VCU School of Mass Communications gains accreditation

By Tom Gresham

The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Mass Communications was awarded full accreditation on a unanimous vote during a meeting of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) on May 5 in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Judy VanSlyke Turk, Ph.D., director of the VCU School of Mass Communications, said students, faculty and staff from the department have significant reason to celebrate. VCU was one of 19 programs to seek accreditation from the ACEJMC this year, but it was one of just four programs to be found in compliance with each of the organization’s nine standards.

“We are extremely proud that the Accrediting Council recognized the strength of our program and selected us to join the ranks of accredited programs,” Turk said. “The accreditation process is rigorous and demanding, but VCU met every one of the required standards. This demonstrates the depth and quality of the education that we provide here. It’s very gratifying for us.”

ACEJMC currently accredits 106 journalism and mass communications academic programs across the country, making accredited programs an elite group among the estimated 500 academic programs in journalism and mass communications in the United States.

Accreditation will give VCU improved access to grants and will enable students to apply to award, scholarship and contest programs that are limited to accredited schools.

The accreditation vote followed a comprehensive self-study of the VCU School of Mass Communications program, a site visit in November by a five-member team of journalism and mass communications educators and practitioners and a review by the ACEJMC’s Accrediting Committee.

VCU’s journalism program was first accredited in 1976. Two years later, VCU founded the School of Mass Communications, which was continuously reaccredited until 2000, when the school chose not to seek reaccreditation.

The VCU School of Mass Communications has more than 1,100 undergraduate major and pre-major students. It offers three sequences of study at the undergraduate level: advertising, with both business and strategy tracks; journalism, with both broadcast and print tracks; and public relations. The school also offers a Master of Science in Mass Communications degree with concentrations in advertising, scholastic journalism and strategic public relations. The VCU Adcenter, the advertising master’s degree program, was ranked the top advertising and design school in the country in 2005 by Creativity magazine.