, especially on the media side, where so much of that equipment is expensive, but it’s necessary for our students to have those experiences. We want our donors to know that whatever they give to WT is directly in the hands of the students.”
Retired family medicine physician Dr. Dennis Canon, who was a participant in the event and is a current scholarship donor, shared his experience from the event.
“I was absolutely, totally impressed with how West-Texas-friendly the students, faculty and staff were at the fine arts building,” Canon said. ”I learned that journalism, photojournalism, TV journalism and those things are organized under the fine arts department, which was new to me. I thought it was more like business or liberal arts or marketing, but it is a fine art to communicate.”
Canon added why supporting students is important to him.
“I like sponsoring students and people interested in education, research and development and science,” Canon said. “I’ve, in the past, helped sponsor a number of nursing students who were my part-time employees, and they got through college and graduated and moved away, or got married and graduated and moved away, but they were all very successful. And I’m proud of that, and I’m proud of them. Now I have only one scholarship student. I’m very proud of her because she’s in journalism, fine arts and communications.”
A membership of $300 gives two people access to events hosted by The Arts at WT. Upcoming events include “New Views of the Canyon,” which will be held in the Mary Moody Northern Hall on Thursday, March 12, 2026, at 6 p.m., and “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci,” which will be held on Sunday, April 19, 2026, at 3 p.m. at Arts in the Sunset.
For those interested in becoming a subscription member, the communication department encourages more to join.
“Join or renew now,” the subseries flyer said. “Only subscribers to The Arts at WT can experience all of these unique opportunities, plus enjoy member perks of early Theatre ticket reservation and seat reservation for the WT Christmas concert.”
For questions about joining or renewing memberships, email [email protected] or visit their website.
