Department of Journalism CSU, Chico
PART II
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: MISSION AND SCOPE OF THE UNIT
Appendix: University catalog
1. Briefly describe the process used to conduct the self-study, including the roles of faculty members, students and others. Briefly describe the strengths and weaknesses discovered during the process, and describe any changes undertaken in response to it.
Work on the current self-study began soon after we received the report from the site visit in 1997. The first steps involved redesigning the curriculum and developing strategies for meeting Standard 12. The most recent steps involved collecting data and dividing the writing of sections among faculty and revising the drafts. Overall, the process is a team effort that has extended over dozens of faculty meetings and conversations.
Data collection procedures were initiated by Chair Katherine Milo, who also recruited each faculty member to write sections of the report. Students were used to help publish the final report and to catalog supplemental materials.
As the report came together, we realized that certain strengths we had outlined in our previous accreditation report remained, and that we had built on the structure to fine-tune some aspects of the program and to create new strengths:
. We have strong student advising. Under Dr. Milo's leadership, the department instituted the campus' first program of mandatory advising -- blocking from telephone registration all journalism majors who had not submitted faculty adviser-signed forms. She also was able to negotiate the Records Office acceptance of the new departmental "Form 90" required for clearance for graduation, a form that made clear student compliance with the 90/65 units rules and the recent change to 80/65. To help in record keeping, the department converted funding for part-time office assistance to a part-time graduate student assigned to serve as accreditation assistant. This assistant reviews records with incoming transfer students and checks the graduation clearance forms submitted by students after faculty advisers have approved them.
. A well-established internship program places dozens of students each year in quality organizations where they perform actual media work. Nearly every student engages in an internship activity before graduation.
. According to surveys and informal feedback from professionals, the department's reputation for producing skilled students has grown. Major media outlets have begun to visit campus to recruit the department's students.
. The professional work of our students on the department's student-managed lab newspaper and the student-managed public relations agency are nationally recognized as models of excellence. Such hands-on work is critical to meeting the department's mission.
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Department of Journalism CSU, Chico
. While many accredited programs are challenged by assessment, we have had an excellent assessment program in place since 1995 that has been used to modify and improve the curriculum.
. Although we are a small faculty, we have a good mix of professional and academic experience. We are focused on what we teach. We are successful.
Our weaknesses:
. Although almost all our courses have built-in elements to deal with diversity issues, our syllabi could do a better job of showing that commitment. One faculty member recently attended a diversity seminar sponsored by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. The result has been some major changes in the syllabi of the courses he teaches. Samples of the changes are in the Appendix. During the next few months, the faculty will discuss bringing similar changes to their syllabi.
. For a number of reasons, our reading room isn't what it should be, despite our
efforts to improve it.
. We are a small program with limited resources, far from an urban area, with a
heavy teaching load. In other words, time and money limit our accomplishments.
2. Briefly describe the history and traditions of the unit. Describe the present environment in which the unit operates, including its current purposes and activities, its goals and plans, budgetary considerations, the nature of the parent university and other nearby universities, the nature of the student body, etc.
The CSU, Chico journalism department has seven full-time faculty members and 334 students as majors. It has developed into a small, focused undergraduate program, designed to offer a mix of practical and theoretical education in journalism for public relations and news-editorial majors. Playing a role in that development, the accreditation process of self-study provided some of the basic guidelines for a program characterized by a hard-working faculty and successful graduates.
We take special pride in the accomplishments of our students. The Orion, the department's laboratory student-managed newspaper, in 2002 won for the fourth straight time and seventh time in eight years the top award in the California Newspaper Publisher Association's University Division. No other university student newspaper has won the first-place award, which was first presented in 1978, more than a total of three times. Further, Tehama Group Communications, our student-managed public relations agency, has won regional competitions and been recognized in national publications for the excellence of its work for clients.
During the 1980s, journalism and public relations were taught as options of the department of information and communication studies. This broad degree required 40 units in the major with no liberal arts requirement. There was no requirement for a minor.
