Deans, faculty reflect on provisional status

Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a November Campus Press news story.

By Allison Hoke

Important discussion has surrounded the School of Journalism and Mass Communication this semester. First, students and faculty wondered if the School should move to the Armory building across University Avenue. Now, the School’s accreditation is in question.

In October, the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication came to evaluate the School. The team examined the School on 12 standards including the curriculum, student advising, faculty and internships, governance and facilities. The School was recommended for provisional reaccreditation because the ACEJMC deemed it in noncompliance with governance and facilities

“It is not unusual for schools to be found noncompliant with some standards,” said Ramón Chávez, a news-editorial journalism instructor and an ACEJMC team member.

The provisional reaccreditation will not lessen the clout of a degree from the School or the number of job opportunities available to graduates, said Charles Higginson, the assistant to the executive director of the ACEJMC and a program associate at the University of Kansas. If the school is placed on provisional reaccreditation it means the team has identified weaknesses that are sufficient to prevent an award of accreditation but which in its judgment can be effectively addressed within a year, Higginson said.

“Research seems to show that most employers are not highly concerned with whether potential employees attended accredited schools,” Higginson said. “They are more interested in an individual’s actual course work, and especially in direct, hands-on experience, whether in school-operated lab operations like a campus radio station or in outside work experiences like internships.”

The School has 15 months to address the concerns that led to the recommendation for provisional status. Since these judgments were recorded in a draft report, the School has a chance to change the decision before a final draft is made. According to Dean Willard Rowland Jr. the response will attempt to clear up factual errors, misinterpretations, misunderstandings, incorrect judgments and omissions.

“I think the team paid perhaps a little too much attention to the facilities question,” Rowland said. “And it did not talk fully enough with us on the governance issues. It came to some erroneous conclusions.”

The School has filed two responses attempting to clear up factual errors.

Journalism schools volunteer to be part of the ACEJMC. CU's School of Journalism and Mass Communication is one of hundreds of accredited schools nationwide. It has been accredited since 1948. The School’s administrators are proud of its accreditation status because it symbolizes the good reputation of the School and its effectiveness as a learning environment, said Associate Dean Meg Moritz, an associate professor of broadcast journalism. In order to stay among the elite group of accredited schools, it must adhere to most of the 12 standards.

The visiting team found a lack of faculty involvement in “curriculum issues, strategic direction of the School or budgetary options during a period of financial turmoil.” Many faculty members said they disagree with this conclusion.

For example, Moritz is directing the curriculum revision, which includes adding four required classes to the core curriculum for incoming students and a change from a two-year to three-year program. She has held nine meetings with the entire faculty between 1995 and 1997 to work on the issue. While other faculty members admit conflicts exist, they also acknowledge that they have collaborated on a variety of issues.

“A lot of what (the team) took away from their visit is wrong, like the faculty has not been involved with the School,” said Larry Weisberg, an associate professor and head of the Integrated Marketing Communications master's degree at the School.

There is also a concern with leadership.

According to the evaluation, “Issues of leadership and administration seem to revolve around ... faculty involvement and governance of the School ... and some personal and professional issues between the faculty itself and with the Dean emerging or re-emerging in faculty recruitment, promotion and tenure cases.”

Rowland said he has a problem with that interpretation of his role and the role of the faculty because the report is not specific enough about its referring issues. However, he said one of the important points conflicting with the report are those nine long workshop sessions that the faculty held leading to significant changes in curriculum matters.

The second standard on which the the School was found noncompliant was facilities. The report dealt with the dual location of the School in Macky Auditorium and Norlin Library, the proposed move to the Armory and the lack of equipment.

The location issue of the School has been pending for a few months. If it were moved, the School could be in one central location, said Assistant Dean Steve Jones. The move also would create more space for seminar rooms and computer labs. Because there are also concerns about the safety of students crossing busy University Avenue to get to the Armory and other logistics, the move is not a simple decision.

