The end of the independent student press at SCCC
by Jeb Wyman
Faculty adviser to The City Collegian, 2003-2008
SUMMARY. The City Collegian, the independent student newspaper of Seattle Central Community College, was published continuously for forty-two years until being shut down by the college administration in 2008. The paper had won major national student press awards and was the centerpiece of a small but thriving journalism program. However, in 2007-2008, the school’s Publications Board was used by the administration as a punitive body to harass and persecute the paper, prompting the adviser to resign in protest in June 2008. The administration responded immediately by locking the student editors out of the newsroom, and within weeks the newsroom had been gutted, the paper’s budget revoked, and all journalism classes cancelled. A vigorous campaign by students and faculty to get the paper reinstated in fall 2008 drew the attention of local media and regional journalism educators, but failed to bring back The City Collegian. The history that follows is an attempt to create an account of, and accountability for, the destruction of this venerable campus institution.
For far too many “professional educators” in this country, the “education” part of their jobs plays second fiddle to ensuring that their own “professional” lives run smoothly. They don’t want a vibrant student newspaper that exists as the voice of students; they want a mouthpiece to echo the college PR office. What happened at SCCC is deeply troubling and should serve as a wake-up call to student media across the country that the threat to press freedom is real and ongoing.
Mike Hiestand, Student Press Law Center
NOTE: Footnotes are links. Clicking on them takes a reader back and forth between notes and text.
On the morning of June 9, 2008, the student staff of The City Collegian sliced the twine on bundles of the newest issue, Vol. 42, No. 15, still literally hot off the presses, and began filling dozens of newsstands around campus. The front page headline was “CAMPUS CHAOS: Crowd Instigates Police Presence During Arrest Of Student Who Made Threats, Carried Knife.” Fifteen squad cars had descended on the campus a week before; a top-of-the-page teaser directed readers to page 6 for commentary. Other front-page stories were the Unity Fair and the development of two new parks on Capitol Hill.
Inside was an editorial by outgoing editor-in-chief Rachel Swedish. It was her last issue at the helm of the paper and, in the tradition of outgoing editors-in-chief, she wanted to say farewell to her readers.
But she also used her editorial to warn of dark days ahead for student journalism at Seattle Central. “When you have to constantly defend that which is clearly and rightfully yours—your freedom of speech—it is spiritually exhausting,” she wrote, revealing the fatigue she felt from contending with the Publications Board, which had harassed her all year. “If you don’t get involved in having your voice, [your student newspaper] will be taken away from you. The wheels are already turning.”
Rachel recognized that there was an administrative campaign against independent student journalism at Seattle Central. For six months she’d witnessed first-hand the efforts to take away the independence of the paper. Only days before she’d learned that the ranks of the Collegian’s senior editors would be sharply reduced in the fall. By fiat of the Publications Board’s chairperson, Laura Mansfield, they would be forced to take 10 class credits. When I met with Laura Mansfield to again explain how senselessly damaging this would be to the Collegian, and how this would restrict who could participate on the paper, she said, “Well, the Collegian can be half this size.” The Collegian, which had endured an unprecedented year of attacks by members of the Publications Board—a body charged with protecting student speech—had just suffered its latest blow.[1]
Several weeks before, Laura Mansfield had announced via email yet another meeting of the Publications Board. There was no agenda for the meeting. Only one meeting had ever been conducted with an agenda, and no meeting minutes were ever taken. Reading the email, Rachel said she felt literally sick with dread, her stomach in knots.
Still, the staff carried on with the business of the newspaper and prepared for the coming year. They recognized that there would be some changes in the fall. Jayson “JK” Howell had been elected by the staff and sworn in as editor-in-chief. JK, an Iraq war veteran and back-to-back first-place winner in the Features category at the Washington Community College Journalism Association awards, would bring his own stamp on the paper. He had produced the newsletter for his unit in Iraq and written many stories of memorial services for fallen soldiers. It was his third year with the Collegian.
The staff knew they’d have a new faculty adviser in the fall. I was proud of The City Collegian, and especially of the students who produced it. I had given everything I could to build the organization and establish the paper’s reputation over the previous five years. But the machinations of administrators and bullying of the Publications Board had been painful and bewildering. I’d had baseless accusations thrown in my face. It was taking a toll on my personal life. I’d pursued every channel of appeal up to the president of the college, Mildred Ollée, who consistently backed her administrators.[2] Student journalism was being subjugated at Seattle Central, and we’d run out of options.
On June 11, 2008, I resigned as faculty adviser.[3] It was the hardest decision of my career. But had I been able to foresee what my resignation would unleash, I would never have stepped down.
In fact, what Rachel Swedish, JK Howell, and the rest of the student staff didn’t know as they put out Vol. 42, No. 15 on June 9, 2008—what none of us even suspected—was that it would be the last issue ever published of The City Collegian.
After publishing continuously since 1966, The City Collegian, the independent student newspaper of Seattle Central Community College, would be shut down. Within days, the student staff would be locked out of their newsroom. Later that summer, editor-in-chief JK Howell would be informed by Lexie Evans, the dean of Student Leadership, that the paper’s budget “had been revoked.” He would discover that the newsroom had been gutted and occupied by Student Leadership, and that all journalism classes had been purged from the school’s course offerings.
What had been a vibrant educational program and critical element of the school’s culture—and one of the best student newspapers anywhere[4] —was destroyed within weeks.
The loss of the Collegian is now an indelible footnote in the history of the school, duly noted on Seattle Central’s Wikipedia page and warranting coverage in The Seattle Times (”Dispute stops presses at Seattle Central”), the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (“College paper up in the air over shutdown”), and The Stranger (“Another Student Newspaper Bites the Dust”). The Collegian had been staple reading for scores of faculty and staff, read by thousands of students, and used regularly in course curricula. It brought the community together as the college’s only public forum. The Collegian was the definitive chronicle of the times at Seattle Central.
This history focuses on the last five years of The City Collegian, 2003-2008, and details the experiences and observations of myself, Jeb Wyman, the faculty adviser during those years. I resigned to protest the administrative bullying of the paper and brazen campaign to stifle student expression [read my formal letter of resignation here]. As faculty adviser, I was an immediate witness to every aspect of the Collegian program and virtually every moment—the frenetic efforts by the students to publish by press time; the arduous discussions of journalism ethics and press law in the Collegian newsroom; the hostility and antagonism of the school’s Publications Board in the paper’s final year; and the futile appeal to the school administration to give the newsroom back to the student staff, reinstate the paper’s budget, and put journalism classes back on the books again.
A robust program, an award-winning student newspaper
Whatever reasons administrators may have given for their decision to close the student newspaper, it wasn’t for lack of journalistic quality or program success. The City Collegian, a ten-page, metro-size newspaper published every two weeks, had delivered timely news to the campus community and provided hundreds of students a practicum and a jump-start to careers in journalism.
