I have been admitted to the University of Missouri journalism school for next fall with a merit scholarship and directed admittance to the J school. It was my first choice. With the recent events at Mizzou, I am rethinking my decision. My concerns are both safety, and the value/reputation of the school going forward. Any thoughts?
I’m a current freshman in the j-school. I’ve been on campus throughout all of this and am a part of some media orgs here on campus so I’ve had the unique part to be a student and journalist during this.
During the past week, tours have gone on and it’s been interesting to pass a tour group and gauge their reactions. I know that there are many students who are refusing to go here in light of recent events (whether it be that they don’t like the racism or the protests) and I think everyone is at the very least questioning whether they should go here. I definitely would never say, “Oh yeah, absolutely, there are no problems here, just ignore everything that’s happened.” Clearly Mizzou is going through a lot right now.
However, I also don’t think the right answer is to tell prospective students to NOT come here, either. For one, I would say that clearly we aren’t the only school with issues and movements to solve said issues because there are schools around the country now following our lead. We were just the first school to start something. We’re definitely not the best school, but we certainly aren’t the worst school either, nor are we alone in facing problems.
Additionally, if you were a student of a different major, then I can certainly see why you would question to come here. And even as a journalism student you of course have concerns. But from what I’ve observed and heard, while the reputation of Mizzou as a whole might diminish, at least for a little while, I don’t think the School of Journalism’s will. This is, quite honestly, a terrific time to be a journalism student here. My peers and I have gotten fantastic experience in the past week reporting on news of national significance. And the journalism school is almost its own entity; I don’t think any employers will ever look at my resume, see that I went to Mizzou, and not hire me because of that (I really don’t think they’d do that for any other student either, it’s not like just because of protests and racism that we’re learning anything different). They’ll see I went to the j-school and ask what it was like being a journalism student during this time. The journalism school hasn’t been under scrutiny; I think they’ve done a great job of handling the situation. The Dean of the School of Journalism came to all of the journalism classes earlier in the week and had an honest and great discussion with us.
And I think, personally, that in four years things will return back to normal and this will certainly be remembered but it won’t be a blemish on anyone’s resume.
Now, safety-wise, here are my thoughts on that: There have been a lot of scares the last week with alleged threats. A lot of that was because of social media and just the general fear that was on campus. We don’t normally have issues like that. Columbia has some small crime (think burglary) issues, but that doesn’t really affect students. We’re certainly safer than some other college towns. The campus itself is also generally safe; I’m a woman and walk back to my dorm room at night by myself all the time and have never encountered problems. Now safety-wise as far as racism goes, yes, we’ve had issues. Not going to even say “We’ve had issues, but…” Plain and simple, yes, there have been ~4-5 incidents that have made the news over the past few months. In relation to other schools, though…I don’t really know that we’re any more “racist” a school than others. These issues exist at every school and I think that the fact that we’re now trying to combat that makes us potentially safer than other schools (Not this week because it’s been a little chaotic, but by next fall, definitely).
Clearly Mizzou is far from perfect and I think everyone with an acceptance letter is probably burning it right now. But while it’s smart to rethink your decision, I don’t think it’s necessarily an “Wow Mizzou looks like hell. Never going there,” type of decision. I don’t really know what it looks like to an outsider right now (obviously not very positive), but I think you should visit sometime later this year and see how it seems to you and talk to some students. Personally, I’m glad I’m here, even with all of this. But I know others may disagree.
If you have any further questions or would like to talk more privately, feel free to PM me with any concerns.
@CE527M how are things at school now, with the semester coming to a close, football season over, new leadership announced, etc?
@ohiovalley16 It’s quieted down a lot; media is completely gone and national spotlight is off of us, though it certainly hasn’t been forgotten. Concerned Student 1950 still has goals they’d like met, but they haven’t had any protests since November, it’s quiet. And while there’s new leadership, now we have to go through a whole other process: hiring the permanent president and chancellor. The other day a state representative introduced a bill that said if athletes refused to play for any reason other than illness/injury, their scholarship would be revoked. That brought up a lot of arguments and was very controversial; yesterday he pulled the bill so it’s no longer an issue, though.
All in all, this definitely won’t be forgotten about soon, but it’s also relatively normal compared to November.