Merced College Program Investigation: Journalism Summer/Fall 2012 Journalism Program History In accordance with Title 5, Section 51022, “College districts are required by current regulation and statute to develop a process for program discontinuance and minimum criteria for the discontinuance of occupational programs.” Merced College Administrative Procedure 4021 (AP 4021) governs the program discontinuance process at Merced College. A program is defined as “an organized sequence of courses leading to a defined objective, a degree, a certificate, a diploma, a license, or transfer to another institution of higher learning” (Title 5, Section 55000). The Merced College (MCCD) Journalism Program was first approved by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) almost 50 years ago (1962). This program prepares students for entry-level positions as writers, reporters, photographers, designers, copy editors, and fact checkers for newspapers, newsletters, or magazines and other entry level careers that include writing, editing, photography, and/or page layout and design. The program also prepares students for transfer to a four- year college or university where they may pursue further studies in journalism, mass communications, and related fields. While taking courses in journalism at Merced College, students may gain practical experience by contributing to the production of the Merced College Newspaper, The Devil’s Advocate. Production of The Devil’s Advocate offers students the opportunity to engage in a variety of journalistic roles, including editing, interviewing, writing, page layout, design, and photography. Prior to Spring 2009, production of the newspaper was offered as a course (JOUR-32). Currently, it is offered as a student club under the leadership of two part-time instructors Methodology The Office of Grants and Institutional Research was asked to identify some quantitative indicators to further inform the discussion on program discontinuance. The quantitative indicators examined were: 1. Productivity a. Full-Time Equivalent Faculty (FTEF) b. Full-Time Equivalent Students (FTES) c. Enrollment i. Total Enrollment ii. Retention iii. Success iv. Persistence d. Frequency of course offerings e. Student Demographics i. Age ii. Ethnicity iii. Gender 2. Program Interest and Graduates 3. Comparable programs 4. Labor market information 5. Results of state and/or national examinations and accreditation 9/28/12 1 6. Student job placements The focus of this report was the students who enrolled in any journalism (JOUR) core courses during the primary terms from Fall 1999 to Fall 2008. Journalism core courses include JOUR-01 (Mass Media and Society), JOUR-08 (Introduction to Newswriting and Reporting), JOUR-32 (Newspaper Staff) and PHOT- 10A (Basic Photograph). PHOT-10A is also a core course for a photography degree. The majority of those who enroll in PHOT-10A do not take a JOUR course. PHOT-10A also comprises the majority of enrollment in journalism core courses. This skews the results; therefore, PHOT-10A was not considered in this study. The research requestor had indicated a data timeframe of Fall 2006 to current. However, JOUR-01 has not been offered since Fall 2001 and JOUR-08 has not been offered since Spring 2002. Fall 2008 was the last term in which JOUR-32 was offered as a course. (Note: production of the newspaper has resumed as a student club under the supervision of two part-time instructors.) Therefore, the timeframe has been adjusted to encompass the dates when each of these courses was last offered. FTEF The following table reflects FTEF only for JOUR-32 from Fall 2006-Fall 2008. Earlier data and data for JOUR-01 and JOUR-08 was not available. Historically, journalism courses were taught by adjunct professors. Table 1: FTEF Term Sections Students PT-FTEF FTEF Fall 2006 2 20 0.27 0.27 Fall 2007 2 24 0.27 0.27 Fall 2008 2 30 0.27 0.27 Source: MCCD ODS FTES FTES was calculated by summing the “Total Hours” (refer to SXD4 in CCCCO MIS Data Element Dictionary) in all the enrollment records reported to CCCCO MIS during the requested time period, then dividing by 525*. If “Total Hours” could not be derived because data is missing or set to “Unknown/Unreported”, the enrollments were not included. The following table provides a term-by-term view of FTES for the Journalism Program as defined by CCCCO Taxonomy of Programs (T.O.P.) code. Table 2: FTES Term 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total Fall 2.13 2.23 1.37 1.71 1.54 2.06 2.06 1.37 2.06 2.57 17.04 Spring N/A 2.20 1.82 1.02 1.54 1.20 2.06 1.20 1.89 .86 13.79 Total 2.13 4.43 3.19 2.73 3.08 3.26 4.12 2.57 3.95 3.43 30.83 Source: CCCCO DataMart * This methodology is not the same as the methodology used in calculating FTES for the 320 report. 