Resolution Four: Concerning AEJMC Membership and Affiliate Support of Gender and Race Equity, and the Establishment of a Committee to Oversee the Process
The Ad Hoc Gender and Race Equity Resolution Committee, formed by resolution at the 2005 AEJMC annual meeting, proposes the following resolution to the Association:
Whereas, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in August 1989 approved a resolution that encouraged “its members and affiliates to have at least 50 percent of their faculties and administrations composed of females and minorities by the year 2000,”
And whereas research shows that, “In 2000, 42 of 201 academic programs, about 21 percent of the schools, met the criteria. About 35 more schools (17 percent) had between 40 percent and 49 percent women and minorities. That left the majority of the schools, about 124 schools (roughly 62 percent) with 39 percent or fewer women and minorities” (Rush, Oukrop, & Creedon, 2000, p. 118),
And whereas the membership approved a resolution in August 2005 “to appoint a committee to investigate ways of achieving the goals adopted in 1989, using as a starting point the 2005 Recommendations in Search of Equity,” and to report back at the business meeting of the 2006 convention of AEJMC,
Therefore, be it resolved that, based on the recommendations of the 2005-06 Ad Hoc Gender and Race Equity Resolution Committee,
- AEJMC will assess, recognize, and reward journalism and communication programs that excel in gender, race, ethnicity, and diversity equity, and will develop a process for funding the institutionalization of this equity assessment model.
- Further, the incoming president of AEJMC will appoint an AEJMC Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity Assessment (GREDA) Committee that in 2006-07 will establish equity assessment criteria, a reporting instrument, and an implementation and award process in conjunction with the Task Force on Diversity. In Years 2007-08 and 2008-09 this committee will implement the assessment process.
- And further, the incoming president will work to develop a Joint AEJMC and ASJMC GREDA Fund Raising and Evaluation Committee to be established in 2007-08 to raise funds to support the GREDA assessment and reward process and to evaluate the success of the entire GREDA process in 2008-09.