Attendees of town hall meeting discuss SJMC

A town hall meeting was held with the purpose of answering student questions about the meaning and implications of discontinuance of the SJMC.

Journalism Dean Paul S. Voakes and Graduate School Dean John A. Stevenson were present to answer questions from the students.

This meeting was also to address any other questions about the new double major program that will be required. As many as 30 people, including undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty members from the school attended the meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, Voakes announced the journalism program’s place within the university, and named his replacement.

“For now, all administration and faculty will be housed under the Journalism Graduate School,” Voakes said. “Dean Stevenson will be the new dean.”

Voakes said he would like the transition to be smooth.

“We want to make this transitional phase for students and faculty to be as invisible as possible,” he said. “Everything will be exactly as it is, in terms of the curriculum, for now and at least until 2013.”

Voakes said the Journalism Plus program will commence in the spring of 2012. The program introduces the new dual-major program, where students who are interested in pursuing a journalism major must also have an additional major in another field.

“This program is the chancellor’s plan to alter the [SJMC],” Voakes said. “As for the looking at the future, there are plans to combine media, technology, communication and information all together and I think it is important for the Journalism and Mass Communication program to be one of the founding partners to this.”

Stevenson reaffirmed some of the points Voakes touched upon and said that it is a good temporary measure for the journalism program to be under the Graduate School. Stevenson reassured students and faculty that they are not moving out of the armory.

“I like to look at the Graduate School as a form of ‘safe house’,” Stevenson said.

The floor was opened up for a detailed question-and-answer session.

One of the questions addressed how the changes in the school would affect incoming freshmen. In response, Stevenson said the changes would benefit future students.

“It would be perfect,” Stevenson said. “They would be able to take advantage of the journalism plus degree and be able to receive new opportunities.”

Alexis Perry, a 19-year-old freshman pre-journalism major said she was one of the pre-journalism students who was very concerned and confused about her future in the program.

“I am supposed to register for classes in exactly two hours, but I have no idea what to register for,” Perry said.

In response to a question about the future of student media (including the CU Independent and radio station KCVU), Stevenson said they will continue.

“As far as I know, no budget has been cut from it, so yes; I believe everything will be as they are presently,” Stevenson said.

The meeting also gave the chance for Voakes to express his views about the recent accreditation process that the school underwent. He said that accreditation is yet to be determined.

“Nothing has been denied accreditation yet,” Voakes said. “The full outcome of this process will be made known on April 29.”

Darcie Nolan, a 29-year-old senior news-editorial major, said she attended the meeting hoping that it would start to crystallize the future better for her.

“After being here today, I think it did bring me much more clarity about the school and status of the entire process,” Nolan said.

Sandra Fish, a journalism instructor at CU, was also another person from the school who attended the meeting. She said she went to the meeting to inform her students about it.

“I came here today because I wanted to be able to tell my students what is presently going on with the program,” Fish said. “This was also one of the first meetings being held for the public after the discontinuance decision that was made last Thursday.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Adelina Shee at Adelina.shee@colorado.edu.