Journalism programs granted provisional reaccreditation

The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications in Portland has granted provisional reaccreditation to the University of Colorado Boulder undergraduate program in journalism and mass communication, in a 20-0 vote, and the master's program in newsgathering, in a 17-1 vote.

"The vote for provisional accreditation of our undergraduate and graduate journalism programs affirms our confidence in the restructuring we have undertaken to deliver them," said Provost Russell L. Moore. "We felt all along that, given a careful explanation of our intentions and goals for journalism, the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications would see that we are restructuring our program for the better for both our students and our university. We now look forward to moving ahead with a bold vision for journalism education at CU-Boulder."

With the accrediting council's vote, the newsgathering master's program continues as an accredited program and will be eligible for full reaccreditation in two years. Both the undergraduate program and the master's program in newsgathering received provisional reaccrediting in March by an on-site visiting team of journalism professionals and academics. A lower accrediting council committee had overridden the recommended provisional accreditation for the master's program earlier this month and denied the program accreditation.

"This is good news for our program," said Dean Paul S. Voakes. "The process of discontinuance has been difficult to explain to our counterparts across the country, and I am gratified that ... they understood that the true process is one of realignment and not elimination of the program.

"And also I'm gratified that this body recognized the fundamentally strong qualities of our program at both the undergraduate and graduate levels."