Spring Break
The Daily OrangeCommittee recommends Newhouse for accreditation
By Laura Foti
Posted: 10/19/09, 2:27 AM EST Section: News
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The team left Newhouse officials with an 85-page report detailing the school's pros and cons. The report criticized the outdated television studios and lack of travel by graduate professors. The document praised several initiatives that the school launched in response to past criticism from accreditation teams, including improving its gender and racial balance and the hiring of more doctoral candidates.
The accreditation is key to maintaining the school's high national ranking and to recruiting. The council measures Newhouse against 1,200 other communications schools across the country.
The organization's national body will review the visiting committee's recommendation. In the spring, Newhouse will receive the organization's result. Lorraine Lorraine LorraineLorraine Branham, dean of Newhouse, is confident that Newhouse will pass.
"When you get this kind of glowing recommendation, it would be highly unusual for the council not to concur with them," Branham said. "I feel confident that this will continue to move in a positive direction."
Newhouse will begin combating the school's weak areas that the committee detailed in the report, Branham said.
The report cited the need for Newhouse to update television studios, computer-editing suites and digital technology.
Randy Wenner, coordinator of the lab facilities for the broadcast journalism department, acknowledged that while some of the equipment dates back to the 1970s, upgrades such as new graphics equipment and technology have been integrated into the program.
"To upgrade the studio is very expensive. We have been actively seeking a way to do this," Wenner said. "Efforts have been underway to work on this."
The committee found few weaknesses with the graduate programs but addressed the limited use of available faculty travel funds and scholarly activity as areas in need of improvement.
Each faculty member is allotted $3,000 for travel, such as attending conferences in their fields, Branham said. But many professors choose not to use it, she said.
"I think they want us to encourage our faculty to use it more," Branham said.
If faculty doesn't use the $3,000, the money rolls over to the next year. If professors choose not to travel then other professors can use the additional money, Branham said.
The committee's report also cited improvements made from the last review, which took place during the 2003-2004 accreditation rounds.
The last report cited Newhouse's need to increase its diversity by including more women and people of color in both faculty and student populations. The most recent report concluded that, "women and faculty members of color are represented across the ranks and play important roles in the leadership of the program."
The field team also praised the addition of more doctoral candidates to increase research opportunities at the school.
lefoti@syr.edu
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