Strategies

Vision: We are the heart of Nebraska media.

Mission: Industry and ideas collide in our pioneering “do from day one” experience, rooted in hard work, genuine storytelling and fierce dedication to the truth.

Audacious Goal: To launch every student from the college with a portfolio of published work, built through hands-on, real-world experience.

Value Statements:

We are the heart of Nebraska media: Our graduates permeate every sector of the news, sports media, and strategic communication industries in Nebraska and beyond. They live and work around the corner and around the world, but they will always call Nebraska home. 

Industry and ideas collide here: We harness the collective energy of media industry leaders, creators, strategists, and storytellers to nurture hungry minds. Our faculty have one foot in the profession at all times: conducting applied research, producing creative content, and advancing the industries we serve.  

We pioneer new ideas and new ways of doing things: We value diversity of people and ideas to foster discovery and creative, collaborative problem-solving. Our graduates face the future with confidence, prepared to nimbly evolve with the changing media landscape.

Our students do from day one: We live and breathe experiential learning here. Every student engages in hands-on, industry-centric experiences in and out of the classroom to create a professional portfolio of published and presented work, unique to their strengths, experiences, and career aspirations.

Our mission is rooted in hard work, genuine storytelling and fierce dedication to the truth: We will always stay true to our Nebraska values. If you are looking for creative, hardworking, ethically grounded, and socially responsible media professionals, you will find them at Nebraska.

• Student Survey
• % of students in each year who engage in hands-on opportunities in the classroom (Communication Design, Mosaic, Nebraska News Service, UNLimited Sports, etc.)
• % of students in each year who engage in hands-on opportunities in student organizations (KRNU, Daily Nebraskan, Ad Club, etc.) internships, and industry-related work
• % of students in each year who engage in selective career-enhancing experiences (Jacht, NSAC, Bateman, depth reporting, global eyewitness, etc.) 
• Senior Survey
• % of students with published/presented work at graduation
• % of students with a portfolio at graduation
• % of students with internships or industry-related jobs at graduation
• Alumni Survey
• Full-time, major-related employment rates within the first year of graduation
• Promotions of alumni within the field
• Number of alumni in top leadership position
• Number of alumni who own their own business
• Number of alumni who have returned as guest speakers, mentors, and instructors.
• Employer Survey
• % of recent grads with positive feedback from employers
• % of interns with positive feedback from employers

• Faculty Staff Interviews

• Exit interview - why are they leaving?

The UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications (CoJMC) will be known as a diverse, internationally-recognized home for experiential and creative learning. CoJMC attracts students, faculty and staff who make an impact in their field by creating a global network of donors, alumni, and innovative professionals that build authentic, meaningful, life-long relationships to enrich the communities in Nebraska and beyond.

• Provide inclusive and equitable opportunities for professionals and community members to exchange ideas, interact with faculty, and interact with one another.
• Seek out, build and foster ongoing mutually beneficial relationships with diverse donors, alumni and communities.
• Translate faculty creative activities, professional development and research for public consumption and engagement.
• Develop experiential and hands-on learning opportunities to help employment of students and alumni.
• Enhance industry relations to develop strategic partnerships and outreach opportunities.
• Enhance national/international awards and rankings; increase college visibility; build brand equity.

• Student & Graduate Employment
• Landings for summer internships
• Full-time employment
• Agency/Business Owners
• Increased Engagement of Alumni and Stakeholders
• Fundraising and donations
• Corporate outreach
• Alumni interactions with the college
• Impact of Experiential & Creative Learning
• Interdisciplinary opportunities or innovative partnerships with other academic units
• Professional mentorships, hands-on class experiences, client work
• Strategic Industry Partnerships
• Industry/Professional partnerships
• Impact of community, industry & global partners
• National Awards & Recognition
• Earned media mentions with positive sentiment & placement
• Scholarly & creative awards
• Alumni & faculty recognitions

• Community:  Prioritize community-building that recognizes and respects diversity in all its forms while ensuring a safe and inclusive environment for all. 
• Recruit:  Attract and retain diverse faculty, staff and students committed to our values of hard work, curiosity and collaboration.
• Develop:  Commit to the development of the unique talents of every faculty, staff and student. 
• Connect: Establish and support dynamic networks of excellence across the college, the university and the profession to foster community, collaboration, and innovation through the collision of ideas.
• Advance:  Prioritize the “people experience” through a commitment to supporting the advancement of all throughout every stage of their career.
• Recognize: Recognize and reward individuals who demonstrate a commitment of our values through their actions and achievements.