9/28/12 2 Enrollment Enrollment consisted of students who registered for a journalism core class (JOUR-01, JOUR-08, and/or JOUR-32) and received a letter grade A, B, C, D, F, P, NP, I, W, FW, MW during Fall 1999 to Fall 2008. During this time frame, 212 students enrolled in journalism core courses, representing 141 unique students. Of the 212 enrollments, 49 were in JOUR-01 and/or JOUR-08, and 163 were in JOUR-32. Table 3: Enrollment Enrollment Annual Term JOUR-01 JOUR-08 JOUR-32 Total Total 1999F 9 0 7 16 2000S 0 13 5 18 34 2000F 10 0 7 17 2001S 0 7 7 13 30 2001F 5 0 5 10 2002S 0 5 3 8 18 2002F 0 0 11 11 2003S 0 0 10 10 21 2003F 0 0 9 9 2004S 0 0 7 7 16 2004F 0 0 12 12 2005S 0 0 11 11 23 2005F 0 0 11 11 2006S 0 0 7 7 18 2006F 0 0 8 8 2007S 0 0 11 11 19 2007F 0 0 12 12 2008S 0 0 5 5 17 2008F 0 0 15 15 15 Enrollment Total 24 25 163 212 Source: MCCD Datatel A student was retained in a course until the end of the term if the student earned a letter grade A, B, C, P, D, F, NP, or I. The retention rate is the percent of students retained until the end of the term. A student earned a successful grade in a course by receiving letter grades A, B, C, or P. The course success rate is the percent of students who are successful in the course out of the total enrolled. Of these 212 students, 79.72% were retained and 74.06% succeeded in the core classes. Data from Fall 2002-Fall 2008 only reflect JOUR-32, the newspaper, the only course offered during that timeframe. Retention and success rates were very similar for this course. 9/28/12 3 Table 4: Retention and Success Rates Retained Successful Enrollment Term Number Percent Number Percent Total 1999F 12 75.00% 11 68.75% 16 2000S 12 66.67% 10 55.56% 18 2000F 11 64/71% 9 52.94% 17 2001S 9 64.29% 9 64.29% 13 2001F 6 60.00% 6 60.00% 10 2002S 8 100.00% 8 100.00% 8 2002F 9 81.82% 9 81.82% 11 2003S 8 80.00% 6 60.00% 10 2003F 9 100.00% 9 100.00% 9 2004S 6 85.71% 6 85.71% 7 2004F 10 83.33% 10 83.33% 12 2005S 11 100.00% 9 81.82% 11 2005F 9 81.82% 9 81.82% 11 2006S 6 85.71% 4 57.14% 7 2006F 8 100.00% 8 100.00% 8 2007S 10 90.91% 10 90.91% 11 2007F 10 83.33% 10 83.33% 12 2008S 5 100.00% 5 100.00% 5 2008F 10 66.67% 9 60.00% 15 Total 169 79.72% 158 74.06% 212 Source: MCCD Datatel Program persistence measures the percent of students who enrolled in more than one journalism core course (JOUR-01, JOUR-08, or JOUR-32) during the reporting time frame. After Spring 2002, only JOUR- 32 was offered, so program persistence is irrelevant. Out of 141 unique students who enrolled in a journalism core course, 13 enrolled in two of these courses and 1 student enrolled in all three. This student did not, however, earn a degree in journalism. (MCCD Datatel). Frequency of Course Offerings During Fall 1999-Fall 2008, one section of JOUR-32 was offered in each term and had enrollment counts between 3 and 15 students in a given term. One section of JOUR-01 was offered in Fall 1999, Fall 2000, and Fall 2001. Enrollment ranged from 5 to 10 students a semester. One section of JOUR-08 was offered in Spring 2000, Spring 2001, and Spring 2002. Between 5 and 13 students enrolled in this course each term. Student Demographics Journalism courses were typically enrolled by students between the ages of 18 to 24 (66.04%). In general, numbers reflect the population of the college as a whole. 9/28/12 4 Graph 1: Age 45-49 Unknown/ Decline under 18 1.89% to State 1.89% 40-44 0.47% 35-39 1.89% 4.72% 50+ 7.08% 18-19 30-34 32.08% 6.60% 25-29 9.43% 20-24 33.96% Source: MCCD ODS Journalism courses were more commonly enrolled by White Non-Hispanics (45.28%) and Hispanics (31.33%). This is very different from the college as a whole (White Non-Hispanic 25.23%, Hispanic 47.42%).