The mass communication department was re-accredited recently by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and is one of six programs in the state that is currently accredited by the council. The council that determines re-accreditation is made up of representatives from national and international associations such as the American Society of News paper Editors and Radio-Television News Directors Association.

James Stewart, head of the MACO department at Nicholls, said the staff had to abide by a different set of standards than in the previous accreditation cycle, and he and his staff were preparing for the new process.

“There are a certain number of standards a school has to meet, and we started working on our self-study two years in advance,” Stewart said. “We knew that was on the horizon, so we wanted to get started on that early.”

In the process of finalizing the self-study and the other parts of re-accreditation, Hurricane Katrina halted the work, but the school was given an extension.

“Although the storm hit, we were able to call the agency for an extension, and we were able to meet the November deadline they gave us,” Stewart said.

Once the self-assessment was finished, a three-person, on-site team was sent to the University to interview MACO faculty members, students, administrators and local media representatives to get an idea of how well the department worked with the rest of the University. Members of the on-site team were Dean Ann Brill from the University of Kansas, Carol J. Pardun from Middle Tennessee State University and Thor Wasbotten of Pennsylvania State University.

Of the nine standards the department had to meet, the only one that was found in non-compliance was in the area of research. Stewart said that the department was not in danger of losing accreditation and that Nicholls was not the only university that had problems in the area of research.

“It was definitely something that I had to talk to the team about myself,” he said. “It wasn’t just our school either, and research seemed to be the one thing that the committee was focusing on strongly this year.” Stewart said that it was an area that he plans to strengthen so that the process can flow smoothly in the future.

At the annual meeting in Chicago, the committee reviews the report filed by the on-site team and will then decide if a school is eligible for accreditation. Stewart said that he was amazed by the amount of positive feedback that the students gave about the program– information the committee found beneficial to the re-accredidation.

“It’s incredible how smoothly the process went for us both times we were up for accreditation,” Stewart said. “We urged the students to talk to the on-site team, and they were just amazed at how enthusiastic the students were about the program, which showed in the praise we received.”

Although Nicholls is not as well known nationally as other schools in the country, Stewart believes that you cannot compare schools to one another because each school is different. “You can’t compare us to a Northwestern University or a USC because our strengths might be their weaknesses and vice-versa,” he said. “But if you look at our alumni, we consistently produce quality students.”

A school does not have to apply for accredititaion but can help bring students to a university, Stuart said.

The current term of the accreditation will run from now until the year 2012, then the department will have to re-apply, and Stewart is already working to keep the standards that have been set at a high level.

“We’ve worked really hard at getting the program to the point where it is now, and that can be attributed to our faculty and staff,” he said. “Hopefully we can keep the standard of excellence high and keep attracting students that will best represent the program and the University.