After a Boston University committee rejected a proposal for a separate journalism school following an evaluation of the College of Communication in May, some journalism professors are fighting to keep some department sections separate from public relations and mass communication.

Although the proposal, headed by journalism chairman Lou Ureneck, states a separate journalism school would benefit the department by divorcing it from the other disciplines whose aims are fundamentally opposite of journalism, the external committee had decided otherwise.

“The Report of this committee heavily supported the concept of a broad, integrated College of Communication based on all three academic units as the way to be a leader in communications education,” President Robert Brown said in an email.

While the idea of creating a journalism school has been delayed indefinitely, Ureneck said there are still possibilities for advocating for separate functions in the journalism department.

“The prospect of a School of Journalism within the College of Communication seems to me achievable by the end of the next academic year,” Ureneck said. “The External Review Committee recommended that the College remain intact but with a loose federation of schools that have more control over their budgets and operations.”

Ureneck said any sort of independence for the journalism department will help because COM departments have little say in their budgets, which can make planning difficult. He said he has received positive feedback from journalism faculty about the possibility of creating a School of Journalism in COM, but he does not think any significant changes will happen until the school installs a permanent dean, expected to happen at the start of the next academic year.

Robert Zelnick, the former journalism department chairman, said when he left his position in spring 2005, he told Ureneck about the possibility of proposing a separate journalism school. He said timing for the proposal last year was ideal under Brown’s new administration because internal and external committees were investigating all colleges.

“Both Lou and I and several others on the journalism faculty addressed that [external group in May], and Lou made the case for an independent journalism school,” Zelnick said. “The feedback was essentially ‘no, but.’ I think they felt that, first of all, there isn’t a huge amount of precedent for it.”

The external group stated forming a separate journalism school is not a good option because it would be expensive, and there are “few independent free-standing” schools of journalism, Zelnick said.

Although Zelnick is no longer involved in discussions about the possible split, Ureneck continues to work with administrators to consider other possibilities to make journalism more separate and independent without cutting it off from COM entirely. He said less drastic options have been favorably discussed with the administration, but the new ideas are still a work in progress.

“I am quite confident that not every nuance has been determined,” Zelnick said. “I think they were talking about a School of Journalism . . . that might have more autonomy than it currently has.”

The accreditation processes for the proposed school has met a few setbacks as well.

“It has hit a bit of a snag that has to be resolved,” Zelnick said. “There is an absolute requirement for increasing the number of minority professors and faculty before proceeding with an ‘up or down’ vote on accreditation.”

Other goals for a reformed journalism program, if eventually accepted, would include increasing the yield and quality of graduate student applicants and students. Another area of emphasis would be hiring professors with rich academic and writing experiences.

To help improve the COM journalism department’s reputation, Ureneck said some professors are making changes, such as integrating media into their curricula.

Interim COM dean Tobe Berkovitz said he would not announce his position on a separate journalism school until after the 12-member external committee met. Berkovitz said this week he will wait to comment on the journalism department’s possibilities until next semester.