THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER FOR DRAKE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1884
THE TIMES-DELPHIC DES MOINES, IOWA | MONDAY, FEB. 21, 2011 | VOL. 129, NO. 28 | WWW.TIMESDELPHIC.COM
Making the grade
School of Journalism and Mass Communication gets positive report after on-campus accrediting visit
Senate discusses two possible changes to BSC
by Kristen Smith
Copy Editor kristen.smith@drake.edu
Professors organized book shelves, cleared desks and tidied up offices. Facility Services shined doorknobs and wiped down computer keyboards. Silk ties and black suits replaced jeans and Drake apparel. Heels clicked down the halls. The School of Journalism and Mass Communication was dressed to impress. Six years have passed since the last accreditation renewal. The accreditation team arrived Sunday, Feb.13, to begin the intensive review process of the journalism program that continued through the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 16. “In academic circles, accreditation is the ‘Good Housekeeping’ seal of approval,” said Kathleen Richardson, director of SJMC and associate professor of journalism. “It’s an outside, knowledgeable, neutral source to tell prospective students that this school is doing its job and fulfilling its promises.” Drake has maintained its accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications since 1972. The Council makes site visits every six years to renew a school’s accreditation status. Preparation for the visit began during the 2009-10 school year. Richardson and other SJMC faculty gathered research, statistics and student work to assemble the self-study, the first step in the renewal process. The 300-plus page report holds every possible detail about the journalism program. “Our students are getting jobs in a down economy. We have the highest internship rate on campus,” Richardson said. “Our conclusion is that we’re doing a hell of a job.” Richardson mailed the completed self-study to the five members of the accreditation team in November. The team included professors from Penn State, the University of Kansas, the University of Nebraska and industry
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It’s like being a great reporter. You have to do homework, prepare for the interviews, ask questions, and then turn around and give a report, like a story of what you learned. -Charlie Edwards, SJMC Dean
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professionals who each specialize in a certain major. “Even though the evaluators are coming in from bigger schools, they are not judging us from the standards of their universities,” Richardson said. “They’re making sure we’re being the best Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication we can be.” The Council developed a set of nine evaluation standards to foster and encourage excellence. The standards assess the curriculum, faculty, facilities and scholarship, among other aspects of the journalism program. The two-day site visit provides the team time to gather evidence to determine if a school is in compliance with the standards. Team members joined classes, met with faculty members and engaged in small and large group discussions with students. “It’s like being a great reporter,” Dean of SJMC Charlie Edwards said.
Membership changes and media fee proposed by Sean Walsh
Staff Wriwter sean.walsh@drake.edu
photo by CONNOR MCCOURTNEY | photo editor
DRAKE’S SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION received its accreditation report from a site visit team from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications on Wednesday. “You have to do homework, prepare for the interviews, ask questions and then turn around and give a report, like a story, of what you learned.” Edwards provided SJMC with an edge. He has been a member on four accreditation teams and has participated in Drake’s past accreditation renewals. “The process is transferable. You always learn something that you can bring back to your school and practice,” Edwards said. The Council outlines three options for accreditation status in its bylaws. A school can be accredited, denied or put on provisional accreditation, which requires a revisit in one year on those failed standards. Schools can fail one or two standards and still be awarded accreditation. The SJMC has failed the diversity and faculty scholarship standards in past renewals. During the 2009-2010 academic year, a council of alumni, faculty, students and professionals met to improve these areas. Senior public relations major Lawrence Crawford is a member of the Journalism Diversity Committee. Crawford works with a diversity consultant who recommends solutions Drake can implement. He brought these solutions to the council meetings last year. “If you embrace the whole process with the right frame of mind, which I think we did, instead of being a burden, the process will be an opportunity for self-reflection,” Richardson said. The price for the total accreditation experience is about $6,000, a sum Edwards argues is unbeatable. “It’s an incredibly generous and valuable process,” Edwards said. “They devote their time here to make Drake better.” Even after Meredith Hall emptied of students on Tuesday night, the accreditation team worked in Meredith 124C. The standards were split up among the team and then melded into one final evaluation. The team had to hand in its written report to President David Maxwell
SEE ACCREDITATION, PAGE 2
Contest involves students in e-mail change by Lauren Horsch
Copy Editor lauren.horsch@drake.edu
Students will have a chance to name the new Microsoft Live@edu e-mail client thanks to a contest sponsored by the Office of Information and Technology. The familiar face of Zimbra on the Drake website will be changed to the Microsoft client for the fall 2011 semester. Mike Perin, the project manager for e-mail migration, said the choice to go with Microsoft was decided by President David Maxwell’s cabinet at the end of last semester after an e-mail migration workgroup made the recommendation.
