A Dream Come True:

By Lloyd Bravo

Since 2004, Dr. Nancy Cheever has dreamed of getting the CSUDH Journalism Program accredited. This year, after a grueling five-year review process, her dream became reality when the Journalism Program finally received national accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education (ACEJMC) in Journalism and Mass Communications.

As an undergraduate student, Cheever had a passion for journalism and academics; however, while attending Orange Coast College in Orange County, she spoke with her counselors about wanting a better opportunity that would help her make a difference and provide a more diverse journalism experience.

She left OCC to attend CSUDH, where she was able to develop closer relationships with her professors and peers due to the smaller class sizes that enabled easier communications and learning opportunities.

“I was able to get into classes I wanted as I eventually got on the newspaper, where I became Editor-in-Chief,” Dr. Cheever said. “That experience helped me secure a great internship that would provide me with a really good job after graduation.”

After graduating from CSUDH in 1994 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications (Journalism Option), Cheever began her professional career as a copy editor and page designer for the Tahoe Daily Tribune in South Lake Tahoe. She then moved back to Southern California and got a job writing for the Huntington Beach Independent newspaper while teaching part-time at CSUDH and Cal State University, Fullerton.

Eventually her expertise would land her jobs at the Daily Pilot and the L.A. Times and, while working for Orange Coast Magazine, which had her focus on feature and “fluff” pieces, Cheever decided to stay in academia and become a full-time professor.

“I really enjoy the university setting and being around learning all the time,” Dr. Cheever said. “I love doing research and I also love writing…but I think journalism and academia are my two passions in life, and I never really wanted to do anything else.”

Cheever eventually went on to pursue two Master’s degrees, one in Journalism at CSUF and the other in Media Psychology at Fielding Graduate University, where in 2010, she also earned her PhD in Media Psychology. Her experience and expertise would ultimately earn her the position as Department Chair of Communications at CSUDH.

As Department Chair, Dr. Cheever began to take the necessary first steps to pursue her goal of having an accredited journalism program. First, there was a massive overhaul in the journalism curriculum that would be designed to focus on career development in a rapidly transforming industry.

By 2018, individual BA programs were introduced in Journalism, Advertising/Public Relations and Film, Television and Media. Before having these specific programs established, Cheever invited the ACEJMC accreditation team to visit the campus for a preliminary evaluation.

“They send two or three people to evaluate the program, then they write a detailed report of all the things that need to either be changed, revised, fixed or improved,” Dr. Cheever said. “It was quite a list, but it was not unattainable.”

Since Dr. Cheever and Dr. Brant Burkey were the only full-time faculty in the Journalism program at the time, the first major revision was to hire more faculty, which was achieved by hiring

Dr. Ana de la Serna and Dr. Fernando Severino. With their academic proficiency, the Communications Department began to flourish, leading to the creation of an advisory board that also included professional journalists from news outlets like the LA Times and Univision.

After adhering to the extensive report provided by the accreditation team, the journalism program began to meet the accreditation recommendations. However, Cheever’s next hurdle was to compile a 125-page self-study report.

The report addressed the nine standards needed to gain accreditation by ACEJMC. The nine standards include a mission statement; curriculum and instruction; diversity and inclusiveness; full-time and part-time faculty; research, creative and professional activity; student services; resources; facilities and equipment; professional and public service; and assessment of learning outcomes.

“It is as long as a dissertation for your PhD,” Dr. Cheever said. “It took me a couple of years to write it, but I finally finished the document in October or September of last semester [2021] and sent it around [the program committee and advisory board] for edits.”

Dr. Cheever then sent the report to the executive director of the ACEJMC for final improvements before being sent to their site team for final approval. Once the document was accepted, a site assessment was scheduled for December 2021 by the ACEJMC team to conduct meetings with faculty, administrators and students.

The ACEJMC visited the campus newspaper, The Bulletin, and spoke with the alumni, faculty, students and advisory board. These crucial meetings were conducted without Dr. Cheever present per ACEJMC procedure. Cheever had no other choice but to wait.

“I just left it up to the universe and whatever happened was going to happen,” Dr. Cheever said. Fortunately, the ACEJMC ended up being impressed with the campus’ Journalism Program and praised Dr. Cheever for her self-study report, recognizing it as one of the best the accreditation team had ever read. With the help of the faculty, advisory board and the students who participated in the meetings, the Journalism Program was recommended for accreditation, having met all nine of the standards implemented by the ACEJMC.

Being an accredited program offers a certain recognition and clout that helps recruit future students, looks good on graduates’ resumes, and provides other useful resources to students like access to grants and writing competitions.

“My primary goal was to do it for the students because I feel like there were so many benefits to being in an accredited program,” Dr. Cheever said.

“We will be able to grow and attract more students and faculty as we also can apply for more grants.”

Receiving more grants could mean more state-of-the-art equipment and possible expansion for the Journalism Program, including a modern media center and newsroom. This could also lead to possible paid editorial positions for editors involved with The Bulletin newspaper.

This has been Dr. Cheever’s biggest accomplishment for the university and the Journalism Program to date. The arduous process of adhering to the massive guidelines and critiques from the ACEJMC has paid off and given CSUDH’s Journalism Program a competitive edge throughout the state as one of only a handful of accredited journalism programs. “I absolutely believe that this is my greatest triumph within the program,” Dr. Cheever said. “We did it, but there is always more work to be done.”