Public Accountability

STUDENT SUCCESS | Public Accountability 2022-23

To provide public accountability as required by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication's standards, the CSUN Journalism Department maintains and annually posts information on several indicators of student success. The data include retention and graduation rates for first-time freshmen and new transfer students over a five-year period.
The chart below also contains overall enrollment and other relevant information about majors and minors.
Similar data about the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media and Communication as well as the entire university are available at CSUN Counts, maintained by the university's Office of Institutional Research.

Retention Rates for CSUN Journalism Majors

FALL ENTRY YEAR COHORTS	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016
FIRST-TIME FRESHMEN ENROLLED ONE YEAR AFTER ENTRY TOTAL	38	59	83	78	63
PERCENT WHO CONTINUED INTO SECOND YEAR (PERSISTENCE RATE)	84.2 (32)	91.4 (54)	86.8 (46)	88.5 (69)	71.4 (45)
NEW TRANSFERS ENROLLED ONE YEAR AFTER ENTRY TOTAL	80	83	45	65	60
PERCENT WHO CONTINUED INTO SECOND YEAR (PERSISTENCE RATE)	91.3 (73)	92.8 (77)	84.4 (38)	90.8 (59)	86 (43)

GRADUATION RATES FOR CSUN JOURNALISM MAJORS

For the 2017 First-Time Freshmen cohort, 42.3 percent graduated in four years, compared to the campus-wide rate of 54.8 percent.
For the 2019 First-Time Transfer cohort, 53 percent graduated in two years, compared to the campus-wide rate of 47.4 percent.

FIRST-TIME FRESHMEN AFTER SIX YEARS
FALL ENTRY YEAR COHORT	2015 (2021)	2014 (2020)	2013 (2019)	2012 (2018)	2011 (2017)
TOTAL	82	110	133	84	137
PERCENT WHO GRADUATED	62.2 (51)	70 (77)	64.7 (86)	65.5 (55)	60.6 (83)
PERCENT LIKELY TO GRADUATE* (PERSISTENCE RATE)	64.6	73.6	67.7	67.9	61.3

NEW TRANSFER STUDENTS AFTER THREE YEARS
FALL ENTRY YEAR COHORT	2018 (2021)	2017 (2020)	2016 (2019)	2015 (2018)	2014 (2017)
TOTAL	45	65	50	94	117
PERCENT WHO GRADUATED	75.6 (34)	83 (54)	74 (37)	64.9 (61)	76.1 (89)
PERCENT LIKELY TO GRADUATE* (PERSISTENCE RATE)	82.2	89.2	82	73.4	76.9

* These students either graduated from or were enrolled at CSUN after six years and are considered likely to graduate. 
** These students either graduated from or were enrolled at CSUN after three years and are considered likely to graduate

JOURNALISM GRADUATES BY YEAR AND PROGRAM

	2020-21	2019-20	2018-19	2017-18	2016-17
JOURNALISM MAJOR	156	139	154	144	194
JOURNALISM MINOR	6	33	21	19	27
SPANISH-LANGUAGE INTERDISCIPLINARY MINOR*	11	22	13	14	14

* The majority are Journalism majors.

JOURNALISM ACADEMIC YEAR GRADE POINT AVERAGES

FALL/CSUN	2020-21	2019-20	2018-19	2017-18	2016-17
AVERAGE GPA IN MAJOR	3.15	2.99	23.03	2.95	2.99
ACADEMIC YEAR	2020-21	2019-20	2018-19	2017-18	2016-17
FIRST-TIME FRESHMEN AT EXIT	3.15	2.96	2.97	2.98	3.03
FIRST-TIME TRANSFER AT EXIT	3.16	3.06	3.09	2.91	2.95
OTHER	2.92	2.44			3.44

JOURNALISM UNDERGRADUATE BY FALL SEMESTER HEADCOUNT LEVEL

	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017*
FRESHMAN	61	55	76	82	107
SOPHOMORE	51	64	75	83	91
JUNIOR	147	168	167	140	164
SENIOR	146	174	148	185	185
TOTAL	405	461	466	490	547

*CSUN imposed enrollment impaction, beginning in Fall 2016. This reduced eligible applications and admittance to students in Tier 1 boundary.

