The leadership of Public Relations Society of America is backing a move to change the current “must have” APR accreditation to “strongly preferred” as a requirement for a seat on its board of directors, reports O’Dwyer’s.
If passed by PRSA’s Assembly, “the change would be a cosmic, seismic change in PRSA policies for all these years,” a senior PR executive told O’Dwyer’s
Veteran counselor Jim Lukaszewski called the measure a “momentous by-law change to demote all APRs.”
PRSA national chair Michelle Olson denies that the proposal diminishes the value of the APR credential. “I want to state emphatically that nothing could be farther than the truth,” she wrote in a “Dear PRSA Colleagues” letter.
More here.
Let’s put it another way. Was the APR designation more important or a better credential than a Master’s Degree in Public Communication? I never thought so, but feel free to debate it.