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UNM C&J Accreditation Update - CONGRATS

After an enormous amount of work including a huge, cool building construction, the UNM Department of Journalism and Mass Communications has been recommended for Accreditation by the visiting Accreditation Site Team from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. According to John Oetzel, Ph.D., the C&J Department Chair, the department was found in complete compliance with the accrediting standards by the Site Team.

This is a huge deal and the staff and faculty of the department along with its students and community members, as well as UNM overall deserve tons of credit for this achievement. The Department lost/dropped its accreditation a few years ago and as an alumna, I am happy to see the Department on the upswing.

There are something like 500 C&J programs in the country and only a little more than 100 are accredited. You can add UNM's to the list. OK, not quite. The team's recommendation goes to a committee and then to the national accrediting council which makes the final decision in May. Here's hoping they agree with the Site Team.

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Comment by Izquierdo on January 30, 2008 at 11:08pm: I notice one of the 100 accredited journalism programs extant in the U.S., belongs to New Mexico State University. I wonder if the Aggies can get any points for that in the NMSU-UNM Rio Grande sports rivalry started this season? Maybe the Aggies could also get points for the four or five years when they had an accredited program and the Lobos didn't. Seriously, shame on UNM for losing its accreditation and double shame for using its lost status to build another structure. Does academic rank have to do with the architecture of the building? I look forward to the day when official word comes that UNM is accredited, so I can again claim untainted journalism degrees on my resume.

Comment by Tony on January 30, 2008 at 11:51pm: Well deserved....congrats!

Comment by Eckleburg and Grumblecake on January 31, 2008 at 8:01am: Hey! I wasn't a C&J major, but I was on the UNM debate team in the mid 1990's and spent a LOT of time in their old building, and beleive me, it was definately time for some new diggs.

So congrats to the C&J folks.

Just out of curiosity, anybody have the backstory on why/how they lost their accreditation to begin with?

Comment by Jesstagirl on January 31, 2008 at 8:14am: I went to NMSU specifically because UNM didn't have their journalism accreditation. As an Aggie from Albuquerque I always got a lot of crap (for various reasons, of course) for going to State, but it was always nice to say we had the journo accreditation when the Lobos didn't.

Comment by once banned twice shy on January 31, 2008 at 9:30am: One of my mother's boyfriends in college (circa 1934!) was head of the journalism department down at NMSU. Long ago and far away. I believe he is dead now. Yeah, I hung my head in shame when UNM lost its accreditation for the J department. I saw the beginning of the end when they lost their standing as a department--instead being merged with communications. When I was in J school at UNM, the communications department was where people who wanted to do advertising and PR went. I don't mean that as a slam, or anything--there just was a distinction between the two disciplines, that's all.