Study: Historically black colleges, universities support journalism accreditation


LAWRENCE — Historically black colleges and universities overwhelmingly support the idea of accreditation for their journalism and mass communication programs, even though meeting the standards can place significant financial and human strain upon them, a study from the University of Kansas School of Journalism shows.

Jerry Crawford II, assistant professor of journalism in the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications, conducted a survey of administrators at historically black colleges and universities, commonly known as HBCUs, to gauge how deans, faculty members and department chairs viewed journalism accreditation standards. He has also studied how administrators at primarily white institutions and larger universities view the standards. While many HBCUs are small and cannot afford the financial cost of the accreditation process, the respondents strongly support accreditation, or the idea of best practices to educate aspiring journalists.

“People definitely said, ‘Yes, these things work. We’re teaching what we say we’re going to teach and the same things accredited schools teach. We are not second rate,’” Crawford said.

Many in higher education view accreditation as legitimizing or justifying the quality of an institution or program. However, achieving accreditation is voluntary, and many HBCUs don’t have staff time to dedicate to compiling the necessary reports, and they can’t afford to fly accreditation officials to their campuses and provide room and board. Despite that, several HBCUs are accredited, and still more are seeking approval. The absence of accreditation by a unit at most institutions now means a loss of both funding and students enrolled in the program.

In the past five years, nearly a half-dozen HBCUS have closed or faced loss of regional accreditation, Crawford said. When that happens, communities lose what he calls “incubators of jobs, economics and hope.” The field of journalism also loses the voices of future African-American journalists. Crawford cited the statistic that 80 percent of today’s working African-American media professionals were educated at HBCUs.

In his study, Crawford surveyed 68 journalism and mass communication administrators at schools accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, four of which were HBCUs. He also surveyed administrators at 20 HBCUs, 16 of which were not accredited, and four of which that were included in the first group. In the latter group, 100 percent of respondents reported that they consider their units to be more teaching than research focused, reaffirming the mission of education of people of color by people of color when the institutions began to be formed shortly after the Civil War.

Respondents were asked their opinions on three of the nine accreditation standards: diversity and inclusiveness; scholarship; research, creativity and professional activity; and assessment of learning outcomes. Every respondent from HBCUs said the standards were needed and “served as a source of best practices in educating journalists and future media professionals,” Crawford wrote. In fact, many of the HBCU administrators attend AEJMC’s annual conference to stay apprised of current discussion of standards and best practices. Seventy percent of the respondents stated that while they had never been accredited, they try to have their units follow the standards.

Administrators from all groups, especially the HBCUs, largely agreed that the standard regarding diversity needed major changes. Several stated that standard simply considers diversity “as a count of how many faculty and students were African-American,” Crawford wrote. Respondents expressed a need to focus more on inclusiveness than strictly on diversity.

When asked whether they felt accreditation was worth the financial investment and requirements of faculty time, the HBCU administrators largely agreed they were, despite the pressures it can put on their institutions. Only three of the 20 HBCU respondents said they did not plan to apply for accreditation in the next five years.

“If you ask these institutions ‘why aren’t you accredited?’ The answer is ‘because of the cost,’” Crawford said. “Yet, many administrators are also clearly saying ‘we can’t afford to have units that are not accredited.”

The results show that accreditation is clearly valued at HBCUs and institutions that traditionally hold the certification. In future research and service, Crawford said he hopes to help develop standards of best practices that can help HBCUs teach at the same level as other schools of journalism, without incurring financial costs and student losses that can eventually lead to closing of institutions and the social, political and cultural losses that come with it. Partnerships and consortia between Research 1 and HBCUs could pay dividends for all, Crawford said. Accredited classes offered on one campus and online to others, as well as faculty exchanges and service learning partnerships could provide rich experiences for educators, and more importantly, a well-rounded education for a diverse group of future journalists, based on standards of best practice in journalism education.

Mon, 11/17/2014

author

Mike Krings

Media Contacts