Student-Run Newspaper Folds at Ventura College

Ventura College student Nathan Murillo arrived before the campus stirred to life, ready to tackle one of his most important duties as editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. As he has for three semesters, the 21-year-old journalism major motored across campus last week, filling wobbly orange news racks with stacks of the Ventura College Press fresh from the printer.

But today, Murillo will load the racks for the last time. After 80 years of chronicling campus life, the voice of the Ventura College campus will go silent this week, a victim of budget cuts like those squeezing community college newspapers statewide.

“They hit us with no warning,” said Murillo, outside the newspaper office on which someone had spray-painted “Save the VC Press.” “We tried everything we could to keep it open, but they never gave it a chance.”

Indeed, the decision to shut down one of California’s oldest community college newspapers -- and the journalism degree program that supported it -- came just days after officials announced that it was on the chopping block. Community college officials in March made sweeping cuts to programs and personnel to close a $7.5-million budget gap this year and next, a move that sparked student walkouts and demonstrations.

No one yelled louder than members of the Ventura College Press and the Oxnard College Campus Observer, which also fell to the budget ax along with its journalism department. They accused officials of trampling on 1st Amendment rights and muzzling the newspapers for publishing stories critical of the administration.

When administrators cited low enrollment in journalism classes at both schools, supporters argued that the programs shouldn’t be measured by numbers alone, pointing to the vital role the press played in connecting students with campus life.

In response, administrators crafted a plan to publish a single, districtwide newspaper next school year. Although the paper will be based at Moorpark College, it will carry stories from all three campuses, and students at Ventura and Oxnard will be offered some journalism courses even though they no longer can pursue journalism degrees.

“You couldn’t pick any more politically charged program to cut,” said first-year Chancellor James Meznek, who has taken the brunt of the criticism for closing the programs, even though it was the presidents at Oxnard and Ventura colleges who recommended they be shut down to meet budget targets. There was no such recommendation from the president at Moorpark College.

“I am probably just about as passionate about a free press as these students are,” he said. “But I’m also as passionate as the chief executive officer for the district about my obligation to maintain and strengthen all programs.”

The squeeze is not unique to Ventura County. Earlier this year, the newspaper at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose ceased publication after the journalism program was eliminated because of low enrollment. The same almost happened this year at Lassen Community College in Susanville.

In recent years, budget cuts have downsized or threatened journalism programs at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, De Anza College in Cupertino and West Valley College in Saratoga.

Cerritos College journalism instructor Rich Cameron was the newspaper advisor at West Valley College when that program was downsized in the mid-1990s. Although it’s not uncommon for programs to come and go, he said he was troubled by the idea that established ones -- such as those at Ventura and Oxnard -- were vanishing.

“Student newspapers do more than report campus news,” said Cameron, who serves as communications director for the Journalism Assn. of Community Colleges. “They are a vital part of the campus community.”

That’s what the staff at the Ventura College Press has been saying since the closure was announced.

In columns and editorials, staff members have criticized the decision to shut down a newspaper first published in 1924 as the Radiator, a joint venture between Ventura High School and a newly created junior college that shared space on the same campus.

They organized student walkouts and noontime rallies and even staged a sit-in at the chancellor’s office in Camarillo. They applied for grant funding to keep the doors open, but in the end nothing helped.

“People rallied around us, but it didn’t save the program,” said veteran journalism advisor Carol Weinstock, who announced earlier this year that she would be retiring. She said she didn’t believe administrators would have cut the program if she had stayed.

“I had no idea this was going to happen,” she said. “I’m just really, really angry.”

Ordinarily this time of year, with only one of its 20 annual issues left to publish, the newspaper staff would focus its energy on something more whimsical. Last year, Issue 20 took considerable heat for delving into students’ passions.

But this year is different. When it hits news racks today, there will be a story about a mugging on campus, a piece on the high number of Latinos who earn degrees at the campus compared with other community colleges, and continuing coverage on the toll that budget cuts are taking on academic programs.

Ventura College alumnus Chris Martinez, a local artist and illustrator, designed a special cover depicting the Pirate mascot fleeing a sinking ship, a sword in one hand and a copy of the Press in the other. After hours of debate, the staff decided to go with the caption, “Just the Battle, Not the War.”

More pages will be devoted to opinion than to any other subject, including a staff editorial lamenting the loss of the journalism program and sign-offs from staff members about what the paper has meant to them.

“There’s too much left to say, too much left to report,” said Managing Editor Lara Shapiro-Snair, 34, a mother of two set to graduate with one of the college’s last journalism degrees. She hasn’t given up hope that the paper can be resurrected.

“I’ll continue this fight because this is an important issue,” she said. “It’s about freedom of speech, and it starts right here at the college level. We can’t let that be silenced.”

Staff members gathered in the newsroom Thursday night to put out the final paper, ordering Chinese food and cranking out deadline stories on computers that are emblazoned with the names of famous journalists: Dave Barry, Daniel Pearl, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Scores of journalism awards line the walls at the newspaper office, including one handed out last month for general excellence by the Journalism Assn. of Community Colleges.

A sign near the front door tells people, “Got news, come on in.” There are slogans pasted here and there, including the journalism mantra, “Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions.”

They talked of the newspaper staff as family and of the newsroom as a second home. And they assembled one last time to proofread their pages, with a staff photographer chronicling the final hours.

“I’m really going to be sad when I leave,” said sophomore reporter Jessica Miller, 20. She is weighing offers from UCLA and the University of Missouri, both coming in large part because of her writing prowess.

“But I’m also sad for future students. They won’t get to have this experience,” she said. “It means so much to me, and it could have meant so much to so many others.”