SUNY Buffalo State Position Statement

Communications Department Accreditation

SUNY Buffalo State’s communication department is known as being one of SUNY Buffalo State’s fortes in

education. The department is one of only five communication departments with an ACEJMC accreditation in the

state of New York and the only public college with such accreditation. Despite the communication department’s

recent success, some have tried discrediting it on the grounds that only three out of four programs have the

aforementioned accreditation. The accredited programs include journalism, public communication, and media

production, which excludes the communication studies program. To the surprise of the critics, there is a valid reason

as to why this program does not share the same title as the rest of the department.

Reasons Why Communications Studies is Without Accreditation

Many critics will express their concern with the communications department because the entire program is not in

sync in terms of its prestigious title. As said, there is a legitimate reason for this and a valid reason why the

communication study program is not in pursuit of such a title.

Frequently asked questions:

What is ACEJMC and why is

it so important?

ACEJMC stands for the

Accrediting Council on

Education in Journalism and

Mass Communications. They

are an agency responsible for

evaluating college/university

level programs in journalism

and mass communications. They

regularly send people to these

schools to evaluate how they

operate to see if they fit the

necessary requirements.

Why are some schools

accredited, and others are

not?

ACEJMC’s website notes that

“…Accreditation provides an

assurance of quality to students,

parents, and the public. In the

accrediting process,

performance of educational units

is measured against national

standards.” So some programs

fit ACEJMC’s standards of

excellence, and others do not.

Why are only some programs

in the communications

department accredited?

The reason is simple, because

there are different criteria for

each of the different programs.

The fact that one program lacks

accreditation does not

necessarily mean that it lacks in

proficiency. Not all schools or

even programs look to seek

accreditation because it does not

automatically mean a program is

superior.

Response to the Situation

Many will see that the communication studies

program lacks accreditation and assume the worst. In

reality, programs such as the public communication

program have to follow strict and specific criteria

with very rigid standards. This is the case because the

people looking to evaluate the public communication

program have specific credentials in mind. In other

words, the communication studies program is a

generalized program based more on theory, whereas

programs like public communication focus more on

crafting their students for a career in public relations.

The public communication program features

classes that have students take on real clients, which

is an example of something that would grant the

public communication program accreditation. The

communication studies is more generalized; students

learn a little of each program in the communications

department. With that being said, it should be

obvious why it’s not accredited, because it does not

focus on any particular area.

This should have no bearing on a program’s

credibility; it only means that it does not focus on one

particular aspect of communications. As a matter of

fact, many students begin with communication

studies and transfer once they’ve made up their mind.

What to Remember

Instead of focusing on accreditation and

diminishing everything else, it’s worth noting that

accreditation is only applicable to those programs

that focus on a particular aspect of its field. Just

because a program lacks accreditation does not

necessarily mean that it’s not good enough.

Instead, people looking for accreditation

should focus on more their intended studies. The

communication studies program has no bearing on

the credentials for any other program in the school

including those in the communications department.