The probationary status of the journalism undergraduate program will be removed if the Board of Regents Thursday accepts the chancellor’s recommendation at their meeting to be held in NIU’s Holmes Student Center.

Regents Chancellor Roderick Groves will also recommend to halt admissions to the journalism graduate school in concurrence with a university report to the Regents.

The bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in journalism were put on three-year probation in 1984. The department was asked to update its curricula and to increase faculty research productivity during this time.

At the undergraduate level, stricter admissions policies needed to be developed, enrollment needed to be controlled in upper-level courses and the number of formal program subdivisions needed to be reduced, according to the Chancellor’s report.

At the graduate level, the department was asked to re-examine admissions standards, to re-define objectives and to enhance student seminar and research opportunities.

Although the Regents have recommended to lift the probationary status off the undergraduate program, new admissions to the graduate school will be on hold until improvements are made in curricula, admissions standards and in faculty research and applied professional experience.

In other business, NIU might introduce three new degrees over a three-year period, one using faculty from the colleges of professional studies and education.

A new teacher certification category will go into effect in 1988 which focuses on educating children one through eight years old, said Raymond Yang, chairman of the department of human and family resources.

In response to this new category, a new degree will be introduced, tentatively titled “Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Studies,” Yang said.

Department and college curriculum committees and the Council on Instruction and Academic Planning Committee must approve the program before the final report is submitted to the Regents.