The paper knit the campus community together, covering key issues and telling stories of the people who make up this institution. When Seattle Central Wood Construction students went to help rebuild New Orleans after Katrina in 2005, Collegian student staff were there to cover the story.[5] When a student brought two loaded weapons to campus, the Collegian dispelled rumors with in-depth reporting. When boxing champ David Imoesiri attended Seattle Central, the Collegian told his inspirational story in the feature “Blessed by Boxing.” And when custodian Robbie Hill received the Employee of the Year award in Fall 2007, his story was on the front page.[6] [Read Robbie Hill’s story in one of the few surviving electronic copies here. Read another copy of The City Collegian from 2007 below.[7]]
Between 2003-2008, the Collegian published 75 issues and about 900 broadsheet pages. Roughly 2500 news, features, editorials, reviews, photos and illustrations graced the Collegian’s pages.[8] The students distributed over 150,000 copies on campus.
The student reporters, photographers, cartoonists, and editors who ran the Collegian garnered major local, regional, and national awards in student journalism that ranked it as one of the best non-daily college newspapers in the country. Those awards included a 2005 Mark of Excellence from the Society of Professional Journalists Region 10 contest under editor-in-chief Aaron Peck, and another Mark of Excellence in 2007 under Rachel Swedish. The paper was a finalist in the prestigious 2006 Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker awards under editor-in-chief Jim Becker, who traveled to Kansas City to accept the prize. [Read a list of awards won by the Collegian in this quick-facts sheet.]
Seattle Central had become a hub for student journalism in Washington, hosting the largest-ever convocations of community college student journalists from across the state in 2007 and 2008 for the Washington Community College Journalism Association awards banquets. I was a co-founder of the organization. The Collegian even applied to host a training session for Palestinian journalists.[9]
As a result, the Collegian was a source of inspiration to journalism programs at sister community colleges such The Olympian at Olympic College, The Pioneer at Pierce College and The Buccaneer at Peninsula College. Student editors at the Collegian went on to study journalism at schools like the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at WSU, including Chris Bruffey, the Collegian’s managing editor from 2007-2008.[10] Students from the Collegian also completed internships at the Seattle P-I (Jim Becker), KOMO TV (Darcie Corn), and the Port Townsend Leader (Scott Sands).
The educational opportunities created in the Collegian newsroom extended far beyond the students enrolled in Journalism 104-106 or the student editors. Students from the Graphic Design Program designed page layout and built ads; Commercial Photography Program students took photos (see, for example, the memorable front-page photo of Humanities faculty Daudi Abe in the story “The Dr. of Hip-Hop”).[11] Students in the Web Design Program conceived and built an exceptional website (www.thecitycollegian.com)[12] that featured hundreds of archived articles and images. And over 40 students in Sal Tonacchio’s Film and Video Program worked with Collegian staff to produce video news stories that were promoted in the paper and viewable online.[13] The journalism program had been well received by the Curriculum Review Committee in May 2007 and thoroughly documented its progress in an extensive PAVS report.[14]
A paper of the students, by the students, for the students
During the last five years of its existence, the Collegian was 100% produced by students. Students discovered, debated, selected, and pursued every news story in the paper. Students reported, wrote, and edited every article. Students took the photographs, drew the cartoons, sold the ads, designed the layout, picked up the bundles at the printer, replenished the news racks. Students voted for their editor-in-chief and students determined the rules of the newsroom. [Read the Collegian’s policies and procedures regarding editor appointments and vetting of editorials here, and the oath of office for the editor-in-chief here.]
Students alone decided what stories they pursued and published, and they took responsibility for their decisions. This was explicitly outlined in the JRN 104-106 course syllabus and, as every student will attest, was emphatically announced on the first day of every quarter.[15]
The Collegian was a “lab model.” Students earned credit for JRN 104, 105, and 106—the 5-credit “College Publications” cluster course that met simultaneously—while they worked on the paper. Like writing classes such as English 101, these courses each required students to produce 5000 words—about 20 pages—of published material. The individual course curricula varied by the number and type of stories students were expected to produce, with increasing variety and specialization as students progressed through the series.[16]
Student editors had duties completely distinct from course requirements. While students enrolled for credit had reporting and writing requirements, editors mentored reporters, edited stories, coordinated photography and layout, wrote headlines and cutlines, and performed many other duties that consumed 20 or more hours per week. Section editors (news, features, op/ed, A&E) were appointed by the editor-in-chief and were paid stipends of $400/qtr. Other jobs, such as circulation manager, paid $100/qtr. The editor-in-chief and production manager were paid $800/qtr. [Read a complete list of editorships and their extensive job expectations here. Read their stipend scales here, and the self-evaluations they needed to complete here.]
Not all editorships were filled each quarter, as student interest and availability varied. Staff stipends, printing costs, equipment purchases, adviser stipend, and other expenses for the operation of the paper were supported by student Services and Activities fees (S&A fees), which are determined by a Student Leadership committee overseen by Lexie Evans. Journalism courses were taught under the aegis of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences. The paper was tightly managed fiscally, coming in more than $14,000 below budget in 2007-2008. Considering how many students were touched by the Collegian, the paper was arguably one of the most cost-effective educational programs on campus.
The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) hung poster-sized on the walls of The City Collegian newsroom and was referred to constantly during staff discussions and during course curriculum [read a sample ethics exercise here]. Editors were counseled about using the SPJ Ethics Hotline and shown resources at the Student Press Law Center regarding student First Amendment rights and responsibilities.
The final year of the Collegian: the kangaroo court of the Publications Board
The student staff began the 2007-2008 academic year under the direction of returning editor-in-chief Janell Hartman, who had served an eventful term in 2006-2007. She would serve during fall quarter until passing the baton to Rachel Swedish, who would guide the Collegian during the winter and spring quarters.
Although the students would publish 15 issues of outstanding news, features, and other content that final year, The City Collegian would be harassed unrelentingly by the school’s Publications Board. The members of the Publication Board were purportedly appointed by President Mildred Ollée, who installed Laura Mansfield, the school’s public information officer, as its chair. The Board was composed of three representatives of Student Leadership; Rachel Swedish, the editor-in-chief to The City Collegian; myself, faculty adviser; a representative from women’s programs; and one faculty-at-large.
At least that was how it looked on paper. In practice, it looked like this: the three members of Student Leadership—all of whom under the direct supervision of Lexie Evans—sat in a row and voted in a block. Rachel and I sat opposite them.
The faculty-at-large member quit coming because the meetings were so unpleasant. The representative from Women’s Programs only showed up at the final meeting of the year. To her credit, she abstained from voting. Laura Mansfield presided over the meetings, wielding her authority with clear prejudice.
At the first meeting of the new Publications Board, Laura Mansfield brandished a copy of the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) and announced that its language gave the Publications Board “general authority” over the paper. She then proposed the Board ban profanity in the Collegian. The faculty-at-large said he “didn’t see profanity as a problem” with the Collegian, since no one present could cite any profanity that had been printed.[17]
The matter was dropped, but the writing on the wall was achingly clear: the Publications Board was on a mission to control, contain, and weaken the independent student press at Seattle Central.
The Publications Board convened some half-dozen times during the 2007-2008 academic year as announced by Laura Mansfield. With one exception, we met in a conference room at Student Leadership—on their turf. No official record exists of these meetings; no minutes were ever taken, and hence no minutes were ever approved. With the exception of a single agenda produced for the March 11, 2008, meeting, which records the Publications Board’s intent to “review and approve” the Collegian course textbook,[18] Laura Mansfield created no documents to provide accountability as to the purpose, proceedings, or outcome of these meetings.
