Registration Rumblings
Neeley school re-opens courses to advertising/public relations

By Julie Ann Matonis
Staff Reporter

Due to concerns over the value of the advertising/public relations degree, the M.J. Neeley School of Business and the College of Communications have agreed to continue making upper-division business courses available for about 150 junior and senior advertising/public relations majors, said Maggie Thomas, associate professor of journalism.

A new agreement will allow students declared as advertising/public relations majors to complete their area of emphasis in the Neeley school if they have 69 or more semester hours, Thomas said.

As part of the advertising/public relations curriculum, majors take courses in an 18-hour area of emphasis.

Tommy Thomason, chairman of the journalism department, said many students choose marketing or management as their concentration area. The new business enrollment policy restricts upper-division courses to students who are declared majors or minors in the Neeley school.

Several students, whose degrees were affected by the new business enrollment policies, helped write a Student Government Association resolution that asked the administration to allow current majors to finish needed course work in the Neeley school.

Chuck Williams, associate dean for undergraduates in the M.J. Neeley School of Business, said high class sizes and the number of courses taught by adjunct professors led to the decision to restrict enrollment in upper-division courses.

“We have enjoyed having advertising/public relations students in our business courses,” Williams said. “Their creativity and writing skills add a lot to our classes. But with (more than) 1,600 business majors now, we just don’t have the resources to continue making marketing courses available to 150 advertising/public relations majors a year.”

Thomas, also the head of the advertising/public relations sequence, said the journalism department will have to figure out a way to maintain the high quality of the advertising/public relations program.

“It is a tremendous advantage for our students to have marketing courses,” Thomas said. “The (Neeley school) had to do something and we understand it. It’s devastating for our program and deprives students of learning experiences.”

Thomason said the journalism department is trying to take care of students close to finishing their advertising/public relations degrees and to restructure the department requirements to meet the needs of students beginning their degrees.

“The agreement with the school of business accomplishes the first objective,” Thomason said. “Students who are 55 hours or less from graduation will now be able to get the business courses they need. As for the second objective, our faculty is now looking at different options. We hope to be able to present some proposals soon to the university.”

Williams said departments who want to explicitly list required upper-division business courses for their majors in future course catalogs would have to have support from the business school.

“According to university policy, that unit would propose the change, and then ask the business school to support it,” Williams said. “The only thing that we’re asking is that there are agreed on limits on the number of students who take these courses.”

Julie Ann Matonis
j.a.matonis@student.tcu.edu