Journalism program recommended for reaccreditation
The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications recommended Central Michigan University’s journalism program for reaccreditation at their March 21-22 meeting in Chicago.
ACEJMC will make the final reaccreditation decision May 1-2 in Phoenix.
Jiafei Yin, interim chair of the Department of Journalism, and Johnny Sparks, associate chair of the Department of Journalism, attended the meeting in Chicago and received almost unanimous support from the committee.
CMU and Michigan State University have the only accredited journalism programs in the state.
Sparks said the department goes through the reaccreditation process every six years, which includes compiling a report to submit to ACEJMC. After the report is submitted, the accrediting council visits campus and interviews faculty and students based on the submitted document.
According to integrative public relations professor Elina Erzikova, the department’s submitted report should match what the department actually does. She said when the accrediting committee visited campus, they found that the program matched what was documented in the report.
“Overall, we were very successful in this process: maybe the most successful we’ve ever been,” Sparks said.
Standards for accreditation include small class sizes for lab classes, diversity, curriculum and scholarly contributions from faculty.
Sparks said if the department was not accredited, upper administration might push for larger class sizes, but because of accreditation, lab classes have 15 students in them.
Sparks said the accrediting council can bring positive changes to institutions where the status is valued.
“(The accrediting council’s) voice may carry more weight because accreditation is attached to it,” Sparks said.
He said the demands from the accrediting council aren’t always economically or logistically practical, but they’re definitely beneficial for the students.
Journalism faculty Ed Simpson said the accrediting standards require the department to publish placement rates.
“It forces us, which I would hope we’d do naturally and I’m sure we would, to constantly keep the student experience first and foremost in whatever we do,” Simpson said.
Simpson said accreditation shows prospective students that the student experience in the department at CMU is superior to other programs in the state.
“To me, accreditation is a message to former students, current students and future students that the Department of Journalism does a great job,” Erzikova said.
Sparks said he also believes accreditation can make a difference in distinguishing a graduate when looking for jobs.
“We have a sense that our students are getting good jobs,” Sparks said. “We have a sense that we’re retaining students. But unless we formally document placement, retention and graduation rates, then we don’t know, so accreditation means that we are formally accountable to our students.”
