SJGC raising minimum admission requirements

The School of Journalism and Graphic Communication raises GPA requirement to 3.0 for incoming students beginning Fall of 2019
Photo Submitted by Josiah George

The School of Journalism and Graphic Communication is now increasing the minimum eligibility requirements it takes in order to get into the program. There is now a requirement to have a 3.0 Grade Point Average on a 4.0 scale or B average for new and incoming students beginning in the Fall of 2019.

This new requirement is to make sure students are more prepared than they have been in the past. Dean of SJGC, Michelle Ferrier, noted prospective students must have excellent grades in English classes and a strong overall GPA.

“What we are looking at is the English courses and GPA, for the best indicators that students can be successful in our programs,” Ferrier said. “We still have in place the course requirements that needs to be satisfied to come in the program.”

Ferrier explained the faculty of SJGC was looking toward the future in terms of some changes that needed to be made such as, increasing the GPA requirement or putting other measures in place to make sure the students are successful.

The new requirement will make sure students know basic writing skills, and are head first in learning the new material. The faculty will vote to bring the limited access program back if expectations aren’t met, making the program requirement higher than the universities standard for enrollment.

SJGC division director, William Jiles, expressed the new requirements would help the program produce more competitive students and diversify the students in the program.

“It’s changing our recruiting target and it will help us remain competitive against other schools,” Jiles said. “We will aggressively strive to get the best and brightest in all demographics to improve our diversity.”

Students can become more prepared for the advanced writing classes which will help them achieve the mandatory requirements for their senior capstone presentations. SJGC is intending to make sure the students are well prepared on order for the students to feel confident in their academic and professional work.  

SJGC professor, Francine Huff, detailed the new requirement will help strengthen the program overall. She believed this would bring in students who are academically prepared to do the work and help the program develop more talented graduates.

“I feel that the quality of work will be better than average, and the admitted students will be proficient in the skills that will help them to be successful in this program,” Huff said. “It will help me and the students with me not having to review the basics.”

FAMU has also raised the GPA requirement to a 3.0 university wide. The Florida Board of Governors have composed a performance standard metrics on FAMU.  The university will begin to earn more funding with the increase in graduation rates as the number of graduates influences how much performance based funding FAMU receives.

SJGC professor, Kenneth Jones, spoke on the great improvement of SJGC, and the results to come with the new university requirement being implemented.

“It will offer our university an opportunity to scale up even higher,” Jones said. “The programs that we have, thusly impacting our student’s internships, jobs and graduation rates.”