After winter break, Ohio University’s students in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism will report on their satisfaction of the school.
Representatives from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications will be interviewing students from Jan. 14-15 as part of its re-accreditation process that occurs every six years.
The council is “dedicated to fostering and encouraging excellence and higher standards in professional education in journalism and mass communications,” according to its mission statement.
Scripps has been consistently awarded accreditation since 1952, said Robert Stewart, director of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.
The schools are judged on nine different criteria, including curriculum and instruction, diversity and inclusiveness, as well as student services.
As part of Scripps’ re-accreditation process, the college has to put together a self-study and host accreditation officials on campus, Stewart said.
All of OU’s colleges undergo an internal review process. However, the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism is the only school in the Scripps College of Communication that undergoes an external review process, said Scott Titsworth, interim dean of the Scripps College.
Among Scripps’ self-study requirements include what the council asked the college to improve the last time it was analyzed.
In 2007, the accreditation council criticized the school’s low number of faculty numbers and their workloads, its few resources devoted to fundraising and questioned school identity with the construction of the Schoonover Center for Communication.
“Our journalism faculty has been very responsive to points that were raised in the last accreditation process,” Titsworth said. “We take this process very seriously and it’s not just something we worry about once in a few years. We worry about it every year.”
The council has accredited 110 schools across the United States — three of which, including Scripps, are in Ohio.
Each year, the council reviews, depending on the workload, about 25-30 cases, said Cindy Reinardy, assistant to the executive director of the Accrediting Council.
The accreditation council itself is also reviewed every 10 years by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, Reinardy said.
“We can always improve and we always assess ourselves just as we ask programs to assess themselves,” Reinardy said. “As we assess our programs, we’re always looking at ways to approve it.”
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A previous version stated that E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, was a college, not a school.
