After Student Senate’s near-unanimous vote to approve the Campus Media Board bylaws on Thursday, communication/journalism students will have greater control of their funding in the next fiscal year.

Campus Media Board is an organization that houses the five media organizations at Shippensburg University: Cumberland Yearbook, Public Relations Student Society of America, The Slate, SUTV and radio station WSYC. Student leaders and faculty in the communication/journalism department organized with Student Senate to bring the bylaws to a vote, in order to fulfill a requirement for reaccreditation.

The communication/journalism department received its accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) in 2012. The department is up for reaccreditation next fall.

When the communication/journalism department received its accreditation, ACEJMC required changes to be made to various aspects of the program. The department made adjustments to curriculum, including the launch of a practicum course that requires communication/journalism students to work with campus media for a semester. At the same time, students not involved in campus media regularly needed additional exposure to learning opportunities, according to the ACEJMC revisit team report. Since the accreditation, changes were also made to diversity, classroom instruction and assessment.

SU is the only university in the Pennsylvania State System for Higher Education that has an accredited communication/journalism program. Temple and Penn State universities are the two other schools in Pennsylvania that have accredited programs.

Now that the department has Student Senate’s approval, the Campus Media Board will have greater ability to control the distribution of funds. Student Senate will continue to decide the amount allocated to the campus media organizations, however, the voting members of Campus Media Board will be able to manage where funds are distributed. For example, if The Slate is well under budget for the year and SUTV needs extra funds to replace broken equipment, Campus Media Board would be able to vote to move funds from The Slate to SUTV.

“It means that my studio members don’t have to worry about losing accreditation,” SUTV’s General Manager Kyle Keevill said of the vote. “It also means that student media is getting the recognition it deserves from the campus community.”

The voting members of Campus Media Board are made up of two student leaders from each of the five media organizations. Ex-officio members include: Two members of Student Senate, three additional members from any of the media organizations, an adviser from each of the media organizations, communication/journalism department chair, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the director of broadcasting.

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