JournalismProject.com

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With this last issue, something very special comes to an end: The 29-year history of the Campus Observer. The Observer has been a number of things during its lifetime. It has informed and entertained, has sought to persuade, and at times has angered and outraged. Through it all, it has been there, and it has been a voice for the students of Oxnard College and, on many occasions, a voice for Oxnard College itself.
The Observer can rest on its laurels knowing it has achieved much in its lifetime. It has brought the college 72 state, regional, and national awards for excellence in various areas of collegiate journalism. It has enabled a host of young writers and editors to go from a fertile training ground to worthwhile careers in media. Its editors and reporters have won Pulitzer Prizes, edited newspapers, written books, earned doctoral degrees, and achieved in disciplines far removed from journalism.
Today, however, those things fade into the past. Those who see a need have said enrollments do not measure up to other disciplines. It seems not to matter that those 15 or 20 students, more or less, have provided a service to the college and the college community that goes far beyond the walls of the traditional classroom. And so, because those in authority seek monetary solutions to the intangibles that make up a college, the Observer becomes a memory.
History won’t note the tiny blip on the radar screen that signifies the passing of the Campus Observer. However, its loss represents yet another stake through the heart of freedom of expression as part of an alarming trend. Every time a newspaper – student or otherwise – is closed, a voice – or set of voices – is silenced. The silencing of that voice strikes at the core of what we call “democracy.” When a platform for expression by the people is lost, an element of free speech is lost as well. Remove too many such platforms, and free speech is at risk.
Certain things – quantifiable and not so quantifiable – make a college what it is. One of the things inherent in the concept of “college” is that it is a place for debate, for expression of ideas. There are others: A college offers a place for students to congregate when not in class; a college offers cultural activities outside the classroom for its community; a college has a newspaper. Without these things, a college amounts to little more than a “drive-through” factory of classes without campus identity, with scant comprehensivity, and with little or no institutional culture.
But such arguments will not bring back the Observer. It has served its population to the best of its ability, and other voices have said it’s time for the paper to go. And so, with little fanfare, the curtain comes down on a newspaper that struggled throughout its life to survive, to offer a voice to students and staff, and to keep Oxnard College aware of what has been going on around it.
Traditionally, reporters use the number “30” to mark the end of their stories. Now, the Campus Observer has come to the end of its story. There’s only one thing left to say:
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Dr. Gary Morgan,
Former Advisor, Oxnard College
Posted by toni at May 12, 2005 09:34 AM