UM journalism school renews accreditation

Started in Army surplus tents in 1914, UM’s School of Journalism has been continuously accredited since 1948.

That winning streak continued May 6 when the professional school’s accreditation was unanimously renewed by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.

“The fact we got unanimous approval is a tribute to the faculty and the achievement of our students,” said Jerry Brown, dean of the journalism school for the past seven years. “This is important for two reasons: First, we get some indication how we compare among the best programs in the country. Also, many major philanthropic trusts and funding agencies only accept proposals from accredited schools.”

The school must renew its accreditation every six years. Brown said ACEJMC looks at about 400 journalism programs across the country, and only about a quarter of those earn accreditation.

“We can never take our accreditation for granted,” he said. “If you lose accreditation or you are put on provisional status, that’s quite a blow to the program.”

Brown said a great deal of work went into the renewal. First, the school prepared a voluminous self-study. “It was huge, with appendices and tables,” Brown said. “Our whole faculty cooperated in writing the self-study.”

Then an accrediting team visits campus for three days of intense examination of the school and its programs. These
people write a report on the on-site evaluation, which is then shared with the accrediting committee that votes on whether the accreditation should be renewed. Brown said the entire process takes more than a year.

Among the strengths cited in the on-site evaluation report were:

-- Admirable dedication to a professional program in print and broadcast news rooted in the liberal arts.

-- A collegial faculty devoted to effective teaching, advising and mentoring and to the academic and professional success of students.

-- Imaginative initiatives for attracting American Indian students to the University and the school and for funding and enhancing the development of Indian journalists throughout the state and across the nation.

The school’s dean, internship and campus media opportunities, quality outside speakers and wide-ranging service at the local, state and national levels also were cited as strengths.

Brown said the school was judged on nine standards and found lacking in only one: assessment of learning outcomes.

“This is a new standard,” he said. “The reason we were not found in compliance was we hadn’t quantified enough. They said our plan falls short of expectations for a systematic collection, analysis and application of assessment data. We track our graduates, but we don’t spend a lot of time doing surveys and collecting information.

“It turns out we did have quantifiable data with our upper-level writing assessment, but we didn’t know we should have included it,” Brown said. “If we would have, we probably would have been found in compliance.”

These are heady times for the journalism school. The school now has 500 students who are pre-majors or already in the professional program. And in 2007 the school will consolidate all its departments and students — now strewn across five campus locations — into a new building. Currently under construction, Don Anderson Hall will have 53,000 square feet in five stories.

Brown, the fundraiser-in-chief for the school, said the final price tag for the building will be about $14 million. Of that, $500,000 came from state tax coffers and $1 million came from UM tuition and auxiliary funds. The rest is being raised from private donors, businesses, foundations and trusts, who also have supplied about $5 million for faculty development and special programs such as reznet and the Native News Honors Project.

The school now has raised about $11 million to put toward its new home, and Brown said renewed accreditation should help it reach its goal.

“I think this means a lot at this particular time in the school’s history to go into our new building with this enthusiastic appraisal,” Brown said. “A lot is changing. We now offer courses on online magazines, online reporting and Web design. Journalism schools have always had to deal with new delivery systems. But the fundamentals of reporting, editing, accuracy and ethics will never change.”