Faced with an overflow of students, the Journalism and Mass Communications department decided this fall to cap the number of students who could pass through core classes, making journalism one of the most competitive majors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

In past years any students in JMC 201 – Media Writing who received a B or better passed, but this year teaching assistants are only allowed to pass 20 out of 45 students — fewer than half.

“This is to ensure the department doesn’t admit more majors than it can handle and to strive for fairness in grading among the teaching assistants in each lab section,” the course syllabus says.

The decision was made by the department after external reviewers told the department of its need to offer more opportunities for graduate students.

“We are running against the resources to keep a strong graduate and undergraduate program,” said David Allen, JMC department chair.

Jessica McBride, the JMC 201 professor, said, “Ultimately the decision wasn’t mine.”

Allen said that the change will only affect 15 students, leaving one faculty member open to teach a graduate level course rather than the senior capstone journalism class. “If we were to allow everyone in, we wouldn’t get everyone out in four years,” Allen said. The department said 100 students is a manageable number to pass every year.

But to student number 24 out of 45, the change seems unfair.

“About 60 percent of students are screwed,” said Lacey Coonen, a sophomore minoring in journalism. “You are just trying to make yourself better than the person next to you. I have to knock off four people.”

Before the cap went into effect, some teaching assistants passed 15 students while others passed 30.

“I support the changes,” McBride said. “It’s more fair for the students. It’s as standardized as I could make it. Teaching assistants are going to grade differently. Writing can be somewhat subjective.”

But some have offered alternatives to the cap.

The teaching assistants could rotate who grades the assignment for all students ensuring that no students are subjected to the consistent tough or easy grading of one particular TA, Associate Dean Tom O’Bryan said.

Or two teaching assistants could collaborate on students’ grades after evaluating students work at the end of the semester. But all options have their shortcomings, and the TA union could object to the work overload.

“Certainly in professional schools, they need to limit the number that get into school,” O’Bryan said. “It’s competitive to get into third and fourth year. Restricting the amount in upper level is a reasonable thing. I’m not sure I agree with the way they are doing it.”

All schools have minimum GPA requirements, but there doesn’t appear to be another department on campus that directly limits the number of students who can pass through one specific class.

Other majors can increase class sizes by four or five without impacting quality, O’Bryan said. But the journalism department has a limited number of computers in each lab and is directly limited in the number of students who can be in each class.

Ideally the university would be able to fund all full sections, but there are financial and space problems, O’Bryan said.

A number of people have contacted the department with concerns, Allen said. “We’re giving this a try and monitoring it carefully,” he said.

At the end of the year, the department will analyze the results and consider alternatives.

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