Encouraged by a new dean in the School of Communication, the faculty began a process of self-study in the late 1980s. The first goal was to look at how the Chico program
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Department of Journalism CSU, Chico
measured up to national accreditation standards. On one level, faculty and students accrued benefits from being a part of a program that included speech, organizational and interpersonal communication, but on another level, there was a nagging feeling that the program could be improved. The faculty thought a more traditional program of journalism, built around a basic news model, would better serve students, the university, the department and the industry. A decision was made to create a department of journalism that would meet national accrediting standards.
The process was fueled when faculty members attended a session of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication at the Portland AEJMC meeting in 1988. Further, the California Legislature endorsed the need for university programs to seek accreditation if available to them in their disciplines.
In 1989, Terry Hynes, then chair of the department of communications at California State University, Fullerton, was invited to campus to discuss the existing program. She offered valuable advice on what was needed to model the program on accreditation standards.
Her visit was a catalyst for the lengthy development and approval process needed to begin a journalism department. The tasks before the faculty included reducing the number of communication courses required for graduation, deciding curriculum requirements, adding new courses and deleting others, moving the options to a new bachelor of arts degree in journalism, and instituting a formal minor requirement.
Months of discussion, debate, negotiation and university paperwork followed. At the same time, administrators attended to the budgetary requirements of establishing a new department and improving teaching laboratories.
By the fall of 1990, both a journalism degree program and the department structure were in place but much remained undone. With more than 300 students in the journalism major at that time, the department faced three major issues: student confusion about changes; degree requirements for students already on campus; and faculty training in advising students to meet the new curriculum guidelines.
Along with meeting the curriculum challenge, the department needed to upgrade record keeping and move to a new building that would bring all of the communication programs under one roof. Meanwhile, the university established an outcomes assessment project that demanded attention. One of the final steps came in the fall of 1994 when the current department chair, Katherine Milo, took office.
After being accredited in 1998, the department began to address issues and problems pointed out by the visiting team. Since then, the core of the department has remained
stable, although two faculty members have retired, both of whom played key roles in the department's formation and growth. A new faculty position was added, but the position held by a retired professor has not been filled because of major budget problems in California in 2002-2003. Accreditation has benefited the reputation of the department, which has increased its number of majors by more than 60 since the last visit.
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Department of Journalism CSU, Chico
The Department and Its Role
As the journalism department evolved during the mid-1990s, self-study was a major influence on its origination and development. By seeking accreditation, the department established a tone and character and a style of teaching, advising and recruiting. Accreditation standards provided guidelines for such things as the number of students in writing labs, the content of courses, and the establishment of mandatory advising and a professional advisory board.
At the core of the department is the basic nature of the university and its students. CSU, Chico is one of 22 campuses in the California State University system. The nearest neighboring university is in Sacramento, 90 miles away. In contrast to the University of California system that places a higher emphasis on research, the CSU system places an increased emphasis on teaching and learning. For faculty, this usually translates into a heavy teaching load each semester. In the journalism department that usually means the equivalent of four courses each semester for full-time faculty. Each faculty member also has the responsibility of advising 20 to 80 students.
CSU, Chico also is one of the few schools in the system that is a residential campus. When compared with other CSU campuses that attract 80 percent commuters, CSU, Chico draws only about 20 percent of its 16,246 students who commute. The residential opportunities attract a student body that has often been characterized as one that studies hard and plays hard. The student to faculty ratio is 20 to 1 and average class size is 22. Average high school GPA for first-year students is 3.21 and the composite mean SAT score is 1028. About 95 percent of the students are California residents.
The next element in the mix is the nature of the department: With 328 majors and seven full-time faculty members, the opportunities for student contact, focused teaching, and indepth advising are maximized. Faculty members have developed a sense of purpose and are oriented to completing tasks on deadline.
In many ways, the success of journalism students drives the department. At the end of every semester, the buzz grows as faculty hear from students who find jobs. During the year, each of the faculty members hears from dozens of former students with news about careers and families. Those students seek advice, change jobs and fill the faculty with a sense of accomplishment. It is the kind of feedback that helps faculty meet the demands of teaching, research and service.
