Jo-Ann Huff Albers

Council member to retire

After 28 years on the Accrediting Council representing the Association for Women in Communications, Jo-Ann Huff Albers will retire. Her last Council meeting will be May.

Albers' first accrediting visit was to Penn State in 1976.   At the time, she worked as an executive editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer and served as a professional Council member for seven years. Albers said recently that it was the friendships she made on the Council that led her to a career in journalism education.

"The best part about the site visits was the opportunity to be around students and young professionals," she said. "It felt great being around this energy and vitality. So, I thought that when my time at the newspaper was not fun anymore, I would make a change."

That change came in 1987 when Albers went to Western Kentucky as head of the department of journalism. In 1999, she became founding director of the School of Journalism & Broadcasting, which she headed until 2003 when she entered Western Kentucky's optional retirement program. She taught her last journalism class last spring.  

During Albers tenure on the Council, she was a member of the Appeals Board; a member of 15 accrediting teams and chair of eight; and on the membership committee for two years.

Albers also helped write Standard 12: Minority/Female Representation.

  "Bob Ruggles and I argued for years that there should be something like Standard 12," she said. "Eventually we got it. It is now Standard 3: Diversity and Inclusiveness."

Many changes have occurred during Albers' 20 years on the Council. One was the role of women. Early in her tenure, few women were council representatives.

"I remember when the makeup of teams was practically all male, " Albers said. "Now the only way there wouldn't be a minority or a woman on a site team would be if someone backed out at the last minute and a replacement could not be found."

Albers said that the hardest part of being a Council member was having to be tough at times.

"The whole process is going to be meaningless if you are not tough," Albers said.

Albers praised the professionalism of Council members. She said she couldn't remember a time when the Council was polarized based on affiliation.

  "It has never been professionals against academics on issues," she said "We have all disagreed, but not because of our affiliations."

Committee to meet March 15-16 in Chicago

The Accrediting Committee will meet Saturday, March 15, and no later than noon Sunday, March 16, at the Westin River North Hotel in Chicago. The meeting will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in the hotel's Grant-Lincoln Room.  The room for Sunday's meeting will be the Promenade B Ballroom.

Sixteen accreditation and five revisit recommendations will be made to the Accrediting Council. 

Appeals Board named

John Lavine, dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, was named chair of the Appeals Board by President Peter Bhatia. Lavine is a former ACEJMC president.

Bhatia also selected Pat Thompson, deputy managing editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and Jan Slater, head of the department of advertising at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Thompson is a former member of the Accrediting Committee.

Member and program updates

Gale Workman, professor of journalism at Florida A&M University's School of Journalism and Graphic Communication, will replace Jo-Ann Huff Albers in the fall as the Council's representative for the Association of Women in Communications.

Peter Bhatia, ACEJMC president and executive editor of The Oregonian, and Sandy Rowe, Oregonian editor, were named co-editors of the year by Editor & Publisher magazine. Bhatia and Rowe have been editors in Portland for 14 years. Bhatia was elected ACEJMC president last year. Before that, he served two terms on the Accrediting Committee.

Meetings calendar

Accrediting Committee
March 15-16
Westin River North Hotel
Chicago

Accrediting Council
May 2-3
Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel
Arlington, Va.

August 29
Westin Hotel on Michigan Avenue
Chicago

2008–2009 site visit schedule

The Council will send 26 site-visit teams to schools in the 2008–09 academic year. Schools marked with an asterisk will seek accreditation for the first time; the rest seek re-accreditation.

President, Accrediting Council
Peter Bhatia
Executive Editor, The Oregonian
1320 S.W. Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
(503) 221-8393; Fax (503) 294-5012
E-mail: pbhatia@news.oregonian.com

Vice President, Accrediting Council
Jannette Dates
Dean, John H. Johnson School of Communications
525 Bryant St. NW
Howard University
Washington, D.C. 20059
(202) 806-7694; Fax (202) 232-8040
e-mail: jdates@howard.edu

Chair, Accrediting Committee
Tom Kunkel
Dean
Philip Merrill College of Journalism
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
(301) 405-2383; Fax (301) 314-1978
e-mail: tkunkel@jmail.umd.edu

Vice Chair, Accrediting Committee
Pam Luecke
Donald W. Reynolds Professor of Business Journalism
Department of Journalism and Mass Communications
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, VA 24450
(540) 458-8435; Fax (540)458-8845
e-mail: lueckep@wlu.edu

Executive Director
Susanne Shaw
Stauffer-Flint Hall
1435 Jayhawk Blvd.
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045 - 7575
(785) 864-3986
e-mail: sshaw@ku.edu

Assistant to the Executive Director
Kasey Cory
Stauffer-Flint Hall
1435 Jayhawk Blvd.
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045 - 7575
(785) 864-7640
e-mail: kaseyc@ku.edu

Office Staff
Cheryl Klug
Stauffer-Flint Hall
1435 Jayhawk Blvd.
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045 - 7575
(785) 864-3973
e-mail: cklug@ku.edu

Council Web site:
http://www.ku.edu/~acejmc