• Student and External Recognition: Awards to faculty, staff, students, programs, student organizations, alumni, etc; invitations to speak.
• Professional Development: Promotions, tenure; faculty and staff retention; participation in development opportunities; research and creative output; honors students; graduates with distinction; UCARE, FYRE participation; job placement.
• Leadership: Leadership positions held on campus, in the academy, industry and community.
• Partnerships: #s of: cross-campus collaborations; collaborative publications, grants, fellowships, co-sponsorships; joint academic and research programs; real clients/publishers.
• Climate: Diversity of faculty, staff and students; diversity of new hires; participation in RSOs; event attendance; social opportunities; results of climate survey; retention, graduation numbers; net transfer students.
• Evolution: curriculum reviews completed; new special topics, pop-ups created; new programs; spaces/classrooms renovated/updated; experimental technology purchased

• Create interdisciplinary learning opportunities
• Provide opportunities for students to learn from industry professionals and community members to exchange ideas, interact with faculty, and interact with one another
• Work with real world clients and challenges that are published through collaborations with industry partners
• Increase curricular flexibility and accessibility of all programs to stay current with industry trends
• Prioritize excellence in, and best practices of teaching and learning in JMC education
• Refine and invest in distinctive and exceptional educational experiences
• Recruit, enroll and retain talented students
• Emphasize student wellness, professionalism, and responsibilities to reach their potential

• Academic involvement and internship experiences of our student body
• # study abroad opportunities
• # industry/media tours
• # courses working with industry partners
• # of internships
• # of active student orgs and mentor programs
• # of successful competitive teams
• # of apps to scholarships, contests, special programs
• # of networking with industry and employers
• # of UCARE and FYRE projects
• # of publications from courses
• # of awards earned by students
• All students successfully market themselves using polished resume/cover letter/port. by the time they graduate
• Makeup of current student body
• Increase diversity (minorities/underrep, first gen, low income)
• Increase student success: graduation rate, time to graduation
• Prospective students
• # of tours
• Engagement in learning community
• Accessibility of facilities, equipment, faculty, staff and alumni
• Open door policy
• 24 hours access to building
• Access to equipment
• Quick and thorough feedback
• Collaborative spaces available (comm design and open studios)
• Student support services, meetings always available with advisors, career dev. specialist
• # of faculty participating in TOPS! peer review program 
• Flexible and relevant curriculum
• Bi-annual competitor analysis of peers and industry trends: curriculum, courses, topics, brand as college/professor, up-to-date curriculum based on media industry trends
• Annual assessment of one program in the undergraduate curriculum
• # of pop-up courses each semester
• # of courses working on real-world projects
• Academic measures of success for student success - Satisfaction, graduation rates, retention rate
• Development of a 4+1 program
• Development of an online completion program

• Increase course offerings, packaging most in eight-week, all-online, asynchronous formats useful to and convenient for far-flung students, as well as those on campus
• Encourage faculty to develop more course offerings and be more engaged with the graduate program, recognizing that we are primarily undergraduate-oriented
• Reduce dependency on adjuncts
• Commit to marketing to and recruiting academically talented students, targeting professional organizations of journalists, public relations, and advertising
• Build a 4 plus 1 master’s program to encourage undergraduates to look to our graduate program
• Build a solid alumni network, which can help current students and graduates alike to foster community and support the program, and enhance the experiential nature of our program
• Encourage students to join and become involved with professional organizations
• Build relationships with employers who can route students to us and perhaps pay for students to attend our programs
• Enhance the rigor of our program with regular reviews of syllabi and assessments of courses and faculty, both in-house and adjuncts
• Bring in outside reviewers from other Research 1 universities, particularly in the Big Ten, to suggest ways to step up the rigor of our program and to improve it
• Explore developing a Ph.D. program featuring both in-person and online offerings

• Enrollment in master’s degree and certificate programs
• Completion times to degree or certificate
•  Number of courses scheduled regularly and offered in each major
• Increase in certificate offerings 
• Number of students who move from certificate into master’s programs
• Student satisfaction levels
• Moves into doctoral programs or new jobs within six months of graduating
• Quality of students admitted, via undergraduate GPA and/or industry experience levels