The contest is designed to help get students involved with the new change. “Well, we want to get the students involved, make them aware of the new system,” Perin said. The contest, which will be announced later today via Twitter, Facebook and blueView, will be conducted online through social media. “Students are more active in social media,” Perin said. “We want to try and reach them with the media they are more used to using.” The only requirement for the contest is that the person entering a name is a student. The winner will be awarded an Xbox 360 Kinect four gigabyte console. The prize was donated to the university by the Microsoft Corporation, according to Perin. The reason for choosing the
Xbox as the prize was because it is a Microsoft product, just like the new e-mail client. The contest, which begins today, will go until March 7. Only one submission is allowed per student. Perin said that students should be creative when they’re thinking of names to submit. The website, which was not available at the time this issue went to press, will also have introductions to the features of Live@edu and how to use it. Students should look for the official announcement coming later today through the Drake University Twitter and Facebook pages, as well as an announcement through blueView for the official website and where to submit naming ideas.
Learning eight days a week
Students say course about The Beatles offers a unique way to study history by Kristen Smith
Copy Editor kristen.smith@drake.edu
Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll defines the era of the 1960s. The Beatles, whom many people consider one of the greatest bands in history, also defined the time period of the ‘60s. The band encompassed the era. It had the look, the catchy lyrics and, what Todd Evans considers, the sound that revolutionized all genres of music, including popular music today. Evans is a professor of journalism who specializes in electronic media at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, but there is one course that he teaches in addition to his
journalism courses. The course is called “The Beatles: Popular Music in Society.” The class only allows 15 to 18 students, and there is always a long wait-list of students who want to get into the course. Evans knows there are many students who want to take the class, but he does not know how many students are on the wait-list. Not that there is any real need for him to look it over. “I’ve never had a student drop the course,” Evans said. “I’m not saying that boastfully, it just feels good for me as a faculty member to be able to help students discover something in an area they might not normally get deep access to in today’s busy, crowded world.” He said while students are excited to learn about this aspect of such an interesting era,
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many people, especially parents, wonder why a course about the Beatles is so enticing to today’s generation. “As we talk on the first day, I ask the question, ‘How many of your parents are saying what the heck are you doing in a class on the Beatles?’” he said. “Almost half of them raise their hands.” Evans said that in today’s world, where hiphop is popular and young people listen to songs through headphones, music is an individualized experience. But, he said, there is something about rock ‘n’ roll that everyone can connect with, which makes a class such as the Beatles
After a few contentious meetings at the start of the spring semester, where debate ranged from the possible addition of a January academic term to changes in the Election Commission rules, Senate met for just over an hour Thursday to discuss just two funding allocation requests. Senators also gave updates on issues previously discussed at meetings this year. Sen. Rachel Kauffold gave an update on proposed changes to the Board of Student Communication (BSC) budget, which funds all of Drake’s publications and broadcasts. There were two main proposals that Kauffold spoke about. “We are going to pursue a motion to change the membership of the BSC, but not dramatically,” Kauffold said. The first proposed change would make the BSC less “journalism-related” by having the student representative on the board be a sophomore, non-journalism student. The current at-large student representative is a firstyear journalism student. The other proposal would implement a media fee separate from the student activity fee, which would create a checks and balances system regulated by both Faculty and Student Senate. Kauffold said that the BSC is in strong support of these proposals. “We think this is going to be the best way to go,” Kauffold said. The next step will be to form a proposal to the Board of Trustees. Sen. Ben Cooper also gave an update to Senate about the status of the proposed J-term. Senate voted unanimously in favor of a resolution in support of the J-term last week. The resolution was passed on to Faculty Senate, which discussed the issue at its meeting last Wednesday, Feb. 16. “Our resolution that we passed was well received by Faculty Senate,” Cooper said. However, the motion was tabled to a further date. Senate voted in favor of two funding requests by student organizations. The first was a $2,170 allocation to Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) to help cover transportation costs to its Regional Competition on March 28 in Chicago. The organization had requested $3,120 but the Student Fees Allocation Committee (SFAC) approved a lower amount, reasoning that the organization should be responsible to pay for some of its lodging. The vote was unanimous.
SEE SENATE, PAGE 2
>>MEETING IN BRIEF • UPDATE: Faculty Senate received Senate’s resolution supporting the addition of a J-term, but Faculty Senate has tabled discussion of the issue • $2,170 to Students in Free Enterprise to cover costs of Regional Competition March 28 in Chicago (original request was $3,120) • $380 to Drake Curling Club to help cover ice rental costs (original request was $720) • DISCUSSED: to proposed membership changes to the Board of Student Communication and implementation of a media fee • NEW FACE AT THE TABLE: Law student Josh Conley replaced Mike Traxinger as this semester’s Law School representative
SEE BEATLES, PAGE 2
NEWS
OPINIONS
FEATURES
SPORTS
VAAD and Honors Council continue movie series
Music and politics: Do they belong together?
Photos from Drake Choir’s Benefit Concert
Men’s basketball defeats Detroit
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