At the second meeting, one member of the Publications Board (a “Student Ambassador” of Student Leadership) insisted the Collegian print bios of all fifty-odd members of Student Leadership. Another member (the student government’s “Executive of Communications”) repeated again and again that she “had a real problem” with the Collegian determining its own editors. She did not explain why it was a problem, nor why Student Leadership should instead be given authority to select editorships for the Collegian—an authority they currently wield over their “Student Website and Publications” (SWAP) team.[19]
Rachel Swedish had explained that editors-in-chief know the journalistic abilities, attitudes and commitment of their staffers. Functionaries of the student government had not worked with these editors nor, so far as one could tell, knew anything about journalism or the skills and industry it took to put out a 10-page paper every two weeks.
In the interest of transparency, I had already distributed to members of the board the editors’ job descriptions, the Collegian’s policies and procedures, the staff stipend scale, the editor application, and other documents. Rachel Swedish explained how editors were hired. Neither these matters nor these documents were ever again discussed by the Publications Board. Bizarrely, at the end of the year Laura Mansfield still insisted there were “administrative issues” to investigate and accused the Collegian of “hiding information.”[20] She did not specify what information she wanted. I still have no idea what she claimed to be looking for.
In early 2008, Laura Mansfield announced to the Publications Board that it would rewrite the “Student Publications Code” at its next meeting. I had studied student press law for five years and had attended several conference sessions on the subject. In 2006, I’d consulted with student press law attorney Mike Hiestand of the Student Press Law Center to produce a robust Student Media Code for Seattle Central. Lexie Evans, chairing the Publications Board at the time, dismissed it as “inappropriate.” Without explanation, Laura Mansfield also refused to acknowledge or consider this document.
The meeting centered around provisions related to the First Amendment. It went very badly. When Rachel Swedish challenged one of the provisions as an infringement on student press rights, the Student Leadership executive of communications rebuked her, saying, “We aren’t going around changing the First Amendment.” I said that the First Amendment was not ours to “change”: that was the purview of the U.S. Supreme Court. Another board member, an employee of Student Leadership, insisted “there must be consequences” if the Collegian staff published content unacceptable to the Board. I replied that the existing bylaws already provided for the removal of an editor for publishing material not protected by First Amendment student press rights. There could not legally be consequences for publishing protected speech, no matter how controversial.
The members of the Publications Board, not surprisingly, possessed almost no knowledge of student press law. What was more disturbing was the contempt they expressed at having to learn anything about it. It seemed to me that members of Board, since they had been deputized with so much power, ought to be required to learn a little about their roles: to support the student newspaper, not tear it to pieces. Laura Mansfield, however, summarily rejected my suggestion that the Publications Board itself needed bylaws to govern itself.
After the meeting, she emailed the Board that it was “not a good use of time” for the Board to rewrite the Code. She announced she had been told by the president to write the new Student Publications Code herself. We could submit items for consideration.
On January 28, 2008, I requested a meeting with Laura Mansfield to discuss the student media code she was apparently writing and its policy implications for the school. “Before you draft our new document, I think it would be beneficial to discuss what other schools are doing and what kind of legal issues are involved,” I wrote to her.
She refused to meet. “There will be ample time for comment and editing as needed [later],” she emailed.
I replied that I had good resources on student press law to offer her, including media codes from several other Washington schools and universities. I suggested that she reconsider the Student Media Code I had written two years before. “These bylaws do not grant a single right to student journalists,” I explained. “They simply define the existing rights defined by Supreme Court decisions regarding the First Amendment and student journalists.” I also wrote, “I believe one of the Board’s responsibilities is to protect the school from needless exposure to legal consequences for student expression. A sound student media code can accomplish this at absolutely no cost. It is also good for student journalists who will go on to become professionals. It is also healthy for the campus and student body.”
She replied two days later. “It seems you are trying to incite a legal battle where none exists,” she emailed.[21] [22]
On March 11, 2008, the Publications Board was convened at Laura Mansfield’s direction to approve the “Collegian Bylaws” she had written. None of the provisions that the Collegian had submitted were included in her draft, and the members of Student Leadership, voting as a block, dismissed them from consideration.
The meeting grew uglier. Abruptly and without explanation, the “Executive of Communications” declared that she had a “real problem that students were paid to take the journalism class.” It was an offensive falsehood—editors worked hard on an extensive list of duties; students enrolled in the classes had numerous course requirements to fulfill. Having nothing else to add, she repeated the accusation over and over. It became clear she had been coached on the diatribe before the meeting–and likely as well for her previous anti-Collegian outbursts.
Laura Mansfield calmly listened, allowing the “Executive of Communications” to continue until she finally ran out of steam. Rachel Swedish and I sat on our hands and bit our tongues. When she finally finished, I started to explain that the duties of editors and requirements for the class were completely separate. But I was sharply cut off by Laura Mansfield before I got out a single sentence, and the Collegian was not permitted to defend itself.[23]
With that, Laura Mansfield instructed me to surrender our course handbook for “review and approval” and ended the meeting.
It would be the last time the Publications Board met in 2008. A year and a half later, the Board would again convene to badger and harrass students working on student media. Administrative intimidation of the student press continued.[24]
Laura Mansfield announced one more meeting, more than a month later, on April 22. There was no agenda. Rachel Swedish blanched when Laura Mansfield’s email came through. I too felt physically ill when I read the notice. I replied to Laura Mansfield and the rest of the Publications Board that “given the hostile atmosphere of the meetings,” I believed it was “inappropriate for this board to meet without an agenda.”[25] Laura Mansfield quickly replied. “There is no need to send an inflammatory message to the entire group,” she scolded. “This just fuels the ‘hostility’.” [sic]
It was an emblematic reply. Student journalism at Seattle Central had come under the thumb of a dysfunctional, shrill authority. After a year of needling the Collegian, Laura Mansfield and the rest of the Board seemed to understand nothing about the operation of the Collegian, the tenets of journalism, or the basics of student press law. Rachel Swedish would have been happy to explain any aspect of the Collegian or answer any questions. The Board instead treated the Collegian and its staff like criminals. Why?
When was the beginning of the end for The City Collegian?
