Paul Parsons, dean of the School of Communications, has been elected vice president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC) during 2008-09. He will become President-Elect in 2009-10 and then ASJMC President in 2010-11.
Parsons received 56 percent of the vote to 44 percent for the other vice presidential candidate. He will assume office in August 2008 immediately following ASJMC’s meeting in Chicago and be involved in the planning of ASJMC’s meeting scheduled in Mexico City in early 2009.
Parsons currently chairs ASJMC’s Diversity Committee and serves on the Task Force on the Future of ASJMC. The organization was founded in 1917 to encourage high standards and effective practices in the administration of communication programs, to promote public understanding of the role of journalism and communication in a democratic society and to support the accreditation process through the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC).
Parsons came to Elon as founding dean of the School of Communications in 2001. The school has grown from an initial 11 faculty members that year to the current 36, and the school gained ACEJMC national accreditation in 2006. Elon is one of only 18 private colleges and universities in the nation to have an accredited communications school.