The journalism department was awarded provisional reaccreditation.

The unit has been found out of compliance on Standard 3; Diversity and Inconclusiveness and Standard 9; Assessment of Learning Outcomes.

The department is in the site- visit stage, when members of the accreditation team visit campus and talk to students.

Maria Marron, journalism department chairwoman, has been coordinating the reaccreditation.

“We have to be very diligent about it all the time,” she said.

Marron also said the department is “ever mindful of our curriculum” and is continuing to be mindful of both the university’s and the accreditation counsel’s norms and standards.

The Accreditation Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication is responsible for accrediting the university. The journalism department has been accredited since 1996, and is up for reaccrediation every six years. By May 2009, a final decision on reaccreditation will be reached.

The new Caponigro Multimedia Lab located on the fourth floor of Moore Hall might help, but will not make a significant difference about whether the program is accredited, Marron said. The lab was added this fall and was funded by CMU Board of Trustees Chairman Jeff Caponigro, who is the chief executive officer of Caponigro Public Relations, Inc.

Accreditation says a lot about the department, Marron said.

“It says that the department has met certain standards set by the accreditation counsel,” she said.

Timothy Boudreau, associate journalism professor, said he feels the accreditation is an important recruiting tool, more for parents than students.

“It holds us to certain standards and encourages us to strive for and to maintain high standards for our department,” he said.

Chris Schanz, Saginaw junior, said he only looked into accredited journalism programs when applying to colleges.

“I figured since CMU has the accreditation there must be something good about their journalism program,” he said.

CMU and Michigan State University are the accredited programs in Michigan, and only 111 exist in the country.

“It’s a public relations tool as much as anything else,” Marron said.

Schanz agreed that the accredidation would be a good tool to bring students to CMU.

“It brings people from Michigan who want to pursue journalism to either one of the schools,” he said.

Marron said accreditation restricts the number of credit hours per major a student can take. Accredited institutions allow students to take only 39 journalism credits. This allows students little flexibility when taking both electives and internships, she said.

“When all is said and done, I would prefer to be with an accredited institution,” Boudreau said.

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E-mail the author: Sara Fotino