The Collegian’s demise was not for want of money. Massive budget cuts weren’t an issue when journalism courses were chopped out of the schedule in 2008. And student S&A fees amply covered Collegian production costs; the student-run budget committee of Student Leadership had approved funding for the paper for 2008-2009.[26]
One could suggest the Collegian was marked for elimination as early as January 2004, when the student staff under editor-in-chief Cris Sullivan determined that the school was failing to report campus crime data as required by the federal Clery Act. They published an editorial to this effect. Soon after, Alex Wiggins, the security chief at the time, stormed into my office, wagged his finger in my face, and announced that he was going “to retain an attorney to pursue legal action against the paper and [me] personally” unless the paper “published a full retraction and apology” for the staff editorial. [Read his email here.] The staff conferred with a professional journalist, Stuart Ezkenazi of The Seattle Times, and chose to stand by the article. [Read their response to Wiggens here.] The staff went on to publish an award-winning, four-page, full-color report on campus security issues. Wiggens resigned that summer.[27]
Perhaps the Collegian did its job too well in fall 2006. The new Science and Math Building (SAM) was approaching its grand opening, the school was out of money, and purportedly there was no furniture for students to sit on. To fix the matter, the student government (the Associated Student Council or “ASC”), under the guidance of Lexie Evans, gave $465,000 of student S&A fee monies to buy furniture.[28] Then the ASC, at the invitation of the Board of Trustees, voted to name the new SAM Building tutoring center the “Lexie Mae Evans Tutoring Center.”[29]
As one would expect of a student newspaper covering how a big pile of student money was spent, the Collegian’s coverage was thorough and pointed.[30] The Collegian’s relationship with Student Leadership grew icy.[31]
Or perhaps the end really began in the fall of 2007, when Collegian news editors Scott Sands and Hana Wilson wrote investigative reports on security manager Dan Vicente, who had been the subject of a Washington state whistle-blower report. Scott’s reporting revealed that Vicente had not kept adequate records of campus crime incidents and thus had failed to keep the school in compliance with the federal Clery Act. More damning, the Collegian documented that Vicente had fudged campus crime data reports to the US Department of Education. Vicente resigned that summer.[32] [33]
The Collegian’s First Amendment Crisis: The Lee Myers Editorial
While these news stories clearly incensed administrators who wished they’d never been published, one editorial became the pretext for administrative action against the Collegian. As such, the end of the Collegian arguably began with President Mildred Ollée’s February 8, 2007, all-campus email. In this email she announced she was “disheartened” by a recent editorial and stated that “We have violated your trust.”[34] She declared that her administration “retains a compelling interest in ensuring that all publications of the college adhere to established principles of ethical journalism . . . to this end, we will be reorganizing our campus publications board.” She soon named Laura Mansfield chair of this new Publications Board.
The president’s email referred to an editorial published in the January 23, 2007, issue of The City Collegian. Written by Lee Myers, a white student, the editorial, titled “The American Black Crime Epidemic,” cited well-known crime data on the disproportionate nature of black crime. Myers rejected the idea that “institutionalized racism” or poverty alone explained crime rates, and asserted that blacks “are often taught there simply isn’t any other choice” than to commit crime. “Pretending this isn’t a problem is part of the problem,” he wrote. [Read the editorial here.]
While the subject of black crime is widely discussed in the mainstream media,[35] the editorial sparked strong reactions on the Seattle Central campus. Those reactions cut across racial lines: persons of all races were outraged; persons of all races repudiated the editorial; persons of all races vociferously defended free speech; persons of all races expressed support to Collegian staff and endorsed the validity of the editorial.
The editorial became the curriculum for various classes over the course of the week following its publication, forming the basis for vigorous discussions on crime, race, and race dynamics. Some instructors reported that class sessions on the editorial were the most powerful discussions they had all quarter.[36] The fervor peaked at a rally held in the atrium attended by some two hundred students. For hours, advocates of free speech vied with speakers on racism and social justice. Dozens of students went to the microphone. The event was unlike anything the college had seen in many years. Read a detailed personal narrative of those days here.
In the ensuing weeks, Collegian editor-in-chief Janell Hartman and others met repeatedly with concerned members of the Black Student Union and the campus community. Their efforts and commitment to ensuring the paper was meaningful to minority students was admirable. BSU faculty adviser Carl Livingston sent an email to Mildred Ollée later that fall praising the efforts of Collegian staff to pursue stories about the BSU and black students. Priest Amen, who had been BSU student president during the Lee Myers editorial protest, was effusive in his praise about how well the Collegian had engaged black students on campus and sought to include their views and voices.[37]
The Collegian went on to publish over 100 pages of superb content during the 2006-2007 academic year,[38] winning a major award from the Society of Professional Journalists. But however successful the staff were, the die had been cast. No matter that the paper had published over two thousand other articles—meaningful stories of student life, reviews of student bands, campus news. One article, a single editorial, became the stick that enemies of free student expression would pull out again and again to attack the Collegian.[39]
Evans kills The City Collegian; faculty and students fight to save it
In mid-August 2008, JK Howell, the elected editor-in-chief of The City Collegian for 2008-2009, went to meet Lexie Evans. Although he and the staff had been shut out of their newsroom all summer—Student Leadership had ordered the locks changed the day after my resignation—he and the staff assumed the paper would operate in the fall. He had gone to discuss his plans for starting up the Collegian that fall.
JK reported to the Collegian staff what she told him: “There will be no student newspaper in the fall. The budget that had been approved has been revoked. The office has been given over to the College Activities Board.” And as for a student paper in the future—“currently there are no concrete plans.”[40]
JK asked to retrieve documents from the Collegian newsroom. Allowed in only with an escort, he discovered that the newsroom had been gutted by Student Leadership. The lock to the camera cabinet was cut,[41] the archives were gone, and the papers he was looking for—documents that had been passed down for years from each editor-in-chief to his or her successor—were gone. They are presumed destroyed.[42]
Forty-two years of The City Collegian had come to an end with the decision of a single administrator.
“We showed up to make the student’s paper,” JK said. “And we were told to go away.”[43]
In fact, the entire journalism program had been terminated during the summer. Audrey Wright, dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, had met Lexie Evans in July. Wright returned to her office and instructed her secretarial staff to remove all journalism courses from the schedule.[44] No journalism courses have been offered at the college ever since .
Wright never emailed or communicated to me in any way about the termination of the journalism classes—neither to consult with me before she took that action nor to explain her actions afterward. She has never spoken with me nor emailed one word about her decision to expunge journalism from the college.[45]
Regrettably, not a single administrator employed by the college at the time has ever communicated with me regarding the Collegian—in any way whatsoever, neither via email nor in person— since the day I resigned. No administrator ever inquired about the conduct of the Publications Board, the destruction of the newsroom, the elimination of the journalism courses, the axing of the paper’s budget. No administrator ever discussed the future of journalism on this campus with me, or asked for or given me information of any kind. It is as if my years as adviser never existed.
In October, a number of faculty and students met to raise campus awareness of the loss of the student paper and strive to get the Collegian operating again.[46] Lead by SCIE faculty member Tom Davis and librarian Kelley McHenry,[47] the group took the name CRISP (Committee for the Reinstatement of an Independent Student Press). Former Collegian advertising director Jeff Smith and news editor Hana Wilson[48] represented the student effort. They soon became disillusioned with Seattle Central, however, after unpleasant and unsuccessful meetings with Student Leadership that fall made it clear that the school had no intentions of restoring independent student journalism.[49]
An online survey was set up and announced in an all-campus email. The survey asked respondents whether they had read the Collegian in previous years, whether they thought a student newspaper was important to the college, and whether they thought it a conflict of interest that an administrator ran the Publications Board, among other questions. There were 168 replies, mostly faculty and staff, with the overwhelming majority expressing strong convictions in support of free student expression and submitting many candid comments. [Read the fascinating summary of the survey here.]
