Advertising Education Publications (AEP) was established in 1965 by Billy I. Ross and Donald G. Hileman, specifically to publish the first volume of Where shall I go to college to study advertising?
The content of the first directory was an outgrowth of parts of the information in Ross' dissertation, Advertising Education: Programs in four-year American colleges and universities at Southern Illinois University. Hileman was an SIU faculty member and served on Ross' doctoral committee. Together, they formed the not-for-profit company to publish the 1965 edition. At that time, with Ross joining the faculty at Texas Tech University and Hileman on the SIU faculty, it was felt that an off-campus publishing company would help avoid academic red-tape, and Advertising Education Publications was born.
In addition to the annual research and directory, the company has served as the publisher of three books on advertising education and one on Alpha Delta Sigma, the national advertising fraternity for men. The company is also a source of information for academic, governmental and professional groups about advertising and public relations education.
Hileman died in 1985 while serving as Dean of the College of Communications at the University of Tennessee. Ross published the directory alone until 1992, when Keith F. Johnson joined him as coeditor. Public relations education was added in 1993 and the name of the directory was changed to reflect the expansion to today's version: Where shall I go to study advertising & public relations?
Other changes over the years
have included the addition of sponsors such as :
ï Advertising Division,
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
ï American Academy of
Advertising
ï American Advertising
Federation
ï American Association
of Advertising Agencies
ï Association of National
Advertisers
ï Dallas Morning
News
ï Direct Marketing Association
ï Houston Chronicle
ï International Association
of Business Communicators
ï Lubbock (TX) Advertising
Federation
ï Newspaper Association
of America Foundation
ï Promotional Products
Association International
ï Public Relations Society
of America
ï Scripps Howard Foundation
Support has also been received
from academic institutions, such as:
ï Louisiana State University
(Hitesman Faculty Research & Publication Fund)
ï Texas Tech University
School of Mass Communication
ï University of Southern
Mississippi School of Mass Communication & Journalism
ï University of Tennessee
College of Communications
Advertising was added to help defray the annual cost of obtaining information from more than 300 colleges and universities and to help keep lower the cost of getting information to students, counselors, media and academics. In keeping with technological advances, AEP put Where shall I go to study advertising and public relations? on the Internet in 1999, although individual copies of the directory may still be purchased from AEP.
From a 1965 beginning, listing 77 universities in 37 states, the 2004 edition is the 40th annual edition, with 196 universities (in 42 states and the District of Columbia), reporting on 95 advertising programs, 136 public relations programs, and 48 joint AD/PR programs (a total of 279 degree programs).
ï Billy I. Ross (Ph.D., Southern Illinois University) is a Distinguished Professor in the Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, and Professor Emeritus, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX. He served as head of the School of Mass Communications at Texas Tech University for 17 years and on the faculty of the University of Houston and Kentucky Wesleyan College. He has served as president of the American Academy of Advertising and other organizations.
ï Keith F. Johnson (Ph.D., University of Georgia) is an assistant professor in the School of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS. He has also served on the faculty at Texas Tech University, Louisiana State University, the University of Georgia, and New Mexico State University. He was Director of Educational Services of the American Advertising Federation, Washington, D.C., is a past editor of the Journal of Advertising Education and editor of the Annual Directory of the American Academy of Advertising.
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