One of the trustees of the Ventura County Community College District said at a recent board meeting that he believes that the journalism program and its effort to produce a district-wide newspaper will “fail.” For those of us in the program, the comments were hurtful and a bit premature.
At the Jan. 17 meeting of the VCCCD, which sets policy for all three colleges, Board Member Bob Huber said he had some concerns about the journalism program and the Student Voice classes that put out this particular newspaper. Huber said that he doesn’t believe that all three campuses are getting the equal coverage in the paper, and that he would like to see the design and format of the paper changed from what it was last semester.
“I want to have an update regarding the journalism program in one of our future meetings,” said Huber. “I think with the way it is going right now, I don’t believe it will last and I think it will fail.”
Personally, hearing the word “fail” stung. We are still working on the paper and improving the skills we learned last semester. Last semester, Oxnard had no students enrolled in the newspaper staff and Ventura had only one inexperienced writer, so it was sometimes difficult to get stories from those campuses.
We are learning from what we went through, and we have high hopes for better coverage this year. Huber is passing judgment a bit too early, after only one semester with a newspaper that covers all three campuses. I know that it was the first time anyone has ever tried reporting news from three college campuses and placing it all on one newspaper, but to me it seems that the standards for the program seem to be higher than anyone in the class would anticipate.
Huber used to be a journalist himself, serving as the managing editor for his school paper when he attended South Bakersfield High School. He also served as sports editor at the University of the Pacific, just as I serve as the sports editor now. He has very strong feelings regarding this program, since he knows what it takes and what it is like to run and operate a paper.
“When I voted to approve that we bring journalism back. I had mixed feelings,” said Huber. “I have been monitoring the class very quietly and with the way it’s going it doesn’t look like the paper is set up to succeed. I have experienced journalism before and I want others from all the campuses to experience it. But there just doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of enthusiasm from Oxnard and Ventura College.”
If he or other people look at the classes now, there are more students enrolled in the program this semester than last semester with several returning students including our Editor Whitney Diaz from Moorpark and Ventura College Bureau Chief Monica Lara. In addition, we have Oxnard Bureau Chief Harold Sanders, Jr. and this semester’s Sports Editor for all three campuses, yours truly.
My friends and I see this as an opportunity to prove that the mixed feelings of Huber are wrong. We will not back up or be discouraged by these comments. Instead, we will grow from them and prove to anyone who doubts us that we can do a good job and keep the newspaper going so students have a voice until the programs are reinstated at their own campuses.
In order to have a successful paper, we need to hear from all the readers at all the campuses on what they like and dislike about the paper and what they think we can do better. A paper can only succeed if its staff members get the feedback from the people who read their publication, whether or not it is praise or criticism.
I urge anyone with any questions or concerns or opinions about the paper to please respond. Post your comments at https://www.moorparkreporter.com/ and click on the “Letters to the Editor” section.
This semester, we will be better than last semester, and next year will be better than this year. And maybe by Fall 07, the campuses will have their own papers again. Until then, we will be the VCCCD Student Voice.
