LATINO DEGREES:

A supplement to the 2001 Journalism & Mass Communication survey has found that member schools of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities accounted for 31% of all undergraduate degrees granted that year to Hispanics in those fields.

They were spread among 22 Hispanic-serving institutions, including seven in California, five in Texas and three in New Mexico.

Of the 2,239 Hispanic degrees, 693 were granted by HACU institutions. Overall, of the 42,448 degrees awarded, 5.3% were earned by Hispanics, 8.9% by African Americans and 76.6% by whites.

HACU schools and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) are less likely than other universities with journalism and mass communication programs to have a campus paper that publishes at least weekly, a television station or a radio station, the report found.

It also found that HACU and HBCU journalism and mass communication programs have a higher rate of accreditation by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications than non-HACU and non-HBCU programs.

From 1988-2001, 38% of HBCU graduates and 42% of HACU graduates reported holding a full-time job in the communications field six to eight months after graduation while 53%of graduates from other programs reported landing a job.

PRESS CLUB CHASTISED:

At its annual meeting in Miami this month, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications passed a resolution criticizing the National Press Club for giving its annual press criticism award toWilliam McGowan's book Coloring the News: How the Crusade for Diversity Has Corrupted American Journalism.