Campus Press staff and SJMC faculty discuss future of the Campus Press
Members of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication faculty and the Campus Press met late Tuesday morning for a discussion intended to address the possibility of the Campus Press separating from the current curriculum into an independent online media outlet.
In the statement read by Paul Voakes, dean of the School of Journalism, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the future relationship between the Campus Press and the School of Journalism.
“The purpose of our meeting today is to continue the decision making attempt to clarify the role of the Campus Press in the school,” Voakes said.
The Campus Press, as both a class within the journalism school and as a student-run publication, exists in a gray area, the dean said.
The concept regarding the Campus Press becoming independent is not new, however. Faculty members discussed the idea with former editorial staff members last spring semester, Len Ackland, an associate professor in the journalism school, said.
The latest discussion about independence, however, was sparked following the publication of Max Karson’s controversial opinion piece, “If it’s War the Asians Want..”
“Current controversy has simply moved these wishes [for independence] from the back burner to the front burner,” Voakes said.
Concerns from the faculty about potential independence for the Campus Press were regarded at the meeting and ranged from lack of journalistic teaching guidelines to lack of funding.
Ackland asked members of the Campus Press how they would teach new staff members the basics of journalism.
“From whom are you going to learn the basic ground rules of journalism if you all are all independent, you are student-run, have no prerequisites and have no contact with the journalism school?” Ackland asked the Campus Press student representatives.
Rob Ryan, a sophomore journalism major and staff reporter for the Campus Press, said most of what is learned from the class is self-taught through experience gained from working for the publication. He also said more experienced staff members would be a viable resource for new members.
Kyle Haas, a freshman journalism major and a first semester reporter who said he was new to journalism when joining the Campus Press, said what he has learned about being a reporter is from the experience of being on the Campus Press.
“I’ve learned more from [the Campus Press] just in terms of real world experience than from what any of my other journalism classes have offered so far,” Haas said.
Questions of how the Campus Press would be financed if it became independent were also brought to the foreground during the meeting.
According to Voakes, the Campus Press currently receives $35,000 a year and salary for an adviser from the central campus administration. In addition, the Campus Press receives auxiliary funds, which have accounted to about $155,000, in the form of private gifts and advertising revenue.
Jason Bartz, a junior journalism major and managing editor for the Campus Press, said the Campus Press would like to utilize current resources until the publication can become financially sound.
“We would like to be able to use the facilities, to use our computers, to use what has been gifted to us until a time where we can secure enough finances to where we no longer need it,” Bartz said.
Several faculty members also questioned the Campus Press about a concrete strategic business plan.
Amy Herdy, adviser to the Campus Press, said a business plan was not the current point of focus of the Campus Press, but rather support is needed first from the SJMC faculty before such strategy is considered.
“The bigger question here is: do we have ideological support,” Herdy said.
Herdy, as well as many members of the Campus Press, expressed that they felt they lacked support from the faculty.
Monica Stone, a junior journalism major and staff reporter for the Campus Press, said she felt that much of the discussion at the meeting seemed like an attack on the Campus Press and as a student reporter, she did not see support from the faculty.
“My perception of what is going on is this isn’t dialogue. I don’t see support from you guys,” Stone said. “Just from the tone of voices being used, that doesn’t make me feel supported as a student reporter.”
Ackland said that the faculty is, however, concerned with the outcome of the Campus Press if it were to become an independent media outlet.
“I think most of us thought that we have a certain responsibility to Campus Press. We’d like to see it live and therefore want to give some advice about the realities of operating a paper,” Ackland said.
Tom Yulsman, an associate professor with the journalism school, said the faculty does in fact support the concept of the Campus Press becoming independent.
“That’s what we feel and that’s what we have felt for a long time,” Yulsman said.
In a statement issued by the SJMC news faculty concerning the Campus Press, as read by Yulsman, the faculty has stated full support of the Campus Press being an independent student voice.
According to the statement, SJMC faculty “agreed that [Campus Press] should remain an independent student media voice because we uphold the principle of freedom of expression.” The statement went on to state that the faculty had “no desire to exercise prior restraint over student expression.”
Yulsman drafted a proposal for the Campus Press on Feb. 23 that outlined the formation of an advisory board consisting of one undergraduate and one graduate journalism student, one faculty member from each of school’s five sequences and two professional journalists with the possibility of additional faculty and student members from outside the journalism school.
The board would “assist the Campus Press adviser and the students with the editorial decision-making, and the creation of a strategic plan” and offer “pre-publication advice” as needed, according to the proposal.
In addition, the draft proposed that all founding documents, such as the publication’s mission statement, would be submitted to the advisory board to “review and vote to accept them or send them back for further work.” The draft states that final approval of all founding documents is to be the responsibility of the advisory board.
Karson, a senior psychology major and assistant opinions editor of the Campus Press, said this is an example of prior restraint, and it is not worth it to the Campus Press staff, many of whom do not receive financial compensation for the jobs they do.
“It’s not worth it to me to have the faculty have this indirect power line over us if we’re not getting paid,” Karson said.
Yulsman said a main concern of the faculty is finding a resolution to Campus Press being both independent in addition to a class that grants academic credit.
“My only issue is how do we resolve this paradox of independence but it’s still part of a class,” Yulsman said. “I don’t know the answer to that question yet, but that’s the one question I have, and that’s the one question the news faculty has tried to answer.”
Yulsman also said there has been tension between the Campus Press and the faculty from the very beginning.
“From the very start, and actually throughout the history of the Campus Press since I’ve been here in 1996, it’s been us against them,” Yulsman said.
Herdy said what needed to happen now is that the dispute between the Campus Press and the SJMC faculty needs to stop, and focus needs to be placed in finding a realistic option for the Campus Press to become independent.
“I don’t want this to devolve any more than it already has into he-said-she-said, pointing fingers, blaming, dancing on top of people’s heads,” Herdy said. “From this point on, let’s move forward and let’s try to all work together to come up with a viable, workable option for the Campus Press to be independent.”
Despite high tension and debate, no conclusion was reached with regard to the future of the Campus Press during the public portion of the faculty meeting.
See video from the faculty meeting with Campus Press staff members on the Campus Press home page.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Sara Fossum at sara.fossum@colorado.edu.
