Twenty-five years of accreditation in Journalism and Mass Communication at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 1982--2007

Accreditation is an essential system for recognizing professional and educational programs affiliated with those institutions as having standards, a level of performance, integrity, and quality that entitles them to the confidence of the educational community and the public. The study of accreditation is important because it helps the public and other stakeholders have a record of the practices and procedures that govern institutions of higher learning.;This study focused on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with journalism or communication departments that sought professional accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) during the period 1982-2007. In that period of time, ten HBCUs have voluntarily sought to earn ACEJMC accreditation with varying degrees of success. The programs reviewed included Florida A&M University, Hampton University, Howard University, Grambling University, Jackson State University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina A&T University, Southern University, Winston-Salem State University, and Savannah State University. Florida A&M University was the first HBCU to earn accreditation in 1982, while Savannah State earned ACEJMC accreditation in 2007. Profiles of these institutions can be found in Appendix A.;The purpose of this research was to find which of the ACEJMC standards HBCUs were found to be most frequently in non-compliance during the twenty-five year period. ACEJMC currently uses nine standards in which universities need to comply to earn accreditation; prior to 2006 there were twelve standards. The study also examined the process by which accrediting agencies develop their standards and the role of the agency that accredits regional and national professional accrediting agencies. The aim of the study was to provide in-depth and structured information regarding each of the ten HBCUs that have earned ACEJMC accreditation.;This study used Institutional Theory because each HBCU is not just a place of higher learning; it is an institution with a culture that includes institutional governance, financial resources, academic preparation of the faculty, and the diversity of the faculty and students. Although voluntary, accreditation is attractive to most eligible institutions, because it helps them show a transparency in their structure, programs and student outcome assessments. Institutional theorists generally reason that because an organization depends for survival on the support of external constituents, it must conform to accepted social norms expectations are expressed in a broad class of elements that includes rules, blueprints for action, standard operating procedures, impersonal prescriptions, rationalizing techniques, formalization, and documentation (Gupta, Dirsmith & Fogarty, 1994).;The study revealed a pattern of noncompliance with the ACEJMC standard on Faculty Research and Scholarship. The standard has been the most cited reason for HBCUs to be out of compliance. Conversely, the study revealed patterns of strength in compliance relating to student records and advising, instruction and evaluation, full-time and part-time faculty, and internships and work experience.