Clarification on accreditation
The story “Journalism school seeks accreditation,” published in The Daily Aztec on March 21, may have given journalism, public relations and advertising students the impression that they were not part of an accredited institution.
I would like to reassure all of those students that when they graduate from San Diego State, their degrees will be from top-ranked programs and a university that is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges – one of six regional accrediting associations in the United States that exists to assure quality in higher education.
In fact, just this spring, WASC reaffirmed that “all of the university’s degree programs and educational activities have met or exceeded established standards and the campus’ own goals,” according to http://wasc.sdsu.edu/.
The accreditation reported on by The Daily Aztec is a separate and additional programmatic accreditation for journalism, public relations and advertising programs and is overseen by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Such accreditation is voluntary and many schools choose not to seek it – ACEJMC has accredited only 107 journalism and mass communication programs, out of 400 nationwide. For some, such third-party endorsement is important – it’s like a “seal of approval.”
At San Diego State, ACEJMC accreditation was allowed to lapse 12 years ago, when the former department of journalism merged with other departments to form the School of Communication. This lack of ACEJMC accreditation has had little, if any, impact on students, faculty or programs here.
For example, the last national survey of educators and practitioners conducted by Marquette University faculty ranked our public relations program among the few “premier” programs in the country. At the graduate level, the public relations program has attracted top students from around the world and is the only program in the country providing an intensive program in strategic public relations for public affairs officers in the U.S. military. The best media organizations in the country continue to hire our graduates and scores of our students have gone on to graduate school.
It is true that the faculty is considering exploring ACEJMC re-accreditation. One of the primary reasons for doing so is to become more competitive for external funding to help support such things as digital/electronic labs for our students. Many external funding sources favor ACEJMC-accredited programs.
Let me reiterate that our students will be graduating from nationally recognized programs within a fully accredited university and that their degree will allow them to do many things, including finding meaningful careers in media industries and applying to graduate programs across the country.
-Diane L. Borden, Ph.D.,
School of Communication
interim director
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