UNC’s Hussman School drops business journalism degree

The UNC-Chapel Hill Hussman School of Journalism and Media decided to discontinue the business journalism major and revert it to a certificate program.

The major was a dual program that incorporated classes from both the journalism and business school.

“The way it was laid out back in the day is not something we could sustain,” said Charlie Tuggle, the senior associate dean for undergraduate studies at Hussman. “We reached out to Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and several other newspaper companies to ask their opinions on whether we should continue business journalism as a major.”

He further added that the transformation will benefit students more as previously students had to take a number of courses in the business and journalism schools and other departments to fulfill the major’s requirements.

“The classes on our side, along with some new ones we have put on the books since business journalism was approved, would be a better mix,” Tuggle added. “We are going to encourage our business journalism certificate students to minor in the business school.”

Chris Roush, our editor in chief, was the director of the program until he left last June to become dean at Quinnipiac University. “The best business journalism programs in the country such as Columbia and Washington and Lee require students to take classes in the business school as part of the major,” said Roush. “UNC business journalism students will no longer be able to say they will have the same education.”

Grace Pitney, a first-year at UNC-CH who was planning to major in business journalism, said, “I’ve always loved writing and I wanted to combine that passion with my growing interest in business affairs. The MEJO school doesn’t seem to have too many specialization majors, and I feel like it should have more specified fields of study within journalism.”