by Arthur Simoni
Daily Lobo
Brad Hall, chairman of the Communication and Journalism Department, met with concerned students Tuesday to explain why the department decided to withdraw its application for reaccreditation.
The department withdrew its application last week when it became apparent that it was not going to be reaccredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
"One of the most frequently asked questions or issues that has come up with undergraduate students that I have visited with is the sense that this is somehow going to end the program," Hall said. "That the program is dying, or that it is somehow not going to be a real degree anymore or those sorts of things. Let me just assure you that that is just not the case."
He added that the department will still offer the degree and the same four tracks that it has had for the last decade.
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Hall said that the two main concerns that he has heard were about jobs and graduate school. He added that they should not be affected by a program's accreditation status.
"One, is you need to develop a portfolio that has examples of your writing," he said. "Along with that, usually you have to have some professors that can give you a solid recommendation."
He also said that students need to take advantage of internships and that potential employers would not necessarily look to see if an applicant graduated from an accredited journalism program.
"In a realistic sense, most of the people if we did a survey with the local media outlets or with yourselves, would not even know which programs were accredited and which ones were not," Hall said.
During the meeting, Hall consistently downplayed the importance of accreditation.
"The accrediting council themselves recognized that this is not the decision maker as far as whether you're a good school, you're a bad school or whether you're a problem school," Hall said. "What it means is that there is a particular model of accreditation, that schools voluntarily subject themselves to for evaluation from the accreditation team's standards."
He said that a vast majority of journalism schools do not go through the accreditation process because of issues such as combined budgets and combined departments, and that those schools do not fit into the journalism accreditation group's model.
"I noted the conversation that we had the very first night with the head of the team when they came when he said, 'Your model doesn't fit,'" Hall said. "But that does not mean when I say those sorts of things by any stretch of the imagination that we think the department is perfect. We know we still have things to improve on."
Hall said the accreditation team had concerns with governance, separate budgets for the departments, internships, instruction ratio, diversity in faculty and advisement. He added that department members would be meeting frequently to work on these areas of concern, but not necessarily to regain accreditation.
"That doesn't mean that we've necessarily given up as far as the accreditation process," Hall said. "There still are questions related to that. Over the course of the semester we will be meeting with students and various media outlets to see how crucial this is."
Many students voiced their opinions at just how crucial the accreditation was to them.
"I've looked into other journalism schools," said Jessica Quinn, a journalism print major. "Accreditation is important because it holds the department to important standards. Transferring is not practical for me right now. But I will consider changing my major. I've lost my faith in the whole department."
Many journalism students were still left with questions after the meeting and were dismayed at what they perceived as the department covering its tracks.
"I was thoroughly upset when I heard about it," said junior Amber Chavez, a print journalism major. "I felt like the department was trying to hide something from me. It is hard for me to believe that Brad Hall graduated from an institution that wasn't an accredited university, so why should I believe that it is a good thing for the me or any other students. I'm sure all the professors graduated from accredited programs and it meant something to them then, why doesn't it bother them now?"
Martin Esquivel, a 1986 graduate and former instructor in the department, expressed his disgust at the decision to withdraw the application in a letter sent to Hall and other media members.
"Regardless of the spin, it is patently obvious that the withdrawal came about because the ship was sinking," Esquivel wrote. "However, what I found even more troubling was the cavalier manner in which Hall minimized the importance of losing accreditation and the deplorable state of the journalism program. I get the feeling that if Hall were the captain of the Titanic, he'd simply be telling his passengers not to worry about the leaks."
The loss of accreditation could also impact students who have not yet decided on their major.
Janet Wiggins, mother of a current UNM student, said she was extremely upset and believed the department could have done more about the situation because they were already aware of the declining state of the department.
"The department has dropped the ball," Wiggins said. " I think right now what we're getting is a lot of lip service. My son was going was going to apply to the journalism school, now he and his peers are looking at programs that are accredited. If the department is going to drop the ball like this, they need to find someone who can pick it up and run with it."
