A&M president wants to keep journalism education

COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M University President Robert M. Gates announced some good news last month about journalism education at the college but plans still appear to be moving forward with a proposal to close the department.

Gates said that proposals dealing with the Department of Journalism will be presented to him for final decision only when “alternate pathways for journalism education” have been developed and fleshed out. (Read more press releases from the university.)

“It is important for Texas A&M to continue to have a curriculum which provides for a flow of our students into journalism careers,” Gates said.

Dr. Charles A. Johnson, dean of liberal arts, said he will appoint a new broad-based committee that includes working journalists who graduated from A&M’s journalism department to help develop a detailed plan for multiple pathways for students interested in journalism, and to recommend a set of prescribed courses and internship opportunities tailored for prospective journalists.

When Johnson first announced he was moving forward with a plan to explore closing the department, many A&M journalism alumni were outraged that working journalists were not consulted in the decision-making process.

The Former Journalism Students Association and current students began a petition drive to save the department and garnered more than 1,000 signatures during the summer.

The Committee to Effect Change in Journalism, which is separate from the new committee and only includes faculty members, released its report to Aug 15 and Johnson made it available Aug. 25.

Johnson appointed the Committee to Effect Change in Journalism to study the journalism department after his announcement last spring that the program would be discontinued.

The report says students enrolled in the undergraduate and graduate journalism program should be allowed to finish their degree plans before the department is closed.

The committee issued three options for continuing journalism education at A&M — establish a School of Communication to oversee the Department of Communication, any continuing journalism offerings and other relevant programs; create an interdisciplinary major, minor or certificate in journalism, pre-journalism or journalism studies; and establish a career preparation unit to prepare students for the necessary skills to become a journalist.

The committee’s report recommends that current journalism faculty remain intact until all current students complete their degrees and that temporary faculty be hired if current faculty resign.

The report recommends that computers and equipment in the journalism department be maintained and that students be encouraged to take their required classes as soon as possible.

The report also recommends that the journalism graduate program be relocated to another administrative unit.