Student Newspaper at Harbor College Ceases Publication

The campus newspaper at Harbor College has discontinued publication because the community college lacks the money to hire a full-time journalism faculty member who would advise the student staff of the paper.

The Harbor Tides newspaper suspended publication this month when budget cuts eliminated the full-time position and no part-time faculty member would take the time-consuming task of overseeing the paper, said James Heinselman, president of the community college in Wilmington. Heinselman was not willing to let students publish the weekly tabloid without an adviser.

The soonest the paper might resume publication is next September, when additional state funds for faculty hiring may be available, he said.

“I think it’s a disaster for a school not to have a paper,” Heinselman said, adding that he was editor of his high school newspaper. “We will bring the paper back as soon as we can find the funds to hire a full-time faculty member.”

The college’s $16.3-million budget is about $700,000 less than last year’s spending plan because of state budget cuts, Heinselman said. The school decided to fill vacant full-time positions with part-time staff, none of whom was willing to take over the supervision of the newspaper for a full-time faculty member who had also taught several journalism classes. The last permanent adviser of the Harbor Tides transferred to another college in June, 1989.

Several part-time advisers supervised the paper last year while administrators searched for a qualified replacement. In August, administration officials notified the Communications Division, under which the paper operated as part of the school’s journalism department, that the position would not be filled, said Communications Division Chairman Chris McCarthy.

The decision all but wiped out the journalism program at the school, leaving only one mass communications course in the department. There are no longer any full-time journalism faculty members at the college, McCarthy said.

Denise Hyndman, student editor of the paper last fall, said she is disappointed but not surprised about the paper’s demise.

Financial problems and student indifference caused the college to shut the paper in September, 1985, when it was known as the Hawk. The previous semester the Hawk was criticized for a series of opinion articles that called the Holocaust a myth. Joe Fields, then-student opinion editor, asserted at the time that the college shut down the paper “to keep me from expressing my views.” The tabloid resumed publication in 1987.

Hyndman said the paper had been under continued scrutiny because of the publication of Fields’ views in 1985. “It’s always been on shaky ground,” said Hyndman, 21.

The Harbor Tides, which was published weekly, does not have enough advertising to continue publishing without a college subsidy, Hyndman said. Most of its $8,000 annual budget comes from district funds. The small staff often worked long hours to produce the paper, Hyndman said.

“The paper was kind of like my baby,” Hyndman said. “I put so much into it. I put in about 45 hours a week to get the paper out. It was my paper as far as I was concerned.”

McCarthy said the campus was losing its “watchdog.” The paper won several statewide college journalism awards last year, he said.

“My feeling is that it is vital to the student body,” said McCarthy, also a former school newspaper editor. “As a communication vehicle it is essential for a college campus.”

Alex Carrillo, a reporter at the paper, said the Harbor Tides had improved in the past year. “We’ve made it a respectable tabloid,” Carrillo said. “Then they go and pull the plug on us. . . . I feel like I’ve been blindsided.”