“CU’s only independent student voice.”
That’s our motto, and it’s what sets us apart from other Boulder newspapers.
However, this semester The Campus Press staff members feel as though we’re in the midst of a power struggle to remain independent and remain your student voice. We need the support of students and existing readers to keep The Campus Press a product of — and for — the CU student body.
Since May, we have had our printed newspaper taken away and our blogs removed (Crossing the line, Cp Blogs pause) without the approval of the editorial staff. Now the School of Journalism and Mass Communication wants to rename and “rebrand” our Web site, which we have quickly worked to establish under tremendous pressure. This would essentially overhaul what the editors and many alumni have dedicated time and energy to improving for several years.
As editors we have fought each of these changes and are supposed to have full editorial control, which we believe has been ignored. Because of our love for this paper, providing essential news to the student body and providing journalism students with valuable training, we have continued publishing despite disagreeing with the changes our administrators and adviser made without our consent or support.
But now we feel as though we cannot compromise anymore.
We asked the school for help with a marketing campaign since we had to hurriedly create a new Web site with the print getting taken away, but we are being pushed into a name and brand change in order to get that help. The staff has collectively said no to these changes for several semesters now, but suddenly feel as though this change will happen whether we agree to it or not. To convince us to go along with this name change, several members of the school have misinformed editors.
Our instincts are what make us qualified editors, yet when our instincts tell us what the school is pushing us toward is not right – we aren’t heard. We’re ignored. The changes go on, our concerns get misconstrued as being the result of sensitivity and we continue to grow more unhappy with our lack of control over this paper.
We ask our readers to support what this staff and many journalism alumni have worked to create, establish and continually improve with each semester in order to better inform the student body. You can support us by reading our paper and giving us feedback on stories, campus issues and opinions. With more support, The Campus Press can hopefully work as a truly independent paper in the near future.