The online petition that was also created by CRISP garnered over 260 signatures. It is a compelling read. Dozens of Collegian staff—now scattered around the U.S. and the world—left testimonies about the value of their experience on the Collegian. Many faculty attest to their appreciation of the paper and their use of it in their curricula; one faculty recorded that since 2003 The City Collegian had been the best paper she’d seen in her 17 years at Seattle Central. [Read this vibrant document here.]
The story spread to the news desks of major local newspapers. The president’s office received a letter from the Pacific Northwest Association of Journalism Educators signed by thirty regional journalism faculty which advised that “the prestige of the college has been tarnished” and asserted that the Publications Board appears to have been “set up to censor the student press by undermining instructional leadership and student independence.” AFT Seattle President Lynne Dodson made a case before the Board of Trustees on the need to preserve the student press[50] and foster democratic institutions in student governments.[51]
The intense public interest forced the administration to acknowledge that The City Collegian was gone and provide a reason as to why. Their solution: blame the adviser. This was the official line given to The Seattle Times and the Seattle P-I by Laura Mansfield,[52] and cited as the first point in an all-campus email issued by President Mildred Ollée on Nov. 19, 2008. “I want to assure you that there was never any intent or action taken to discontinue publication of Seattle Central Community College’s award-winning newspaper,” the president wrote to the campus. “The paper was put on hiatus when its adviser resigned . . . with no notice or plans for a successor.”[53]
The administration made no effort to find an adviser, however, until more than seven months after my resignation, when an ad was posted on Craigslist in January 2009. Although it is known that at least one professional journalist applied[54]—in a city awash with unemployed reporters—Lexie Evans hired someone with no experience in reporting, news writing, editing, journalism ethics, or press law, and whose job description was “student development.” That person’s employment with Student Leadership ended abruptly just weeks later, however, under mysterious circumstances.[55] It was not until fall 2009 that another adviser was hired, and he was warned by Laura Mansfield that the administration “did not want this new publication to be like the Collegian.”[56]
In her all-campus email, President Ollée revealed for the first time that journalism classes were cancelled “because Instruction has found that the courses have not had full enrollment.”[57] She also revealed for the first time that the ASC had decided during its budget process the previous spring that “Collegian editors must abide by the 10 credit hours rule.”[58] Ollée concluded with an appeal to faculty to become involved on the Publications Board—“we will need volunteers to be a part of this body,” she wrote—which she claimed would select the new adviser to The City Collegian.[59]
With all avenues of appeal exhausted, President Ollée’s pronouncement effectively ended the effort to reinstate The City Collegian and independent student journalism at Seattle Central. Her declaration that her administration would “look forward to it remaining part of the landscape of this college for as long as we exist” was unrealized, and in retrospect, seems farcical.[60]
On May 8, 2009, Tom Davis, a former student reporter for The Daily at the University of Washington and a co-founder of the faculty committee dedicated to the effort, issued a final report from CRISP. His excellent summary serves as an appropriate coda to this history:
This episode has been a great loss to the SCCC community. The City Collegian served as an important record of student life and a history of our school. The absence of student voices for a full year, during the most momentous election and economic crisis of our lifetimes, and the punitive manner in which a thriving newspaper was shut down are serious blots on the stature and reputation of Seattle Central Community College. . . .
Despite its economic troubles, the press remains a foundation of our democracy, a forum for debate, and a watchdog on our institutions. Reports of its imminent demise have been grossly exaggerated. We regret that our college, which should be a sanctuary for these principles, has treated its own student press with such callous disregard.[61] [62]
Jeb Wyman
Faculty adviser to The City Collegian, 2003-2008
January 2011
PHOTO CREDIT OF COLLEGIANS (above): Former Collegian production manager Dipika Kholi. After studying graphic design at Seattle Central, she went on to found Design Kompany. Read about her experience at the Collegian here.
[1] Typically a third of the Collegian’s senior editors had already taken the three-course journalism sequence. Between serving 20 hours a week as an editor, taking a 5-credit class, and working 30 or more hours off-campus to support themselves, they had neither time nor money to take more classes. However, the dean of Student Leadership, Lexie Evans, insisted that editors take 10 class credits. She argued that the student newspaper was an arm of Student Leadership and subject to its rules. In an April 22, 2008, email, Laura Mansfield announced that she was granting control over this and other “policy decisions” that affected the Collegian to Student Leadership. She moreover stated that the purpose of the Board was to make the Collegian “comply” with what she termed “school policy” decisions by Student Leadership. Mansfield’s “executive decision” overruled the Publications Board, which had actually voted against a credit-load requirement for student editors. I maintain that the administration’s only motivation for imposing the credit-load requirement was to reduce participation on the Collegian and cripple the paper’s ability to engage in investigative journalism. I know of no other campus paper with a credit-load requirement for student editors. [See also footnote 15]
[2] I had tried to meet with my immediate administrator, Audrey Wright, to discuss my intent to resign. However, she did not respond to my email after a week, and when I went to see her she said, “I’m busy.” I had to wait for two weeks to get an appointment with President Ollée to discuss my resignation with her. I asked her if she supported the “10 credit rule,” and also whether it was her policy that “the Collegian can be half this size.” She did not answer either question.
[3] Read the all-campus email here. Read my formal letter of resignation here.
[4] The Collegian had won awards that ranked it as one of the best non-daily college newspapers in the country. In the 2005 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence awards, the Collegian bested North Idaho College’s The Sentinel, frequently considered the best non-daily student newspaper in the nation. [Read a complete list of awards won by the Collegian here.]
[5] Ryan Camden accompanied the Wood Construction crew and reported the story; photojournalist student Maxime Guillaume took award-winning photos. See “Hammers With Heart,” Collegian, May 29, 2007.
[6] See Collegian issues November 7, 2007 (“Guns on Campus”); January 29, 2008 (David Imoesiri), and November 20, 2007 (Robbie Hill). The “Guns on Campus” issue was presented by SCCC counselor Lori Miller during her testimony at Washington state legislative hearings on campus violence in spring 2007.
[7] The following are PDFs of Issue 2, Fall 2007: Page 1; Pages 2-3; Pages 4-5; Pages 6-7; Pages 8-9; Pages 10-11; Page 12.
[8] These stories are available in the Seattle Central library, which has microfiche of all issues of The City Collegian through 2006. However, with the destruction of most of the Collegian‘s meticulously preserved archives during summer 2008, apparently by Student Leadership, some issues after that may only exist in the library’s collection of single issues.
[9] Read that proposal from February 2005 here.
[10] A year into his program, Chris visited the Seattle Central campus. He reported that the education he gained working on the Collegian gave him a tremendous advantage over most of his peers in journalism at WSU.
[11] See “The Dr. of Hip Hop,” Collegian, May 14, 2007.
[12] When this site was shut down by Student Leadership, hundreds of articles, posts, photos, videos, and other content were lost along with the valuable domain name.
[13] Though other videos appear lost because Student Leadership shut down the website, two news videos by Martin Jarmick—“May Day 2008” and “Bobby Seale at Seattle Central” (featuring an interview with Black Student Union president Tyrone Davis)—are still viewable at http://wn.com/May_Day_2008_Rally. Search by their titles.
[14] Read goals of the Dept. of Journalism here that were presented to the CRC in May 2007, as well as the report to the CRC and the CRC’s response. Read the original January 2006 PAVS report here.