DEGREE RECIPIENTS’ ACADEMIC YEAR HEADCOUNT BY ETHNICITY

FIRST-TIME FRESHMEN	2020-21	2019-20	2018-29	2017-18	2016-17
TRADITIONALLY UNDERSERVED	59	68	56	66	71
– American Indian/Alaskan native
– Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
– African American	8	7	9	6	13
– Latina/o	45	59	43	56	54
ASIAN	5	4	6	5	2
WHITE	13	4	7	10	13
MULTI-RACE/OTHER	6	2	4	4	4
UNKNOWN	2	2	5	4	2
INTERNATIONAL	0	3	3	1	1
TOTAL	79	81	77	86	89

FIRST-TIME TRANSFER	2020-21	2019-20	2018-19	2017-18	2016-17
TRADITIONALLY UNDERSERVED	48	40	55	29	62
– American Indian/Alaskan native			1		1
– Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
– African American	7	3	3	8	11
– Latina/o	36	37	45	18	49
ASIAN	1	1	2	5	8
WHITE	20	14	14	16	26
MULTI-RACE/OTHER	5	2	2	3	5
UNKNOWN	3		4	5	6
INTERNATIONAL	4		2	3	1
TOTAL	76	55	77	58	103

DEGREE RECIPIENTS’ HEADCOUNT BY GENDER

	2020-21	2019-20	2018-19	2017-18	2016-17
		FIRST-TIME FRESHMEN
Female	61 (77%)	60 (74%)	57 (74%)	65 (75%)	65 (73%)
Male	18 (23%)	21 (26%)	20 (26%)	21 (24%)	24 (27%)
Non-binary
		FIRST-TIME TRANSFER
Female	44 (58%)	34 (54.5%)	45 (58.4%)	38 (66%)	66 (64%)
Male	32 (42%)	25 (45.5%)	32 (41.5%)	20 (34%)	37 (36%)
Non-binary

JOURNALISM UNDERGRADUATES HEADCOUNT BY INTEREST

	2021	2020	2019	2018*	2017
– JOURNALISM		3	8	30	54
– OPTION: BROADCAST	158	174	139	44	166
– BROADCAST	2	3	19	19
– GENERAL	6	15	65	122	174
– MAGAZINE		1	7	16	29
– JOURNALISM MAJOR	127	155	126	79
– PRINT/ONLINE (NEWSPAPER)		1	1	4	12
– PHOTOJOURNALISM		1	2	12	25
– PUBLIC RELATIONS		3	9	63	87
– OPTION: PUBLIC RELATIONS	107	105	90	21
TOTAL	400	461	466	490	547

* In Fall 2018, Journalism enacted a sweeping curriculum redesign, eliminating the multiple emphases or concentrations in the major and creating formal options in Broadcast or Public Relations. Previously, starting in 2009, all journalism majors were listed as “general” interest, although the majority continued to follow a particular emphasis, such as “broadcast” or “public relations,” in their course selections.

JOURNALISM UNDERGRADUATES / FALL SEMESTER HEADCOUNT BY PELL GRANT; FIRST GENERATION

	2021	2020	2019	2018*	2017	2016
GRANT RECIPIENT TOTAL	213 (53.5%)	228 (49.5%)	262 (56.1%)	277 (56.5%)	337 (61.6%)	352 (57.1%)
NO GRANT	192 (53.5%)	233 (50.5%)	204 (43.8%)	213 (43.5%)	210 (38.4%)	264 (42.9%)
FIRST GENERATION	275 (67.9%)	319 (69.1%)	340 (72.9%)	354 (72.2%)	401 (73.3%)	442 (71.7%)
TOTAL MAJORS	405	461	466	490	547	616

All data updated in Fall 2022

Department Chair