PROVIDENCE — The University of Rhode Island will establish a School of Communication by merging several existing departments and programs, a move designed to heighten the profile of popular writing and media majors and help increase student enrollment. University officials also say the new school will help attract money from private donors.

The state Board of Governors for Higher Education approved the proposal at last night’s meeting, held at Rhode Island College.

The proposal will consolidate URI’s College Writing Program, the departments of communication and journalism, the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, a public relations concentration and a rapidly growing film media program under an umbrella School of Communication.

Communication studies is among the most popular majors at the university, with 749 majors this year. A film media program that began offering bachelor degrees in 2005 already has 111 majors. In all, more than 1,200 URI undergraduates and 300 graduate students major in writing, journalism, communication, library, public relations or film media.

“I’m very excited about the possibilities that exist today, due to the incredible influence technology has had on the way we communicate and the way we form communities and stay in touch with them,” said Winifred Brownell, dean of URI’s College of Arts and Sciences, where the School of Communication will be located. “Bringing the faculty of these areas together will help us develop facilities and programs and courses over time. Synergies will emerge. And ultimately, it is the students who will benefit.”

Brownell said donors have expressed interest in giving to the new school, which already has more than $1 million pledged to its various departments. Now that the school has been approved, Brownell said the university will aggressively court alumni for donations.

URI officials say they plan to launch a national search for a director of the school, whose salary will be paid by endowments.

Eventually, Brownell says, the communication school plans to bring the various departments and programs under one roof. For the immediate future, the disciplines will remain at their current locations on the Kingston campus.

Elevating the profile of communication programs will not only draw more donations, it will also attract more students, said Jack Warner, the state’s higher education commissioner.

URI President Robert L. Carothers said in a written proposal approved by the Board of Governors that a School of Communication could draw up to 1,000 more undergraduate and graduate students to URI.

“These programs are already very popular, and by raising their profile we expect more students to enter,” Warner said. “And you do want to invest in popular programs, especially when students secure employment, the way these students do. These are also relatively low cost programs for the university to run, when compared to pharmacy, nursing and oceanography, which are much more expensive.”

Graduates of communication and media disciplines enter journalism, public relations, marketing and nonprofit fields, and go on to law school and graduate school, Brownell said.

Lynne Derbyshire, chairwoman of the communications department, said she is excited by the prospect of working more closely with her colleagues in film media, journalism, library science and writing.

“We already collaborate a lot, and we do intend to remain separate departments, but this will allow us to share resources and work more closely together and hopefully one day share a common location,” said Derbyshire. “It provides a wonderful opportunity for faculty who have common interests to do research and projects together.”

Future projects could include teaching effective ways to communicate about the environment, Derbyshire said.

“When we look at the interest of the environment, for example, science is very important, but so is finding ways to write about it for the general public,” she said.

In other business, the Board of Governors approved changing the name of URI’s largest academic building, Independence Hall, to Swan Hall, in honor of departing Provost M. Beverly Swan, an URI alumna who has worked at the university for more than three decades.

jjordan@projo.com