[15]One of the ugly, false rumors that have emanated from Student Leadership at least as recently as 2009 was that I “controlled” the content of the Collegian. Any Collegian student staffer would contradict this, as does the course syllabus explicitly. Another false rumor was that non-students worked on the paper. In fact, only one editor was ever discovered to be unenrolled (Ryan Jackson, who served as news editor in Fall 2007, and who explained that he had been unable to pay tuition and had been subsequently dropped). Ensuring editors were enrolled was subsequently easily and effectively remedied with an administrative paperwork requirement. Still, Lexie Evans privately emailed Laura Mansfield and Mildred Ollée on March 28, 2008, to claim that “there is something very wrong” that some Collegian editors take 5 credits at Seattle Central and to cite this single example of an unenrolled student from months before. She argued that experience as a student editor cannot displace enrollment in credit courses; in effect, she claims that experience as a student editor is not educational but merely extracurricular, a claim any professional journalist would strenously rebut. Read Lexie Evan’s email here. I was never made privy to this email, although as faculty adviser to The City Collegian I had a compelling right to receive and have the opportunity to reply to this email. The email only came to light during an AFT Seattle grievance investigation in Fall 2009, and illustrates the behind-the-scenes manipulation of the paper by administrators.
[16] During Ed Ciok’s AFT Seattle grievance investigation in fall 2009, Laura Mansfield criticized the JRN 104-106 cluster course format, questioning how students could learn as they progressed through the sequence. She also told me in spring 2008 that editor-in-chief Rachel Swedish “had no business being a student at SCCC” because she was not enrolled in enough credits. These were curious and inappropriate comments from an administrator who had no official relationship to instructional matters.
[17] At a February 2008 meeting with President Ollée and Laura Mansfield to discuss Mansfield’s intent to write a new Publications Code, I pointed out that whatever one’s feelings about profanity, it is speech fully protected by the First Amendment, and any effort by the school to punish student editors for printing it would expose the school to a lawsuit. Laura Mansfield asked why, then, The Seattle Times did not print profanity if it were lawful speech. We did not discuss how First Amendment law applies equally to both The Seattle Times and The Stranger; the two newspapers simply make different editorial decisions for different readerships.
[18] At this meeting, Laura Mansfield demanded that I submit a copy of the course text for JRN 104-106 [read the table of contents here], a large photocopy reader of curricular material, for her review and approval. I explained that months before I had submitted every relevant document to the Publications Board—the editors’ job descriptions, the Collegian hiring process, the stipend scale—that was included in the book. Moreover, Rachel Swedish had explained all Collegian policies and procedures. After being accused of “hiding information,” I complied and surrendered my copy to her, with the request that she return it. She ignored multiple requests to return this book. Ultimately she asserted the book was “school property,” then claimed that she did not have it but might have given it to Student Leadership. [Read those emails here.] Mansfield’s demand that the book be submitted to her and its subsequent loss was pursued by AFT Seattle in a contract grievance [read the full text here] under Articles 6.2, 6.9, 13.1, and 13.4 of the Agreement. These provisions define faculty ownership of curricular materials, academic freedom, and the complaints process. While President Mildred Ollée dismissed the grievance, having attended the hearing via cell phone from her car, Chancellor Wakefield upheld the Level II grievance and granted a monetary award.
[19] Student Leadership hires at least the core student editors for SWAP, which publishes the small-magazine format Central Circuit. This close relationship seems to affect editorial decisions and content. According to Justin Fraley, a former SWAP editor, in spring 2010 Central Circuit staff approached Lexie Evans, who “gave [the editors] permission” to write a story about the demise of the The City Collegian “because they had shown that they were a serious publication.” The article never ran, however. Fraley reports that Central Circuit editors resisted his efforts to report news about Student Leadership. Fraley and another editor were abruptly fired from the Circuit in December 2010. See The SCCC STUDENT NEWS.
[20] As late as Fall 2009, Laura Mansfield maintained during an AFT Seattle grievance investigation conducted by Ed Ciok that she “had directed Wyman to surrender the student handbook, particularly hiring procedures for newspaper staffers’’ because “there was an interest in the hiring practices.” Ciok reported that in her file on the Publications Board were the editors’ job descriptions, the editor application, and other documents. These had been in her possession since Fall 2007 and had been explained to the Publications Board at that time. It is inexplicable why she claimed not to know the Collegian’s simple hiring practices after they had been described completely months earlier, nor why she did not ask if she felt she needed clarification.
[21] Given how seriously a bad Publications Code could affect student free speech rights at the college, I had also requested meetings with President Ollée and Vice-President for Instruction Ron Hamberg. Though she refused to meet me individually, Laura Mansfield was apparently asked by Ollée to attend my meeting in the president’s office. At this meeting I presented reasons for adopting a progressive media code for the school, and explained the legal indemnity it afforded the institution. President Ollée said she didn’t worry about lawsuits. I reminded her that I had already been threatened with one by her former security manager, Alex Wiggens [read his email here], at which she grew angry. She replied that if she had a problem, she would “just get people into my office and talk to them.” I pointed out that such media codes had been adopted by other schools. She said, “I don’t care what they do at Peninsula College. Who are they to us?” Read my request for a meeting with Laura Mansfield here.
[22] In a strange nonsequitur, she followed this statement by declaring, “However, there are administrative issues that need to be resolved.” She asserted, “there is currently no agreed upon job description for the advisor nor are the bylaws consistent with the WAC,” both of which were incorrect. Read the adviser’s job description here. Every expectation of the position had been more than amply fulfilled during my tenure. She concludes the paragraph with the unnecessarily cavalier statement, “[A]s a state institution we do not have the option of ignoring laws at our pleasure.” My point was not to ignore the WAC, but that it was “of limited assistance” as a guide to student press law, the foundation of which is federal court decisions.
[23] JK Howell was given permission by Laura Mansfield to attend this meeting. However, she would not permit him to speak.
[24] The next known meeting of the Publications Board under Laura Mansfield took place almost a year later, on Feb. 4, 2009. [Read a copy of the agenda here.] In October 2009, the board met again. In attendance were Jim Vesely, the adviser to SWAP, and Cassandra Piester, the SWAP student editor. The termination of the Collegian almost two years before had apparently not diminished the Board’s zeal, and Cassandra and Jim were subjected to a lecture on what a student publication should and should not do. (When he was hired, Jim was instructed by Laura Mansfield that the administration “did not want this new publication to be like the Collegian,” though she refused to explain why.) Much of the meeting was apparently taken up with condemnation of the Collegian, with one Board member stating he would “testify” that a Collegian staffer had interviewed him but not used his quotes in an article that was published. Cassandra Piester left the meeting in tears. With a budget of $65,000, SWAP eventually published two issues of the Central Circuit, an 8” x 8” magazine, in spring 2010. Jim Vesely continued as adviser in 2010-2011. Chancellor Jill Wakefield was apprised of the conduct of the Publications Board at its October 2009 meeting.
[25] The faculty-at-large member of the Publications Board also balked at the meeting announcement. In an email several weeks later to Laura Mansfield, he described the meetings as “confrontational” and “tribal.” Editor-in-chief Rachel Swedish responded that she could not attend unless there was an agenda.
