The Accrediting Council for Collegiate Graphic Communication (ACCGC) has signed on three additional programs to apply for national graphic arts accreditation. This brings the total of programs involved to six—three already accredited and three on the way. The three accredited programs are at Cal Poly, Ferris State, and Florida A&M. Those in the accrediting process are programs at California University of Pennsylvania, New York City College of Technology, and Pennsylvania College of Technology. The Ferris State program, the first in the nation to become accredited by the ACCGC is in the process of its re-accreditation after five years. In the mean time Xerox signed on as a “Sustaining Corporate Affiliate”joining Quad/Graphics, Kodak Polychrome Graphics, and Heidelberg USA in this important support role. John Laurence, Manager, Marketing Operations and Premier Partners in the Xerox Graphic Communications Industry Business team, said, ”Educating the next generation of printers to be prepared for the ‘New Business of Print’ will be critical to the success of the graphic communications industry. Xerox is pleased to support the efforts of the ACCGC in this endeavor.” Laurence is also a member of the ACCGC board of directors. The ACCGC was founded in 1998 as an organization fundamentally committed to assisting university graphic communications programs on a continuous spiral of improvement to meet the challenges of an increasingly modern and sophisticated graphic arts industry. Also, the founding and current members of the Board of Directors believe that academic program accreditation greatly improves the “people expertise” available to companies and corporations in the graphic communications industry. According to Harvey Levenson, ACCGC president and department head of Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication program, “The thinking was that the path to improvement involves at least two steps: 1) self-study and 2) an evaluation and recommendations by an independent, non-biased, body of professionals.” In the first case, Levenson explained, “Self-study puts a program in the position of doing a critical evaluation of its methods, techniques, procedures, and outcomes. Much is learned through self-analysis. In the latter case a body of professionals from education and industry, who understand the graphic arts field, often observes and uncovers program and process improvement areas that those in the program may be too close to see.” Accredited programs have found that not only do they turn out better qualified graduates to enter the graphic arts field, but they also garner greater resources from university administrations and receive higher levels of support from industry.