Weisberg and other faculty members are frustrated with what the report gathered about the faculty and the move to the Armory. The evaluation team had reported that the faculty blatantly refused the opportunity to move. In reality the faculty said as the Armory stands now, without adequate renovation and with the safety issue unresolved, it would not be an improvement over Macky.

“(The report) accused us of sentencing the students to unsafe conditions and being insensitive to the students by not moving the School,” Weisberg said. “Our concern is the danger in moving to the Armory.”

Rowland said that while the issue of moving had not been finalized at the time of the site visit, the team thought it had. He said the other issues surrounding the Armory such as the investigation on whether the facilities in Macky could be replicated in the Armory, were also overlooked.

The relocation of the School to the Armory is the top priority of Vice Chancellor Philip DiStefano and Chancellor Richard Byyny.

“Given that the School was in noncompliance with their national accrediting agency on the ‘facilities standard’ and since the faculty are spread out in various buildings, we wanted to offer the School all of the Armory (approximately 17,000 square feet compared to the 14,000 square feet that they now have in all locations),” DiStefano said.

“At the same time, we know that the school would like a new building that would be adjacent to the proposed ATLAS building on the Hunter/Sibell Wolle site in the future.”

If a new building is approved, the School must raise 40 percent of the costs through private donations. The state will pick up the remaining 60 percent.

Another problem with the current facility is the “dungeon-like setting of (Macky’s) basement and the worn and varied furnishings,” which create a depressing environment.

“It is obvious that there are problems in that respect,” said Frank Kaplan, an associate professor and head of the News-Editorial sequence. “The conditions in the basement of Macky are deplorable.”

Some students agree that the basement of Macky can be “unpleasant,” but that it serves its purpose.

“I really don’t think that Macky is that bad,” said Jamie Marek, a senior advertising major. “I don’t know what they would do with more space because as it is classrooms are a perfect size for class sizes.

“The only thing I would complain about is the intense heat in the basement.”

Moritz also said the basement of Macky has some aesthetic problems, but she thinks the team concentrated too much on appearances instead of what they have inside the walls — technology and equipment.

“We have up-to-date computers and three full labs, which students have access to all the time,” Moritz said.

“We have three times the amount of cameras as six years ago when we were last accredited — cameras that photographers at Channel 4 were using last year. Then there is Bruce Henderson's New Media Center, which is very sophisticated stuff.”

Created by Henderson, associate professor of journalism, the New Media Center facilitates technologically advanced programs, including electronic grading, news groups, Web sites for the Colorado Press Association and WebCites — a way for students to convert their papers in a simple fashion to online documents that include photos and links.

The response letter from the School to the accreditation team will acknowledge all of these attributes more accurately and attempt to clarify the other issues. If the team changes its conclusions after reviewing the letter, it will reaccredit the School in the final report. But if the team is not convinced, the recommendation of provisional reaccreditation status will be brought before the Accrediting Committee in March.

Committee members only review the team reports produced that year. They give their accreditation recommendations to the Accrediting Council, which makes decisions regarding the agency’s policies, standards, publications and the accreditation status of schools, Higginson said.

“That group will make its own recommendations on the accreditation status of each school,” Higginson said. “Then, in May, the accrediting council itself will meet and consider the recommendations of the committee. Not until the council has deliberated the case and made its decision will the accreditation status change, if it changes at all.

“The School also will be able to send representatives to the meetings of both the committee and the council. The grounds for appeal are fairly narrow, but earlier this year, one school successfully appealed a denial of accreditation and received provisional accreditation instead. However, the process turns out for now, and until the process runs its course, the School remains fully accredited,” Higginson said.

Nevertheless, the recommendation for provisional reaccreditation could positively affect the School. Some faculty members said the status helped point out the inadequacies of the facilities in Macky to the administration and motivated the School to re-evaluate itself.

“These are not major deficiencies; they are more like opportunities,” Weisberg said.