The president of ACEJMC appoints a three-person board each October to hear accreditation appeals. This Appeals Board comprises two journalism/mass communications educators and one journalism/mass communications practitioner. None can be a member of the Council, the Accrediting Committee, or the site team that visited the institution initiating the appeal. No one who has a conflict of interest shall serve on the board.
When the Council decides to award provisional accreditation or to deny accreditation altogether, the president of the Council, in a letter, informs the president of the institution and the administrator of the unit and gives the reasons for the Council’s decision. The appeal procedure is explained in this letter.
If the president of the institution desires to appeal the decision, the appeal must be made in writing within thirty (30) days of notification of the accrediting decision by the ACEJMC president. Appeals of accreditation decisions must be based on one or both of the following: 1) evidence that the Council failed to adhere to applicable adopted procedures; 2) evidence that, based upon the record before the Council, the decision was arbitrary and capricious or not supported by substantial evidence.
The ACEJMC president shall, within thirty (30) days after receiving a written statement of appeal, send each member of the Appeals Board a copy of the statement. The chair of the Appeals Board shall immediately notify the members of the site-visit team, sending to each member a copy of the statement of appeal. The site team members shall, within fifteen (15) days, respond to the statement of appeal in writing. The site team members’ responses should be addressed to the chair of the Appeals Board, who shall forward copies of the site team’s responses to each member of the board.
The Appeals Board will meet before the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Council. The chief administrative officers of the institution making the appeal and the site team chair shall be notified of the time, date and place of the meeting. They may attend the meeting, present oral and written arguments, and receive questions from the Appeals Board. The institution has the right to representation by counsel in any appeal proceedings.
Ordinarily, the Appeals Board will base its recommendation upon relevant written documents, but at its discretion it may consider points raised in the oral and written presentations. The chair of the Appeals Board writes a summary of the board’s recommendation. The board’s recommendation and the chair’s written summary should be given to ACEJMC Council members no later than the night before the Council meeting. The chair of the Appeals Board presents the recommendation to Council members during the Council meeting.
The ACEJMC Council then considers the recommendation by the Appeals Board and exercises its responsibility for making the final accreditation decision. The ACEJMC president will notify the chief administrator of the institution and the administrator of the journalism and mass communications unit in a letter of the decision on the appeal and the reasons for the decision.
All expenses associated with the appeal, including travel, shall be paid by the institution initiating the appeal. The institution initiating the appeal must remit 80% of the estimated costs of the appeal hearing to the ACEJMC executive director’s office two weeks before the date of the scheduled Appeals Board meeting.
While an appeal is pending and before a final decision on the appeal is made by ACEJMC, there shall be no change in the accreditation status for the institution making the appeal.
See the ACEJMC 2026-2027 Journalism and Mass Communications Accreditation handbook, Part III, Appeals Process, Pages 21-22, for more information on this topic.
