Department's status threatened

By Laura Lothian, On-line Forty-Niner

February 27,1997

In a decision that took the journalism department and college of liberal arts by surprise, an accrediting review team recommended that accreditation for the Cal State Long Beach journalism department not be renewed.

William A. Mulligan, journalism department chair, has appealed to the review team to upgrade its recommendation from denial of accreditation to a probationary status.

The team refused to budge and now the accreditation decision is up to the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, which will announce their decision in May.

If the council decides to take away the department's accreditation, the decision will be in effect for two years, starting next semester. The journalism department could then reapply for accreditation, according to Mulligan.

Losing accreditation would mostly be a loss-of-prestige matter, which would hurt the department's standing in the journalism community and eventually would hurt student's employment prospects. The department would no longer be able to participate in the Hearst competitions, as well.

The university's accreditation policy is separate from the council's policy. Credits from the department would still transfer. Meeting the high standards of accreditation enhances CSULB's journalistic reputation.

Of the 400 or so journalism programs in the country, slightly over 100 are accredited, according to Mulligan.

Losing accreditation would hurt the department's chances of attracting international students and could be disastrous for

the department's reputation.

"If we lose accreditation, then fail to get it back in two years," Mulligan said, "that could be extremely damaging."

The five-member review team, which visited the journalism department earlier this month, failed the department in six out of 12 categories.

"If we had missed two of the 12 categories, we probably would have received a passing score," Mulligan said. "But 50 percent failure means we got an F on the exam."

The six categories the department was found in non-compliance were Governance/Administration, Faculty:Full-Time/Part-Time, Faculty Scholarship/Research/Professional Activities, Public Service, Minority and Female Representation, and Budget.

Although Budget was itself a category, lack of money was extensively mentioned in five of the six divisions, becoming the council's harshest criticism.

Mulligan acknowledged the department deserved to fail under the budget and affirmative action classifications.

"They insisted we have our own affirmative action policy," he said. "We choose to follow the CSU affirmative action plan, we follow federal law. We are not in a position to have our own policy."

Since its last accreditation in 1991, the department has shrunk from eight full-time and 10 part-time faculty members to three part-time faculty members, according to the review. In 1991, there were 600 journalism students, now there are only 276.

The recession played a large part in the reduction of enrollment, according to Mulligan. He said he sees a turnaround taking place with enrollment up this semester.

Mulligan also said that university administration has to take the review as a wake-up call.

"This is shock therapy," he said. "The accrediting team is sending a message to the university by putting us in non-compliance."

Mulligan placed part of the department's budget woes on the university's policy of funding the journalism program.

With the exception of social work, journalism is the only professional program on campus. A professional program, one that trains students to go directly into a profession, costs more money to run than a non-professional program, according to Mulligan.

"We are computer intensive," he said. "We have a daily publication to put out, we require more equipment and that is costly."

Because of the relatively small size of the journalism classes, the department receives less money than a department with large classes, with no thought to equipment and publication costs, according to Mulligan.

Budget problems have hit the journalism department particularly hard, Dorothy Abrahamse, dean of the college of liberal arts, said.

"We intend to rebuild the journalism department," she said. "It's been tough getting the resources."

What particularly bothered Mulligan, speaking for himself and the faculty, was failing in faculty research and faculty public service.

The report stated that the review team found the department's faculty with "a record of only limited achievement in terms of research and scholarship."

The faculty responded with a list of over 56 research and publication projects, such as Mulligan's research on Chinese journalism, lecturer Ivan Goldman's 1992 best-selling book, lecturer Emma Daugherty's graduate studies, professor Wayne Kelly's newsletter and textbook work and Dr. Whitney Mandel's work with University TV.

Under public service, the report stated that the department's community service "could be stronger" and that it appears to be "haphazard."

The department responded by listing public-service memberships held by faculty members and by listing services that include advising, judging contests, speaking to high schools and delivering lectures, workshops and seminars world and statewide.

The evaluation team did have positive things to say about the department. Curriculum, Student Records/Advising, Instruction/Evaluation, Equipment/Facilities, Graduates/Alumni and Internship and Work Experience received high marks.

Looking at the bright side, Mulligan said he hopes the review prompts the university to be more generous with funds. Responding to Abrahamse's vow to rebuild the department, Mulligan said, "Saying and doing are two different things. We need a commitment from the university, if no commitment, then the program could vanish."