JAMM receives accreditation
The University of Idaho School of Journalism and Mass Media is now the only accredited journalism school in Idaho following a unanimous vote of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications Friday.
The JAMM school is one of 116 accredited programs in the world. The accreditation process began in 2012 with a self-study from JAMM faculty. A team of educators and media professionals visited UI in October to interview students, faculty and members of the JAMM advisory board.
Will Norton, dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi, led the site team.
“This is a school that provides serious, capable students with quality instruction and hands-on, practical media experience,” Norton said.
The site team found the school in full compliance with all nine accrediting standards.
Environmental Science students protest FFF
University of Idaho Interim Provost Katherine Aiken discussed the proposed movement of the environmental science program to the College of Natural Resources with concerned students after they showed up outside her office Monday afternoon.
Wieteke Holthuijzen, a senior in ENVS, organized the initiative to meet with the provost. She said the students decided to just show up outside the provost’s office after they had trouble getting in contact with her to arrange a meeting.
“We feel very strongly that we ought to be able to represent our voice,” Holthuijzen said. “These are really big changes that are going to affect all students in the environmental science department.”
The 12 students said they felt the movement of the program would be harmful to interests of the ENVS 300 students. Aiken said the current nature of ENVS, and other programs that don’t fall into any particular college, makes it difficult for faculty and administrators to do their job. They arranged for a second meeting with Jan Boll, ENVS director for next week.
Aiken said she felt the initial meeting with the students was a positive, successful interaction.
“You want (students) to be interested in that education being quality, and being responsive to their needs, and so I appreciate their taking the time to come and talk about those issues,” Aiken said. “I think we provided them another forum to comment in a more expanded way, and I think that will be a good step.”