[26] The Collegian’s S&A- funded budget of over $50,000 for 2008-2009 went unused, and apparently was subsumed into Student Leadership’s “contingency fund” that totals about $1 million.
[27] See “Security on Campus: How safe is SCCC?” Collegian, February 4, 2004.
[28] S&A fees are paid by students on top of tuition costs. The funds are parceled out to various programs by a committee at Student Leadership that is overseen by Lexie Evans. S&A fees are $8.60 per credit up to 10 credits, then decrease on sliding scale. Student pay between $774 and $860 in S&A fees by the time they earn 90 credits of an AA or AS degree. As of fall 2010, These fees are not posted on the college’s website or published in the course catalogue, nor are they indicated on a student’s tuition invoice. See “Student Leadership slices up $1.3 million of student money.”
[29] The Board of Trustees was obligated to retract its offer when it was informed by Lynne Dodson of AFT Seattle that it could not “gift” naming rights; naming rooms or buildings needed to follow established policy and procedure.
[30] See “Huge donation, use of student money raises eyebrows,” et al., Collegian, Oct. 30, 2006.
[31] Several months later, when the Collegian staff met Lexie Evans and the Student Leadership S&A fee committee to apply for funding for 2007-2008, the committee was openly hostile and antagonistic to editors Chris Bruffey and Janell Hartman. They were told later that Lexie Evans and the committee had denounced the Collegian at length prior to the meeting.
[32] See “Security manager ignored alarm calls,” Collegian, Nov. 7, 2007; and “Crime stats questionable,” Collegian, Dec. 4, 2007.
[33] The Collegian staff were never informed of any significant inaccuracy in a major news story from 2003-2008. The Collegian received no challenges from anyone as to the accuracy and validity of the stories on Wiggens, the $465,00 S&A fee story, the Vicente stories, or any others. The Collegian diligently published a “Corrections” box, usually matters of misspelled names, wrong photo credits, wrong room numbers, and the like. The most serious known error in a news story wrongly suggested that John McMahon, director of facilities and plant operations, was retiring; he informed the staff of the error and was gracious.
[34] The president’s choice of the word “we” was ill advised, since it implies institutional liability for content. The Collegian was an independent student press, and the students assumed and bore full responsibility for their content.
[35] A quick search turns up dozens of similar editorials. A few examples: a recent editorial in Tacoma’s The News Tribune; The Daily Progress; City Journal; even one from Ebony magazine in 1975.
[36] In the Collegian issue which followed, two pages were filled with every letter to the editor the paper received. Not one word was edited. One writer, Ryan Casey, titled his piece “You Can’t Buy This Kind of Education.” The paper received no letters from the Black Student Union for this issue.
[37] Unfortunately, that relationship didn’t last. In fall 2007, BSU held a rally for the Jena 6 in the Atrium. Apparently angry that a Collegian production error had dropped a story about a BSU-sponsored event, they used the occasion and microphone to denounce the Collegian as “racist” and said the paper “only printed pictures of black people yelling or pregnant.” The Collegian staff who were there to report on the event, most of them new to the paper, were bewildered and hurt. I considered the affront wholly unjustified, and when BSU faculty adviser Carl Livingston sent me an email declaring a “pattern” of racial insensitivity at the Collegian, I took umbrage. Read my testy rebuttal here.
[38] It is important to point out that production of the issue in which the Lee Myers editorial was printed had been highly chaotic, and normal editing procedures weren’t working. I never had an opportunity to advise the students about the editorial prior to publication, and it is clear the editorial may never have been printed had the production cycle been routine. In January 2007, over winter break, the Collegian moved from an office in Student Leadership to a basement room in Broadway Edison. Only one computer was functioning at the start of winter quarter, so the staff was dispersed in computer labs and at home during production night. In this late-night, stressful situation, EIC Janell Hartman opted not to vet the editorial to the entire editorial staff, as was standing policy. Janell acknowledged her actions and apologized for them in a front-page editorial in the next issue. The vetting policy was later strengthened in the Collegian’s policies and procedures, which allowed for the dismissal of editors who failed to follow the vetting process. Incidentally, despite repeated appeals to the administration and IT, the Collegian constantly struggled with technology issues, and these issues affected production and content. Read an email to that effect from the Collegian’s printer, Richard Fazakerly of Pacific Publishing, here. Chronically inadequate technology provided to the Collegian was also thoroughly addressed in the PAVS report and the CRC official program review.
[39] Over two years later, at the Feb. 9, 2009, meeting of the Publications Board, Laura Mansfield still referred to the editorial with the rather lurid and inaccurate claim that it “incited racial tensions on campus.” See a copy of the agenda here.
[40] The Seattle Times and Seattle P-I stories that fall documented that the Collegian’s budget had been revoked over the summer.
[41] As the editor-in-chief-elect, JK said he had done a careful inventory of the Collegian’s equipment before the newsroom locks were changed. Later that fall, staff heard rumors that the digital camera was missing and Collegian staff were being blamed by Student Leadership for the theft. JK says the camera was in the office when the staff left, and any attempt to find those responsible for the theft “should start with whoever cut that lock.”
[42] Later that fall, a Collegian staffer reported that the decades-old brass plaque that read “THE CITY COLLEGIAN—SINCE 1966″ was in the garbage can in front of the former newsroom, then occupied by Student Leadership’s College Activities Board (CAB). That plaque is visible in the photo accompanying the Seattle P-I story. One faculty, in an overly dramatic allusion, likened the total destruction of the Collegian to the Roman salting of the earth after the sack of Carthage. In a similarly Romantic vein, a faculty in the English Department said the Collegian had been “cast into a Kafka novel.” Another faculty simply labeled the administration’s actions “cowardly.”
[43] JK consulted a pro-bono attorney, who represented him for over a year. JK says his legal effort was stymied for lack of funds.
[44] An account of Dean Audrey Wright’s termination of the journalism program can be read here. Wright resigned as dean of Humanities and Social Sciences in spring 2010 during the administration of interim President Gary Oertli.
[45] In an Aug. 4 email, I was informed by a secretary in the Humanities Division that the journalism classes had been canceled and thatI had been reassigned to composition courses. There was no explanation given, and no mention of enrollment issues was ever mentioned until President Ollées all-campus email on Nov. 19. The cancellation of the journalism classes may have been a breach of the AFT Seattle Agreement, although it was never pursued as a grievance. In September 2008, just before the start of fall quarter, journalism faculty Allana Bourne asked Audrey Wright why journalism courses had been taken off the schedule. Wright told her that the classes “had been cancelled because there was no adviser.” Wright also claimed she “knew nothing about” the Collegian being shut down, and responded angrily to Bourne’s inquiries. (Personal email from Alana Bourne, 18 September 2008.)
[46] I was not on campus during fall quarter 2008. My mother, Barbara Wyman, died on September 22, and I was preoccupied with family matters.
[47] At one point during the fall, Kelley was approached by an administrator and warned not to be involved in the effort to get the Collegian reinstated. Kelley interpreted this to mean that her involvement threatened her career. The encounter left her feeling chilled, and she subsequently ended her work with CRISP. This administrator also asserted that it was the administration’s prerogative to control the student press. Such a statement is anathema to core institutional values of free inquiry and expression. This statement is also legally wrong. See “Student Press Law.”
