Just as journalists nationwide are scrambling for jobs in a changing market, UNM journalism students are scrambling for class spots in a transitioning department.
Fewer faculty members, an influx of students and accreditation requirements are straining required class availability for journalism students.
The C&J department has always had issues with “impaction,” or more students trying to get in than seats available to them, C&J instructor Richard Schaefer said.
“Our faculty have never caught up to enrollment,” he said. “We were 24 faculty this time a year ago. We knew we were losing a couple of them, but we have lost six now, and we are going to lose our seventh in May.”
The journalism accreditation limits class size to 20 or fewer, C&J Department Chair Glenda Balas said.
“This accreditation is just so very important to us that we are willing to abide by the rules of the accrediting agency so that we are able to maintain accreditation,” she said. “We also believe that those kind of applied courses are best when they are taught in that smaller environment.”
Student Danielle Cohen said the department should increase the classes offered to compensate for the class-size constraints.
“I was on wait lists for two classes,” she said. “There was only one section of (C&J) 279, and I don’t know where they got the idea that every kid from 171 who wanted to take writing and editing for media were able to get into this one class.”
Schaefer said students’ expectations are sometimes unrealistic.
“They don’t understand that we have to stagger these classes,” he said. “Many classes that we offer at the advanced level, we can only offer once a year. We just don’t have enough
faculty, and in some cases, we wouldn’t have enough students.”
Balas said the department is doing everything it can to create more classes.
“It is complicated because we have to find a room,” she said. “We have to find a teacher. We have to open the space, and there have to be students there who are willing to take the course.”
Gateway classes tend to fill up, Cohen said, since they must be taken in order to advance toward a degree.
“It is 20 people in a lab, so it’s not like you can convince the teacher to let you in because there are only so many computers in there,” she said. “I was ready to come and say I would bring my computer every day because I need this class. It is my major, and I can’t be in the C&J program unless I take that class.”
C&J Adviser Gregoria Cavazos said students who have difficulty graduating blame the department, when lack of planning is the culprit.
The new multimedia degree also increased competition for classes, Schaefer said.
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“We used to have about 20 print majors and 20 broadcast majors two years ago,” he said. “I could see where students who thought they were going into a print or a broadcast might have difficulty. We are discontinuing some of those classes as they were exactly in the past. So they have to compete to get into classes with the multimedia students that are coming up that are really a larger group.”
Balas said C&J will consider adding more of the courses that cause issues.
“It is possible that we may need to start offering courses every semester,” she said.
