J-School earns reaccreditation on graduation day

Finger tapping, with almost minute to minute checks of my watch, the reaccreditation process last Friday in Arlington, Virginia dragged on.

Initially, the J-School was 20 on the list (second to last) in the process--which is why I was sitting in a hotel meeting room in Arlington rather than on stage at the Breslin Center for commencement on May 2.

This was the first commencement I have missed in my five years as Director of the J-School, but making sure the J-School jumped through this final hoop for its reaccreditation had to be the priority.

The meeting began at 9 a.m. and was supposed to end at 4 p.m., but by the lunch break only nine schools had been discussed and reviewed by accrediting council members. The J-School is among an elite group of programs across the nation accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC). The J-School was among the original group of programs accredited back in 1949. We have had an unbroken string of reaccreditation every seven years since then.

It is a time consuming process that took us almost two years. It began with a year-long faculty self study of the J-School and everything about it. A report, with a frank dissection and appraisal of our strengths and weaknesses loaded with supporting data, was submitted to ACEJMC in early September. The self-study process was exhausting but really allowed us to probe, poke and dissect the curriculum and everything about us.

A four person team came in October for a two-day inspection. We passed on all nine standards ranging from curriculum through assessment. But that was just the first of a three-step process.

In March in Chicago, the accrediting committee of ACEJMC (not the Council!) spent two days reviewing programs. We were near the top of the list then since we had an early visit in October and passed that process with just a couple of questions from committee members.

The home stretch was the May meeting. But, to have it occur, literally, during our commencement ceremony on May 2 was a bummer. I so wanted to be on campus shaking the hands of our grads. Instead, I was text messaging Professor Geri Zeldes giving her updates on the meeting.

Finally, at 4:58 p.m., long after our graduates were announced by Dr. Zeldes to the dean, long after terrific senior Alexandra Bahou gave her speech to the assembled graduates and their families, we were unanimously approved for reaccreditation.

Whew—I am glad that’s over!

What’s next?—Reinventing journalism education. Stay tuned. We’ve been hard at work on this all spring term. Just wait until next year.

This week, six faculty were or are in Chicago for video training on storytelling for the web. Next week, a dozen faculty will be taking three-days of on campus training from the same folks—Robb Montgomery of Visual Editors.com. We digital immigrants are doing everything we can to provide the best 21st Century journalism education to the J-School.

Happy summer to those of you heading home or off to internships and various jobs. For our summer students, welcome back. And to the new crop of students (freshmen and transfer) who will be arriving on campus for orientations, it’s going to be a terrific 2008-9 academic year.