• Create an environment that encourages development and success in research and creative activity among faculty
• Provide an environment that encourages student success in research and creative activity
•  Build a collaborative research atmosphere within CoJMC and across the UNL units and NU campuses
• Nurture a culture within CoJMC that encourages and rewards productive researchers and offers incentives to faculty who actively seek grants
• Develop a steady promotional message that will establish CoJMC as a distinguished research and creative activity institution through online, traditional, and interpersonal channels of communication

• Publications (scholarly including books, chapters, textbooks, reviews, documentaries and other works)
• Ratings of the publishing journals would be relevant
• Impact on public discourse
• Citations by other scholars
• Impact measures of publications
• Publications (professional)
• Impact on the profession
• Initiatives arising from the research or publication
•  Work with local communities (newsletters, advertising and public relations campaigns)
• Exhibitions
• Video and audio productions
• Development of other media products
• Symposiums, conferences, and workshops
• Collaborations and outreach
• Within the discipline
• Across disciplines
• Grants (including funds obtained by faculty and students for creative and research endeavors through the college and/or possibly in collaboration with the Office of Graduate Studies)
• Research and creative collaboration and outreach
• Media citations
• Awards
• Invited presentations – Might want to also include conference presentations more specifically, such as AEJMC, and address involvement/contributions by both faculty and students.
• Geographical reach of the publication
• Creation of new knowledge
• Students in UCARE
• Master’s theses

Student Experience: We connect with students on a personal level to provide a “students-first” learning environment that is accessible, caring and supportive of all learners, so that they feel challenged and grow as they prepare for professional careers or advanced education.

Experiential Learning: We provide inclusive, innovative, and challenging experiential learning experiences in and out of the classroom based on concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation enhanced by industry partners that empower graduates with a professional advantage.

Layman’s Terms:

• "Students-First” Approach
• Build on the positive “community-feel” environment in our college that includes open doors, cross- and team-teaching, mentoring, and overall personal connections among learners, faculty, staff, professionals, and alumni. This requires additional resources, including additional faculty and staff lines. Faculty approach every day with a “students-first” mindset.
• The Nebraska Way: An Experiential Learning Credential
• We can build more intentional partnerships with the various industries we serve. They would come up with real-world experiences for our students focused specifically on short-term experiential learning. These opportunities would be different from internships in that they would focus on a specific problem or project that can be completed in a short period of time. It would give students an experiential learning opportunity that includes the four components of “The Nebraska Way,” while helping the industry with a fresh student perspective on a particular problem or project. This work can count toward “The Nebraska Way” credential.
• Funding in Support of Experiential Learning
• Not all students are able to afford experiential learning outside Lincoln, which limits their opportunities to experience different ways of thinking and solving problems. Funding is needed to make these types of experiences possible, particularly in terms of internships in larger markets and education abroad opportunities.
• College-wide Mentoring Program
• Some of our students have access to mentoring programs through student clubs, such as PRSSA. We can use the model(s) that already exist and create a college-wide mentoring program that will give more students access to professionals. By establishing a college-wide mentoring program, we can measure success more easily and avoid duplicative efforts. It would require a staff person to coordinate this program. Participation in the mentoring program could also be used toward “The Nebraska Way” credential.
• Partnerships with industry
• We can build more intentional partnerships with the various industries we serve. They would come up with real-world experiences for our students focused specifically on short-term experiential learning. These opportunities would be different from internships in that they would focus on a specific problem or project that can be completed in a short period of time. It would give students an experiential learning opportunity that includes the four components of “The Nebraska Way,” while helping the industry with a fresh student perspective on a particular problem or project. This work can count toward “The Nebraska Way” credential.

• Student Experience

• # of support staff

• # of faculty sponsoring extracurriculars

• # of staff to student ratio

• # of faculty to student ratio

• # of students with jobs directly out of college

• # of grad school applications

• Experiential Learning

• # of opportunities available to (accessible to?) majority of students (>inclusion>)

• # of BIPOC and LGBTQA+ students with internships/jobs directly of out college

• # of influential BIPOC and LGBTQA+ alums in related fields 

• # of students w/internships

• # of companies that professors/staff cultivate relationships with

• # of students participating in extracurriculars

• # of students with jobs directly out of college

• # of influential alums in related fields

• # of students studying abroad

• National Survey of Student Engagement