Resolution One 2003
Resolution One: Diversity
Whereas in 1968 the membership of the Association for Education in Journalism (AEJ), now the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (AEJMC), passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a coordinated program to recruit, train and place an increasing number of minorities in the classroom and in the media.
And whereas in 1989 the AEJMC membership passed a resolution calling on the association and on the schools and departments of journalism and mass communications to make every effort to achieve 50 percent minority and/or female faculty and administrators by the year 2000. And whereas research reported by Ramona R. Rush and Carol E. Oukrop at AEJMC’s 2002 convention indicated that only 21 percent of the nation’s journalism and mass communications programs had achieved that goal.
Be it resolved:
1. That AEJMC again urge all journalism and mass communications (j/mc) programs to redouble their efforts to obtain and retain a faculty and administrator group that is 50 percent minority and/or female.
2. That the AEJMC appoint a committee to ascertain what the association can and should do to assist the j/mc schools and departments in their efforts to obtain this goal.
3. That the committee include, but need not be limited to, at least one member from the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on the Status of Minorities, the Minorities and Communication Division, the three elected standing committees, the Media and Disability Interest Group and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Interest Group.
4. That the committee study how best to publicize and/or reward those schools that have reached and maintained the 50 percent goal.
5. That the committee be empowered to seek expert advice, in light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the Michigan affirmative action cases, about the impact those decisions might have on any program AEJMC may devise.
6. That the committee report its findings to the AEJMC Executive Committee at the next mid-year meeting and to the AEJMC Executive Committee and the membership at the 2004 convention.
(Prepared by L. C. Barrow, Jr., Vice Chair, Commission on the Status of Minorities)
Approved August 2003
Kansas City, Missouri
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