ABSTRACT
The year was 1984 and the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) was on the threshold of a change that would shake the foundation of journalism education. At its October 20 meeting the Council considered what would become the most challenging accrediting standard in the organization’s history. Representatives from the Minorities Task Force and Minorities and Communication (MAC) Executive Committee of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) introduced a proposal. The group urged the Council to “adopt more aggressive and accountable efforts by journalism educators to increase enrollment by minority students and to improve the representation of minority faculty” (AEJMC Minorities Task Force, personal communication, October 12, 1984). They asked that accredited journalism programs be required to hire “good minority role model professors” (AEJMC Minorities Task Force, personal communication, October 12, 1984). They also wanted standards obligating schools to
develop classes that reflected the journalistic contributions of minorities to American culture.