[48] Hana comes from an august family of journalists. Her uncle is Duff Wilson, three-time Pulitzer finalist and investigative reporter at the New York Times. Her father, Scott Wilson, is publisher of the Port Townsend Leader.
[49] Hana and Jeff met with Sam Chesneau, director of the College Activities Board, to appeal for a reinstatement of a student paper. They were invited to participate on the Seattle Central ‘Zine. They were told, however, that they would not be permitted editorial independence and that anything they published would require administrative approval. “What was disturbing was the sense that there was all kinds of administrative manipulation behind the scenes,” says Jeff. Hana says that the two meetings they had “were completely frustrating” and Student Leadership’s attitude was to “get over it” regarding the end of the Collegian. “It was apparent they were really resentful of the Collegian,” she says. “We were told a student newspaper was not a possibility due to difficulty and time constraints of finding a new adviser.”
[50] At the following meeting of the Board of Trustees, Student Leadership brought students who described their involvement in the “Seattle Central ‘Zine,” a stapled booklet of creative writing and essays. Two issues were produced during the year. Apparently satisfied that student needs were being met, the Trustees took no action.
[51] Since 1990, the student government at Seattle Central has been not been elected. It has been determined by a committee selection process overseen by the dean of Student Leadership [now apparently called “Student Life and Engagement”].
[52] Laura Mansfield told The Seattle Times that she was “fully committed” to an independent student newspaper. “I’m their champion,” she is quoted as saying. She also told Amy Rolph of the Seattle P-I that the Publications Board had “concerns about the number of minorities” on the Collegian staff. This was an unconscionable playing of the race card. It was also, frankly, a reprehensible fabrication and a blatant smear tactic. Over the years numerous African-American students served as senior editors: Shonda Seals (managing ed.), John Borns (editorial page ed.), Saad Hopkins (news ed.), Charles Walker (managing ed.), George Lewis (editorial board). African-American, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American editors and staffers are too numerous to list: the 2008 official demographic report on the journalism program reveals that 30% of students were minorities. See also JK Howell’s compelling email to Laura Mansfield regarding the administration’s putative “diversity concerns.” Mansfield’s statements are also flatly and knowingly untrue: the Publications Board never discussed “diversity” concerns in 2007-2008 under her leadership. In fact, I had made an appeal both before her and President Ollée and to the Publications Board for help funding a diversity scholarship (see Collegian polices). Although she permitted members of the Board to make baseless accusations against the Collegian, she never addressed this goal or this topic. Mansfield again summoned fictitious “diversity concerns” to smear the Collegian in her Feb. 2009 Publications Board agenda. Laura Mansfield never met more than a handful of the Collegian staff nor ever visited the newsroom. Moreover, she apparently did not read the Collegian enough to notice the extensive coverage of minority students, faculty, and staff.
[53] Alana Bourne was a former copyeditor for The Seattle Times who as faculty taught Journalism 101 in 2007-2008. However, she was dismissed by Audrey Wright when she inquired before the start of fall quarter about becoming the new adviser. Having seen the same tactic used in the termination of the drama program, I had in fact warned the Collegian staff in early June that the administration might claim they could not find an adviser. Still, given that administrations for the past forty-two years had kept The City Collegian running, I was surprised to see this tactic used.
[54] The applicant was a former professional colleague of faculty Alana Bourne.
[55] The appointment of Rhoda Belleza was announced by Sam Chesneau via an all-campus email on March 20, 2009. Rhoda met with students and produced a list of student ideas on journalism from a series of Student Website and Publications (SWAP) “focus group” meetings. These notes are admirable and read remarkably like many brainstorm sessions by Collegian editors. Shortly after, however, Rhoda suddenly left Student Leadership under unknown circumstances, and her LinkedIn resume does not list her work at Seattle Central. Besides two issues of photocopied, folded, and stapled “Zine,” there was no student publication at all in 2008-2009.
[57] It is true that journalism enrollment had shadowed a general institutional decline in enrollment the previous year. But I would argue that, given the involvement of students from programs across the campus–Film & Video, Graphic Design, Publishing Arts, Commercial Photography, Web Design, and many class curricula–the educational benefit of the program extended far beyond those students enrolled in journalism courses. It is also clear that other classes ran with even lower enrollment, and appears that journalism classes were singled out as a way to ensure the complete eradication of student journalists. For specific information on class enrollment, see the 2008 enrollment report on the journalism program, the PAVS report, and CRC official program review. The way in which all journalism classes were cancelled may have been a breach of Article 11.6 of the AFT Seattle Agreement (see also footnote 44).
[58] No Collegian staff were ever informed of this discussion, if it took place, nor therefore invited to present their case to the student S&A Fee Committee.
[59] It was a hollow offer; no faculty were ever named, though the Faculty Senate provided to the president the names of numerous interested faculty. See email by Laurie Kempen, president of the Faculty Senate. And, although President Ollée indicated that the Publications Board would select the next adviser to the Collegian, she apparently later confirmed that Lexie Evans, whom she had promoted from associate to full dean, would hire and supervise this position. There is no evidence of any Publications Board involvement in hiring advisers. Apparently pleased with her work, the president also directed that Laura Mansfield remain as head of the Publications Board. See Mansfield’s agenda of the Feb. 9, 2009 meeting of the Publications Board.
[60] President Mildred Ollée originally announced her retirement for June 30, 2009, but hastened her departure to March 15. Vice-president Ron Hamberg resigned on March 31. Ollée was succeeded by interim President Gary Oertli, now president of South Seattle Community College. In fall 2010, Paul Killpatrick assumed the presidency at Seattle Central.
[61] The loss of the Collegian’s infrastructure and the absence of a student chronicle are readily apparent. More difficult to recognize, perhaps, is the total loss of institutional knowledge, experience, and culture. Generations of veteran Collegian staff educated their successors in journalism skills, principles, leadership, and traditions. That unquantifiable knowledge, now gone, cannot be restored. One assumes this was in fact the goal of the administration.
[62] The destruction of the independent student press at Seattle Central arguably reflects a pattern of intolerance and repression of free expression from 2003-2010. The administration blocked student protestors’ access to student-owned equipment (see “Students clash with administrators over illegal protest limits,” Collegian, Dec. 5, 2005); barred the organization Students Against War from the campus (see “School drops demand for apology,” Collegian, Feb. 14, 2005); terminated the drama program and ended the tenure process of faculty Elena Hartwell (see “Drama faculty fired” Collegian, April 16, 2007); ordered paintings by faculty Tatiana Garmendia taken down (see “Instructor’s art causes controversy,” Collegian, March 6, 2006); warned the campus of an “unauthorized student budget forum” (PIO all-campus email, 3 March 2009), as if the administration needed to “authorize” student meetings; appeared to be involved in an anti-union effort in fall 2009, part of a hard-line response to faculty expressing no-confidence in an administrator; perpetuated the non-representational student government system; and even failed to continue the campus literary magazine, Corridors, which has been absent from Seattle Central for years.