spapers of the campuses in the Ventura County Community College District (the Reporter, the Campus Observer, and the VC Press) are long gone and they won’t be coming back any time soon. It’s time to get over it, and work with what we have.

The Student Voice is a district-wide newspaper, meaning it serves all three campus of the VCCCD, those being Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura Colleges.

In the spring of 2005, the Board of Trustees was faced with a budget crunch, and the board told each college president to cut about $1 million from their budgets. On the chopping block for Oxnard and Ventura were the entire journalism programs and their campus newspapers due to low enrollment. Moorpark President Dr. Eva Conrad, however, would not hear of such a thing as cutting journalism, and the Board of Trustees, in a very contested and controversial ruling, eliminated the three campus papers, and created this district-wide paper, The Student Voice. Board member Larry Miller was against the split.

“Any kind of newspaper is better than none, but I do not think it was a good idea to close the student newspapers at Oxnard and Ventura and I did not vote for such an action,” Miller said. “Students need a place to express their opinion and advocate for what they need and want. A reporter at Moorpark can write a story about Oxnard College and get the facts correct, but after that how do students speak out?”

To say the least, students were enraged at the decision, and the idea of a three-campus newspaper was heresy. But the paper was set up and the mandate became equal coverage for all three campuses. The paper would be based in Moorpark, where journalism classes were still in the schedule, and there would be bureaus at the other two campuses.

Student Involvement

What most people who criticize the paper don’t realize, is that a bunch of kids (students, most of which are right out of high school) are expected to maintain the same level of coverage as each of the three papers used to, except with one third the staff.

Curently our staff averages 16 units per person, with most article writing in addition to those. We are in no way professional journalists, and most of the time, we learn as we go. Often that involves mistakes. Some would say it is the best way to learn.

As much as some professors lobby and desire separate papers for their respective campuses, the funding is simply not available at this time. This is understandable; every college deserves their own representation with a student media. But this is what we have to work with and as the Student Voice editor, I am determined to make this system work. Logically, I should be one who would prefer an individual campus newspaper.

By no means has it been easy, the news staff is primarily based in Moorpark, with a VC bureau editor that acts as a liaison to the one journalism writing course that is not offered through Moorpark College.

Coverage for Ventura College is radically easier with at least one student enrolled in the News Media Staff class (JOUR M10A) who communicates to the Moorpark staff via teleconferencing.

The Ventura Bureau, although still a beginning journalism writing class, has been key to providing a blanket of coverage for the campus.

Even still, as the mandate dictates, this isn’t student news, any content filtered through a professor isn’t student news.

Oxnard, on the other hand, does not have anyone in the staff class and has no bureau, putting quite the stress on the Student Voice staffers in Moorpark.

Planning stories and asking writers to drive over 30 miles out of their way is almost too much for an editor to ask even his most devoted staff of students.

A roundtrip drive from Moorpark College to Oxnard College is almost 70 miles. Roundtrip to and from Ventura College is pushing 85 miles.

We adhere to our district-given mandate of equal coverage for all three campuses, despite the apparent inconveniences, the best we can. The college presidents agree that we do a good job with what we are given.

“I have been impressed by the progress the newspaper has made over the last three years,” Ventura College President Robin Calote said. “I realize that it is a challenge to do a combined paper for all three colleges, but the students have certainly risen to this challenge.”

There is, however, always room for improvement. We miss events, story ideas, scheduling conflicts interfere and reporters feel like outsiders on another campus, but I vouch for my staff when I say we try the absolute best we can.

Criticisms

It is truly discouraging and even counter-productive when professors from all three campuses (yes, even Moorpark) openly advocate the currently unattainable ideal of separate papers for all campuses.

There seems to be a double standard when professors can acknowledge that we are all students with classes, some with overloaded schedules, jobs and a newspaper to write, but the next day complain about the lack of coverage for their campus without lifting a finger to improve their school’s situation.

The Student Voice staff at Moorpark misses class and bends over backwards to cover events and research issues from other campuses, all to fulfill our mandate. I am proud of the work they have put in, and appreciative of all the positive feedback and constructive criticism we receive.

It is insulting that when I personally reach out and attempt to meet with professors from across the district to work on garnering student interest in the Student Voice, I am blatantly refused for the pettiest of excuses. What we really need is a journalism class here at Oxnard, I am told.

Journalism writing classes (JOUR M02) are available online or live via teleconferencing at Oxnard and Ventura Colleges. They are just as good as any, and students can learn through a television or computer. This district is not entirely full of naysayers. There are many professors that have been happy to meet with me and their cooperation and enthusiasm for improving our news coverage, which is a step in the right direction.

Cooperation

Philosopher Bertrand Russell, perhaps, put it best.”The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.”The district-wide paper can work, and will, if only with the crucial cooperation of all students, faculty and staff at Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura College.Everyone must stop complaining that their school doesn’t have its own paper and face the facts. It’s here and it’s here to stay. Let’s make the best of it and represent our district with the same pride and enthusiasm that any one school would.

We are three schools,

one voice.

Former Editor-in-chief Jeremy Zeller contributed to this story.