AEJMC Resolution One 2024
October 18, 2024
Supporting Black Women in Higher Education Leadership
Whereas, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) has diversity and inclusion as a core area of professional freedom and responsibility; and
Whereas, Dr. Antoinette Candia-Bailey, vice president of Lincoln University of Missouri, which is home to the nation’s first journalism school at a Historically Black College or university, received a termination letter on January 3, 2024, after having accused the school’s president of bullying, harassment, and discrimination; and
Whereas, on January 8, 2024, Dr. Candia-Bailey died by suicide, shining the spotlight on Black women’s struggles in higher education; and
Whereas, the nationwide controversy came less than a year after the mishandling and mistreatment of Dr. Kathleen McElroy, a Black woman, as a candidate for founding director of the journalism program at Texas A&M University; and
Whereas, research published in 2024 in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator shows that since 1983, when the association’s name changed to AEJMC, 15 of 30 AEJMC presidents have been women, including three who identify as African American; and
Whereas, women have had a dominant presence in several other positions within AEJMC, reflecting the organization’s leadership role in creating gender parity in leadership; and
Whereas, since 1999 when two Black women, AEJMC President Marilyn Kern-Foxworth and ASJMC President Shirley Staples Carter, developed what was then known as the Journalism and Mass Communication Leadership Institute for Diversity (JLID), more than 100 women of color have been among those participating in and receiving mentoring and leadership training;
Now, therefore, be it resolved that AEJMC go on record supporting women of color generally, and Black women in particular, as they seek roles of leadership in higher education, including but not limited to department chair, dean, director, president, vice president and provost; and
Be it further resolved that AEJMC through its divisions, interest groups, and commissions sponsor programming that brings a new level of attention to the importance of mental health status of women leaders; and
Finally, be it resolved that AEJMC through its Institute for Diverse Leadership (IDL) in Journalism and Communication include intentional programming related to mental health and self-care as a part of its leadership development program.
CONTACT:
Samantha Higgins, AEJMC Communications Director, 803-798-0271
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a nonprofit scholarly organization with more than 2,000 members in about 40 countries who teach and research journalism, public relations, advertising, digital media, film, and media literacy. Founded in 1912, AEJMC is the oldest and largest alliance of communication educators and administrators at the college level. AEJMC’s mission is to promote the highest possible standards for journalism and mass communication education, to encourage the broadest possible range of communication research, to promote the implementation of a multicultural society in the classroom and curriculum, and to defend and maintain freedom of communication in an effort to achieve better professional practice, a better-informed public, and wider human understanding.
Print friendly
