Editorial: Cal Poly Humboldt’s transparency with student-journalists
As a student-run newspaper, it is our duty to notify the students of all that is happening on campus and in our community. This becomes incredibly difficult when the Cal Poly Humboldt administration cuts off communication and access to clear information, fostering an unhealthy dynamic between student journalists and the school we attend.
Our role as a publication is important because we foster the checks and balances on campus and in the community. Without us, students and community members wouldn’t voice their concerns with campus.
The fact of the matter is student journalists should not be seen as separate from other journalists; we are real journalists and should be treated with such respect. This is a real publication with a real audience and we take our roles seriously, meaning that if administration wouldn’t treat journalists from outside publications like this, they shouldn’t be doing that with us as well. As a student-run publication on campus, it is especially important that there be transparency and communication between us and administration. Our roles aside, however, we are also students on this campus.
As students, we are asking questions that other students either do have or might have. We pay our dues in this school and have the right to some level of transparency when it comes to issues within campus. Rather than being defensive and saying we discredit the work our campus has done, why not just hear us out before yelling at us? What does that accomplish? It seems that communication between students and administration is becoming much more scarce. If we’re paying our tuition, why can’t we know what’s going on? We pay this school’s bills.
As journalists, we understand the importance of public relations but when it gets to the point where nothing’s being said and there are constant barriers between the press and answers to the questions we have, there’s a problem.
CPH throughout this semester has been this big corporate entry since it became a Cal Poly and this is not the way to go about things. They get a bad reputation because of their robotic responses when it comes to addressing serious issues where CPH faculty, staff and students have been harmed.
In an attempt to find solutions to this growing issue, we recommend that administration sit with student publications to discuss how we can further facilitate conversation.
Our objective is to get timely, accurate information and avoid any misunderstandings. The last thing we’d want is for anything to get muddled along the way.
When administration rejects student media, they are denying the student population, as a whole, access to information about the very school they attend.
