AEJMC Resolution Four 2023
Recommitment to College/University Diversity Programs and Minority Faculty Hiring Resolution
News Release:
October 31, 2023
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. For more information about AEJMC, please visit www.AEJMC.org.
Resolution Four:
Whereas, since its creation of the Ad-Hoc Coordinating Committee on Minority Education in 1968, AEJMC has had recruiting a diverse faculty and student body in media education as one of its priorities; and
Whereas, in 1989 the AEJMC membership passed a resolution calling on the association and on the schools and departments of journalism and mass communications to make every effort to achieve 50 percent minority and/or female faculty and administrators by the year 2000; and
Whereas, in 2023, such parity in faculty and administrators in mass communication units has remained unfulfilled; and
Whereas, multiple state legislatures in 2023 either considered or successfully passed bills banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at higher education institutions; and
Whereas, in May 2023, a bill signed into law in the state of Florida restricts how race and gender can be taught in Florida’s public higher education institutions and bans them from using state or federal funding for diversity programs; and
Whereas, a new Texas law mandates that starting in January 2024, Texas campuses must eliminate DEI offices, mandatory DEI statements, and training; and
Whereas, multiple colleges and universities eliminated their diversity, equity, and inclusion divisions or units; and
Whereas, in 2023, for the second time in two years, hiring decisions involving faculty from racial minority groups were influenced by outside forces resistant to the faculty members’ points of view on diversity; and
Whereas, critics of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs argue such initiatives stand for discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination;
Now, therefore, be it resolved that AEJMC officially go on record as supporting college and university offices, programs, and initiatives focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion; and
Be it further resolved that AEJMC through its Professional Freedom & Responsibility mission continue to challenge journalism and mass communication units to remain steadfast in their efforts to recruit and retain faculty from groups minoritized along the lines of gender identity, race, color, religion, age, ethnicity/national origin, disability/differently abled, sexuality or sexual orientation, marital status, family/parental status; and
Finally, be it resolved that AEJMC leaders work to create spaces for training and development for association members that offer support for their research and teaching on topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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