Accreditation and Accountability

Mission

The School of Communication, Journalism, & Media educates students:

• To foster skills, values, and practices associated with communication, journalism, media and strategic communication professionals.
• To further student understanding of how those attributes intersect with local, national and global citizenship.
• To demand critical thinking.
• To thrive as creators and leaders in a constantly changing communication environment.
• To fully engage with diverse people and audiences.

Enrollment, retention, graduation and placement

Central Michigan University's Journalism Program is one of only two nationally accredited mass communications programs in Michigan. As part of the standards issued by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, retention, graduation and placement information is to be made available to the public on this website. 

Most of the information is compiled by CMU's Office of Academic Planning and Analysis and represents the best available data for each category. The placement category represents a combination of program-gathered information as well as the university's graduate survey. The program information includes email surveys, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, and notes to faculty.

Number of majors

In 2023-2024, the program had 94 majors across its four sequences. Those include advertising (32), journalism (36), photojournalism (17) and journalism-public relations (9). In addition, the program has 37 journalism minors and 30 advertising minors. The program also serves as a key interdisciplinary partner in the Integrative Public Relations program, the Multimedia Design program, and the new sports communication minor program. Due to lower CMU enrollment, the number of majors is lower than in the previous year. Journalism is the largest major, followed by advertising, photojournalism, and finally, journalism-public relations.

Retention and graduation rates

The program's persistence rates are healthy. Persistence is defined as the percentage of students who return in succeeding years to continue their studies in Journalism. The second-year persistence rate in our majors who signed their majors in 2021-22, the most recent academic year available, is 88.4%. This is 10.5 points higher than the university average. The third-year persistence rate for the 2020-21 cohort was 88.3%. This is 8.3 points higher than the university average. The fourth-year persistence rate for the 2019-20 cohort was 80.0%. This is 11.9 points higher than the university average. The School of Communication, Journalism, & Media made changes to course offering schedules to make it easier for students to finish the accredited program. We hope this will improve persistence rates in the future. Our goal is to reach near 90% for fourth year persistence rate. 

Students at Central Michigan University must sign a major before their junior year. The latest available information for the cohort year 2020-21 shows that 66.7% of students graduate three years after signing their major; 70.0% of students in the 2019-20 cohort graduated four years after signing their major, and 77.5% of students in the 2018-19 cohort graduated five years after signing their major. This last number is 11.4 points higher than the university average. 

Placement data

To assess placement, the program surveys faculty members and recent graduates, as well as looks for publicly available information on career-related announcements involving journalism graduates. Faculty members are surveyed because they frequently are in touch with recent students about their career aspirations and serve as references, etc. The latest available placement data, which includes Spring 2024 and Fall 2023 graduates, is that 66% of program majors who graduated in December 2023 or in May 2024 were employed, in graduate school or in a situation they favored. 33% reported looking for full-time work or being in jobs not related to their fields of study. 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plan

The School of Communication, Journalism, & Media developed this diversity, equity and inclusion plan in accordance with the accreditation standards from ACEJMC and the Central Michigan University Strategic Plan. The School of Communication, Journalism, & Media’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Committee will review this plan every year. In particular, the committee will review the metrics used to measure the effectiveness of the plan next. 

Assessment

In the spirit of accountability and disclosure, the School of Communication, Journalism & Media presents the assessment reports presented to the university assessment council on October 1, 2023, for the ACEJMC accredited programs.