Panel Urges One-Year Accreditation for J-School
Asserting that “critics, some of whom are black, are jealous of our program,” Dean Tony Brown and the top leadership of Hampton University today mounted a full-scale assault on an accrediting committee that recommended their school receive only a provisional accreditation and came away with what Brown labeled a “landmark decision.”
“We won,” Brown, dean of the Scripps Howard School of Communications at Hampton, announced in an e-mail.
As Shauntel Lowe reports today on Black College Wire, an appeals board recommended that the school be given full accreditation for the 2006-07 academic year, pending a revisit by the accrediting council before May. “The recommendation still must be approved by the full accrediting council,” she continued.
The school is a result of a $10 million commitment from the Scripps Howard Foundation to upgrade journalism education at a historically black campus. The program has had three leaders since 2002.
“The school had been granted ‘provisional’ accreditation in May, meaning the school would have up to two years to come into compliance with accreditation standards,” the story continued.
“That decision was attacked by Brown and University President William R. Harvey. Both sharply criticized Jannette Dates, the dean of the John H. Johnson School of Communications at Howard University who led the four-person accrediting team from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.
“‘Some team members didn’t want to be confused with the facts . . . so they didn’t listen,’ Harvey said.
“‘Critics — many of whom are black — are jealous of our program,’ Brown said. ‘Some are trying to advance their interests or the interests of their organization. We will fight all of it,’ he said, going on to cite the school’s accomplishments and saying it expected a record enrollment in the fall.”
The accrediting team had been under fire by Hampton’s leadership since the team’s findings were disclosed in Journal-isms on Feb. 3, in a column in which an unnamed member of the site team was quoted. That disclosure, three days after the visit, violated the council’s policy against revealing information about reports prior to their completion, Brown and Harvey said, upbraiding Dates for the action.
Steve Geimann of Bloomberg News, a former president of the Society of Professional Journalists, told the council in May, “I was the guilty party. I spoke to a reporter. I did apologize to the president [of Hampton] for speaking out of turn.”
Susanne Shaw, executive director of the council, said last month it had been at least six years since a university appealed a council decision. “Any school has the right to appeal, but not many do,” Shaw said in the Daily Press of Newport News, Va.
- Georgina Stark, Daily Press, Newport News, Va.: HU dean aims for accreditation
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Time Inc. Closing Teen People After 8 Years
“Teen girls, and the advertisers that want to reach them, your magazine options just got chopped — again,” Nat Ives reported today for Advertising Age.
“Time Inc. is closing Teen People after eight years, effective with the September 2006 issue, displacing about 50 employees and echoing the abrupt exit of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.’s ElleGirl earlier this year. Time Inc. is folding the print edition of ‘Teen People.’ But fall fashion advice will be found online.
“No word was available at press time on the fates of Gregg R. Hano, Teen People’s publisher, and Lori Majewski, its managing editor, but Time Inc. said in a memo to staff that it is working to find spots for as many Teen People employees as possible within the company.”
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George Gets “Editorial Oversight” at NFL Network
Thomas George will be responsible for editorial oversight when he leaves the Denver Post to become managing editor of the NFL Network, 24-hour-a-day television network devoted to professional football, NFL spokesman Seth Palansky told Journal-isms today.
As reported late Monday, the columnist’s last day in Denver will be a week from today. The NFL Network is based in Los Angeles.
“We expect to meet with him at the end of the week. It’s early to say where and what he’ll be doing and what he’ll be tackling,” Palansky said. He confirmed George would be going to a newly created position.
Scott Monserud, the Post’s assistant managing editor for sports, said of George, “I think he had a great following for his style, and he was a good complement to Mark Kiszla,” another Post sports columnist. “Mike is kind of a hard-hitting columnist. Thomas’ style is more of the big picture, ‘let’s sit back and look at things from a different perspective.’ When you have two strong columnists,” it’s good to have two different styles, he said.
When George was hired from the New York Times in November 2004, the Post noted: “For 16 years, George, 44, has chronicled the NFL at The Times, in addition to covering events such as the NCAA men’s and women’s Final Fours, the NBA, Major League Baseball and college football.”