The official report from the national council that accredits journalism and communication schools found the UNM Communication and Journalism Department non-compliant in six of the 12 criteria it uses to evaluate programs.
The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications also found two criteria "compliant," with reservations."
"The team was unsure whether there is designated leadership in the department that understands these standards and is committed to and responsible for ensuring that the journalism and mass communication program meets them. The site team concluded that there is not," the report states.
Brad Hall, chairman of the department, declined to comment on the report Friday, and said a detailed explanation and rebuttal to what he called inaccuracies and misinformation in council's report would be made available to the public today.
Governance and administration
The council's report concluded that its main concern was the journalism and mass communication program did not have a sufficient grasp on two key elements - the principles, policies and mechanisms of accreditation and the accrediting standards; and the council's site team report of January 1997, when the program was last reaccredited.
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In 1997, the council report noted that the program needed to organize student records more efficiently, expand the growth of the department's budget in recognition of an over-demand on department resources, help make local internships more available to students and upgrade facilities.
The current council report did note that the department may be functioning effectively from the perspective of the University and the department faculty. However, it found the department in non-compliance to the council's standards of Governance and Administration.
"Because of these symptoms of indifference to ACEJMC's requirements and procedures, the team wondered whether the college and the department had decided that the department's primary mission is to achieve an integrated unit and that seeking accreditation and meeting ACEJMC's standards are no longer of significance and concern," it stated.
Budget
The council's report noted that, especially in New Mexico, financial challenges for institutions of higher education are "daunting." It found the University to be treating the department fairly, citing the example of the University authorizing a search for a tenure-track faculty member for the 2002-03 year. The report did recommend, however, that the department seriously consider separating the budgets for communications and journalism. It was unclear to the accreditation team whether the department had the resources necessary to meet the budgets standards. The report praised the department's efforts to renovate the department's building through fund-raising and advised the department to continue its efforts.
Curriculum
The report found the department in compliance with the council's budget criteria.
It stated that the department curriculum seemed strong and was in compliance with ACEJMC standards. There was some concern by accreditation team members, though, after receiving feedback from department students and media professionals. The report stated that the media professionals the team spoke with "noted that interns and alumni who come to them from the University range from very well prepared to not prepared at all."
The accreditation report said that the department should make it a priority "to hire a new print journalism professor with recent daily newspaper experience."
According to the report, the print journalism track seemed to be strong on paper.
"But in practice that is not so, according to some students who observed that with some instructors, the courses in this sequence may be the same regardless of their differing titles. There appears to be a wide variance of the quality of the educational experience for print students, depending on their instructor," the report explained.
The report noted that the broadcast track was judged to be strong on paper and in practice and students were content with the education they were receiving.
The advertising and public relation tracks that the department offers seemed to have the most problems according to the students the council spoke with. The report stated that public relations students were "given little guidance by faculty members on how to obtain scholarships or why they are important. They get whatever internships they can find on their own."
The report recognized that the advertising track had increased in enrollment dramatically and noted that a tenure track advertising professor had been recently hired to improve the curriculum and the program. The council found that the biggest problem the advertising track faced was unqualified instructors.
"The advertising track desperately needs to cease having non-advertising professors teach advertising classes," the report stated. "Although well meaning, print and broadcast instructors do not possess the professional background to adequately deliver quality instruction to advertising students. As a result students are very disappointed with their C & J education."
Conversely, advertising students commended the program for hiring the new tenure track advertising professor and "have banded around him to invigorate the advertising club and are extremely hopeful that he will vastly improve the advertising curriculum," according to the report.
Advisement
The council also found that the department was in non-compliance with the advising criteria and many students felt that "the department's administrative assistant and faculty adviser are 'always busy' and one student told the team she has 'waited hours on end to see an adviser.'" The report noted that the faculty adviser is expected to hold regular office hours each week for the 302 communications and journalism students in need of advisement.
The accreditation team strongly suggested that the current advisement system be redesigned.
Instruction
The department's instruction was also found to be non-compliant to the council criteria and the accreditation team advised establishing a Journalism Professional Advisory Board to keep the program in touch with the current practices used in the professional world of journalism. The report did note that several faculty members have received professional recognition, which an assistant professor had been nominated for UNM "Teacher of the Year" in 2001 and the department was chosen by the student body as the "Best Department," also in 2001.
However, students interviewed by the team voiced their concerns that the courses were repetitive.
"Some students expressed concern that all courses taught in a content area are taught by an individual faculty member so that differing and professional perspectives were absent," the report stated.
Students did, however, praise some faculty members who had working knowledge and experience in the profession.
The council suggested that the department take immediate action to comply with class-size standards, develop a plan for student learning assessment, make better use of peer evaluations and establish a Professional Advisory Board.
Faculty
The council's report found the department faculty compliant to accreditation standards, but "with reservations."
The report noted that this year the department created a Lecturer II category and hired an experienced professional with exclusive duties to teaching and service to serve in this capacity. Also added was a non-tenure track visiting professional. The visiting professional position will be terminated in August if a new tenure track professor is hired. The reservations the accreditation team had were contingent upon the hiring of a new tenure track professor.
"The increased number of student majors and the decrease in the number of faculty members over the past six years indicate a possible enrollment management concern," the report stated.
Graduates and alumni
ACEJMC also found the department non-compliant in the tracking and assessment of graduates and alumni.
"There is no formal mechanism in place to track the employment of alumni nor the placement of recent graduates," the report stated.
The report explained that by failing this standard, development, internships, graduate placement and the "vigor and vitality" of the department leaves a significant void in the program.
Diversity
The department was also found non-compliant in diversity criteria. But, the report noted that the department has set goals to recruit minority students and faculty.
"There are no clearly stated strategies for the recruitment and retention of faculty, staff and students from diverse backgrounds, however," the report states.
According to the report, the 1997 accreditation team had major concerns over the diversity standard. The 2002 accreditation team found that there are now fewer minorities on the faculty than there were in 1997. The report did recognize that the department has recently made an effort to hire part-time faculty members that are minorities.
"It is unclear to the team if there is a commitment to diversity by the department," the team's report concluded.
Scholarship, public service and facilities
The council did find the department in compliance with its scholarship, public service and equipment/facilities standards. The team specifically pointed out the work of Dennis Herrick, Bob Gassaway, Dirk Gibson, Miguel Gandert, Richard Shaefer, Janet Cramer and Glenda Balas for outstanding work in public service. The report also said that the faculty was to be commended for its significant work on scholarship projects.
The council did have one concern in the section of the report devoted to the equipment/facilities standard.
"One additional note that perhaps says volumes about the focus of the program," the report stated. "Outside of one print-journalism instructor's office, the team did not see a single daily newspaper anywhere in the Department of Communications and Journalism."
