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            Auburn University - University Relations
                         (334) 844-9999
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5/12/95                 Janet McCoy

AUBURN'S JOURNALISM DEPARTMENT EARNS FULL ACCREDITATION

      AUBURN -- Auburn UniversityÕs Department of Journalism has earned 
full accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in 
Journalism and Mass Communication -- the first time it has sought such 
distinction.
      The department was given unanimous approval for six-year 
accreditation by the council, said Doug Anderson, director of the Walter 
Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunications at Arizona State 
University, who chaired the site team which visited AU last year.
      ÒI told the council that in many respects, AuburnÕs department 
was a model small- to medium-size program,Ó Anderson said. ÒI was very 
impressed with AuburnÕs journalism faculty, students, facilities and 
program, and without a doubt this is a program which deserved accreditation.Ó
      Gordon Bond, dean of the AU College of Liberal Arts, said the 
accreditation Òis well deserved for such an outstanding department and is 
a credit to this dedicated, talented faculty.Ó
      ÒIt gives credence to what we've always known from our journalism 
program -- it's one of the best in the South and its graduates are well 
educated and able to successfully compete in the job market,Ó he said.
      Anderson and other members of the site team, Pam Johnson, 
president and publisher of The Ithaca Journal  in New York, and C. Zoe 
Smith, associate professor and chair of the Editorial Department in the 
School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, noted a number of 
department strengths during their visit to AU.  Areas cited by the team 
included Ò ... superb, painstaking instruction in skills-based courses; 
an impressive record in placing graduates; a good, collegial faculty 
blessed with strong media credentials; exceptional faculty-student 
rapport; a sense of pride in accomplishments and purpose of program that 
pervades faculty, students and alumni; and an earned respect from faculty 
in other units on campus.Ó 
      Provisional accreditation was given to the program following the 
site team's 1994 visit, which found the department complied with 10 of 
the 12 national standards, says Jerry Brown, professor and head of the 
Department of Journalism at AU.
      ÒOur department was found to be in noncompliance on two standards 
after the 1994 visit Ñ in faculty public service and minority 
representation,Ó Brown said.
      The department in 1994 began an aggressive program to remedy 
those issues, including several department-sponsored lectures and 
workshops for AU and prospective students, especially minorities. 
      To address the issue of minority representation, the department 
hired its first full-time, tenure-track black faculty member, Michael 
Mercer, who has 20 years of daily newspaper experience. In addition, the 
department increased by more than five-fold the number of minority 
students in the department, from two in 1993-94 to 11 this year, 
established several public service programs to support minority 
recruitment and created four new scholarships earmarked for minority 
students.
      Anderson revisited AU in February and recommended full accreditation.
      Only one-fourth of the 400 academic programs which offer majors 
in journalism or mass communications in the United States are accredited.
       "There is a certain amount of exclusivity in being accredited 
and Auburn should be proud to attain such a distinction," Anderson said.
      AU's Department of Journalism was founded in 1974 but journalism 
classes and programs have been taught at AU since 1919. The department 
has eight faculty and 150 majors.
      Brown, who said the department began seeking accreditation in 
1990, credited retired AU journalism faculty Jack Simms, head of the 
department from 1974 until he retired in 1992, Paul Burnett and Mickey 
Logue and long-time Lee County editor and publisher Neil Davis. 
      ÒThese four giants of journalism together with our current 
faculty, alumni, students and professional colleagues account for the 
solid reputation that this accreditation confirms,Ó Brown said.
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may95:AU-journalism
      CONTACT: Brown, 334/844-4607; Bond, 334/844-4026; and Anderson, 
602/965-5011.