- University catalog information
- This information can either printed or accessible via the web.
- Description of courses
- Provide descriptions of your journalism/mass communication courses.
- Curriculum requirements
- Provide the curriculum requirements for your journalism/mass communication courses, e.g. what journalism/mass communication courses are required for a degree.
- Thumbnail faculty biographies
- Faculty biographies must include: terminal degree of the faculty member (and from what institution) as well as teaching & research specialties.
- Summary of faculty productivity (over the last 5 years)
- For the faculty combined, how many referred journal articles, refereed convention papers, research-based books, etc., have been produced; as well as other scholarly and professional achievements (e.g., AEJMC panelist, discussant, invited speaker)
- Data about student quality
- Campuswide data, e.g., as evidenced by freshman SAT/ACT scores and data within the journalism/mass communication program, compared to the rest of campus (e.g., how do journalism/mass communication student GPAs compare with other majors on campus).
- History of the program
- History of the journalism/mass communication program
- Administration of the program
- Indicate whether the administration is it a part of a larger unit, or a free-standing academic unit reporting directly to the university’s chief academic officer.
Applications must include information about the standing of the institution and the mass communication/journalism program (including measures of student quality, admission and graduation standards, courses of study and the department’s history, faculty, facilities, degree programs, enrollment and alumni) and must be accompanied by catalog/bulletins information, either in printed form or by link to a web site).
KTA is particularly concerned about the quality of the students, the scholarly activity of the faculty, the adequacy of the facilities and the nature of the curriculum. Most of the Society’s chapters are housed in programs accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC).
Interested institutions submit applications to the Executive Director, who begins a preliminary review. Only applications submitted by authorized faculty members will be considered. If the preliminary review is favorable, a formal vote of the National Council, which consists of the chapter advisers and the national officers, will be conducted.
Following that review, the applicant prepares a much shorter version of the application (no more than six pages) for emailing to the National Council. Further instructions about format will be forwarded following a successful preliminary review.
The preliminary review normally takes about a month, but may take much longer depending on the need for additional information or clarification. Voting by National Council members will take at least 30 days from receipt of summary application materials.
Prior to the National Council vote, the head of the unit (i.e., department, school, college) must submit a letter to the Executive Director formally requesting, and indicating university support of, a chapter of Kappa Tau Alpha. The letter must include a statement that the faculty has discussed the application and voted to support it. The letter also must indicate how you will “institutionalize” Kappa Tau Alpha (that is, what formal procedures will you take to recognize new initiates; e.g., honors banquet or luncheon, formal initiation ceremony, special recognition at commencement).
