College status pending for UNT journalism

by Mary Pharris of of North Texas Daily

It's time for the journalism department to "grow up" - that is, if the Board of Regents and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board say it's OK.

The board will discuss the possibility of the journalism department breaking away from the College of Arts and Sciences and forming its own school at its meeting Thursday, said Mitch Land, chairman of the department.

Land said he is confident the board will grant approval for the school, and he will be there to answer any questions the board may have about the transition, he said. If the board approves the proposal, it will then be sent to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for final approval. The coordinating board could reach a decision as early as April, Land said.

"We would be the only publicly funded school of journalism in North Texas - lots of departments but no publicly funded school in the region," Land said.

If approved, the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism will officially open in fall 2009, Land said. The school would include two departments - strategic communications and news - with two chairmen, a dean and an associate dean, he said. Strategic communications would include public relations and advertising, and news would include print, broadcast, electronic news and photojournalism.

While there will be two distinct departments, Land said there will be no major changes in the core curriculum, and the transition won't affect students.

"It's been a tremendous benefit to be a department because of the support the department receives from the College of Arts and Sciences," Land said.

The department is nationally recognized, and becoming its own school appears the next logical step, said Jacob Cigainero, journalism alumnus.

"As the department begins to stand on its own two feet as a school, I think a more diverse student population and faculty will be drawn to NT, raising the profile of our journalism program and subsequently North Texas," he said in an e-mail.

The switch from department to school will allow a competitive edge for external resources like grants and will strengthen the national perception of NT's journalism program, Land said.

Annie Tran, a journalism senior, said she thinks the department will do well as a school because of the strength of the program and its high recognition in the state, she said.

The department's current budget of about $1.53 million, housed under the College of Arts and Sciences, will be transferred to the school of journalism for fiscal year 2010, Land said. Land expects the costs of the school to increase by about $1.9 million in a five-year period, mostly to add new personnel, he said.

Even with the changes, Land said the program would maintain its focus on what he calls "the capital J of Journalism."

"Our job is to train students to gather information in a quest of accuracy, fairness and truth, rooted in ethical practices," he said.