The relationships with students often begin during the department's active recruiting process. Faculty members have visited community colleges and high schools looking for qualified students of all races. Campus open houses in the fall also bring students to Tehama Hall where they are given tours of the journalism department. Faculty members spend their Saturdays during the open houses talking to parents and potential students about media careers.
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Department of Journalism CSU, Chico
Further, the journalism department's home page on the University's Web site has helped recruiting. As part of the department's service to transfer students, journalism department syllabi have been placed on a community college web server that is available to more than 75 California community colleges that have journalism programs.
In short, the following are the key ideas that faculty members think are important to the goal of educating students:
1) A curriculum that focuses on the skills of written communication: thinking, research, synthesis, creating the message, and message preparation for a mass audience. The faculty embrace the words of James Carey who noted that the practice of journalism "does not depend on technology or bureaucracy. It depends on the practitioner mastering a body of skill and exercising it to some worthwhile purpose."
2) A curriculum that challenges students while preparing them for communication careers.
3) An atmosphere that shows students that the faculty are interested and care for the students. Mandatory advising is but one facet of this complex process of student/faculty interaction that includes small classes, two professional clubs, extended office hours, and telephone calls at home from students.
4) Excellence that is accomplished through the professional achievements of students and their internships, free-lance work, and hands-on experiences at the student newspaper and student-managed public relations agency.
5) A faculty that grows in its knowledge of mass communication and journalism and contributes to the creation of knowledge and development of practices in those fields.
Support for the Department
The journalism department is part of the School of Communication in the College of Communication and Education. Within the School of Communication, there are also the departments of communication design and communication arts and sciences. Since its inception, the journalism department has enjoyed consistently strong support from Dean Stephen King. He has encouraged the department to seek accreditation, while providing the finances that make a department work. His appreciation of the journalism department, its discipline, and its mission to foster professional performance has led to a level of support many other campus departments do not enjoy.
While recent budget cuts have forced the university into a siege mentality, the journalism department benefited from being part of one of the stronger colleges on campus, which allowed Dean King to protect the department from draconian cuts. The value of this consistent financial support is an important part of the department. The dean has helped the department fund equipment for its lab and for the student newspaper and the student managed public relations agency. Faculty, too, have received some funding for travel from the dean.
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Department of Journalism CSU, Chico
Efforts to note
As the department engaged in the self-study process, it accomplished various goals:
. A minor in journalism was established to expand the opportunities for nonmajors to understand modern media and to aid the department in meeting enrollment goals.
. In the beginning of the self-study process, there was no computerized writing lab for students. Today, the department has a lab that gives students access to pagination and word processing software, e-mail and the Web. The department was one of the first on campus to have a home page. The Orion was one of the first college newspapers in the nation to go online in 1994.
. The student-managed public relations agency, Tehama Group Communications, has expanded its office space and equipment, while offering professional public relations services to clients throughout the greater North Valley and state. TGC recently won two first-place awards for writing and for media relations in a competition with professionals in the Sacramento area.
. A model ethics course was built upon current research in the field and is established as one of the department's core courses.
. Through the work of faculty members and support of the dean, the department has established an international link with Eastern Europe and its efforts to develop a free press and a public relations industry. Both through education and professional practice, the department has contributed to this important change in the world.
. The faculty's work in Eastern Europe played a major role in establishing a
journalism program at the University of Timisoara in Romania in the mid 1990s.
. A faculty member administers a state grant with a $650,000 yearly budget. The project has helped create mass media messages dealing with social services involving child support enforcement and welfare-to-work programs.
. While teaching an average of four classes per semester, faculty members have published textbooks and journal articles in some of the leading journals of mass communication.
. Alumni, professionals, and students give the department high marks for teaching useful skills. About 90 percent of the department's graduates agree that they were challenged by the major and that they learned skills that are useful in their jobs.
3. Describe the range of program responsibilities of the unit, including the relationship to campus media and student publications.