University of Colorado shutters Boulder J-School

Last week, the University of Colorado’s Board of Regents voted to close its School of Journalism, located at the Boulder campus. Before you start blaming it on industry tumult, though, check out this story from the Columbia Review of Journalism, which says that the outcome is not as bad as many feared it would be.

For instance, contrary to what everybody thought last August — when the university created a committee to look at discontinuing the J-School — top school officials have now said they’d like to perserve journalism education at the university. Of course, the question now is what that education might look like.

In addition to reading the CJR story, check out the story by Boulder-based paper the Daily Camera about the vote, and ensuing reaction to the news.

You’ll also find a bit of background about what led to the vote at the Huffington Post: The J-School’s undergraduate program was placed under provisional credit on March, after the accrediting council found it lacking n the “mission, admin and governance” category. It would have had two years to get its act together to remain accredited.

The school’s master’s program in newsgathering, however, failed to uphold three of the nine neccessary standards; the council voted last month to strip it of its accredition. A final decision was scheduled for the end of this month.