The J-School Explosion

In Ohio State's "Journalism 643 (The World Press, Mon. thru Thurs. 9-10)," a dozen students have had to sit on the floor because the course had been oversubscribed. At the University of Texas, a new journalism building is so crowded that instructors have to share already cramped office space. To discourage applications, the University of Missouri's bulging journalism school this year raised its entrance requirements; applications rose 25% anyway.

Would-be Woodwards and Bernsteins are queuing up for the nation's 213 undergraduate and graduate journalism programs in unprecedented numbers. Though overall enrollments are beginning to recede from their babyboom peaks, journalism education flourishes as never before. Last year 48,327 students were studying the subject, up nearly 16% from 1972. When the count for the current academic year is complete, it will show another increase. At the better-known schools, the rush has been particularly frenetic. Applications for the 128 places at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism almost doubled last year, to about 1,000, and the school has already filled 2,000 requests for 1975 application forms.

Job Shortage. One reason for the J-school boom is the press's role in Watergate. Says Buck Harvey, 23, editor of the University of Texas' Daily Texan: "Journalism is one of the few professions that require integrity. The pay is small. But that doesn't bother me, because you don't have to put up a facade." Prior to the scandal, the old images of tough muckrakers and dashing foreign correspondents had faded. Now some of the glamour is back. Says Richard Petrow, dean of New York University's program: "When Robert Redford plays the lead in a movie about two reporters, you know something is happening." What is happening is that Watergate has persuaded many students that journalism is an exciting, socially valuable occupation.

Journalism now has another, more compelling lure. Jobs for students with liberal arts degrees have been scarce in recent years, and many are eager to learn a trade. Graduate journalism schools report an influx of jobless teachers, engineers and lawyers. Says Campbell Titchener, chairman of the University of Houston's communications department: "Students today want something a little more practical for their college dollars."

Many of them end up shortchanged. Only two-thirds of last spring's 11,000 journalism graduates have found employment in the field. The rest have drifted into other areas or onto unemployment rolls. Typical of the surplus talent is Sallie Low, 22, who graduated with honors last May from Texas' broadcast-journalism program. "I sent off 75 resumes and got 50 responses, but no jobs," she reports. "The school should let people know what they are in for." J-school deans insist that students who are willing to specialize in such subjects as science and economics or to forgo a high-salaried debut in a big-city newsroom will have little trouble finding work. "If they want to take a job in a small town in Wyoming at $90 a week, there's no problem," says Donald Wright, an assistant professor at Texas.

For the short run, smaller newspapers and broadcast operations will be the main beneficiaries of the huge new crop of job candidates. Such news organizations have often had difficulty in attracting and keeping bright, aggressive young people. Over a longer period, the graduate glut may have broader implications. Journalism degrees are becoming so common that companion specialities will be increasingly necessary to land the best jobs. The U.S. press has always been short of expertise in such fields as economics, science, urban planning and the law. In the future, it will be easier to fill that gap.

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