The Department of Journalism and Mass Communications (JMC) welcomed the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) team Oct. 26-28. The department will be recommended by the committee for reaffirmation in May 2016.
Members of the accreditation team included the committee chair Ford Risley from Pennsylvania State University, Shirley Staples Carter from the University of South Carolina, Dale Cressman from Brigham Young University, and retired newspaper publisher and executive with the Gannett Company, Charles Wanninger.
The department has been accredited since 1986 and has been reaffirmed four times since. This year, the department was again found in compliance with all nine standards that make up the basis for the accreditation review.
Undergraduate programs in Advertising, Journalism, Public Relations and Television Production were reviewed across topics regarding JMC faculty, students and program offerings.
The team was particularly impressed with a number of things in the department including, but not limited to, the strategic and student-focused plan in both curriculum and career preparation, the robust and well-functioning record of the department with regard to assessment of student learning, and the enthusiasm and diversity of the students and faculty.
Weaknesses of the department were few and far between on the ACEJMC team’s site visit summary. Department Chair Dr. Robert Lochte sees these not as deficiencies but as challenges for Murray State to build upon an already amazing program.
“I’m very happy with these results. This has been one of the most favorable site visit reports I’ve ever read. There was no negativity and the weaknesses that have been identified are things that we very openly recognized for ourselves. This report can at the very least serve as an incentive to get those things done and bring the department up to the standards everyone holds Murray State to as a university,” said Dr. Lochte.
