Harbor College Student Paper Back on Stands

The student newspaper at Los Angeles Harbor College, which shut down last month because of budget cuts, resumed publication last week after a series of news stories publicized the paper’s demise and students petitioned the administration for its reinstatement.

“The Tides looks great,” said Chris McCarthy, director of the communications division. “It looks better than it ever has.”

McCarthy said publicity helped bring the campus voice back to the two-year community college in Wilmington. The semester’s first issue came out Oct. 10 and included stories about the college president, sporting events and the school’s tightening budget.

McCarthy said two journalism classes, one of which puts out the paper, were targeted for cancellation in August by college administrators, who set enrollment limits for the classes to zero, effectively barring students from signing up.

“For the first two weeks of the semester we didn’t allow anybody to enroll,” McCarthy said. “After the (newspaper) articles appeared, I got a call from the president saying we had part-time funds available.”

McCarthy said he then contacted Phillip Sanfield, a news editor for the Daily Breeze in Torrance, who agreed to take the post as adviser for the student paper. Sanfield was co-adviser to the weekly paper last year.

Although the college could only offer Sanfield, 32, part-time pay for what amounts to a full-time job, Sanfield said he could not stand by and watch the paper fold.

“You never want to see students who are interested in journalism not have anywhere to go,” he said. “I don’t think anybody who is associated with this business wants to see a college paper close.”

So Sanfield, who continues to work at the Breeze and did not plan to teach this year, began teaching the reopened journalism classes three weeks after the fall semester started.