Tag: student newspaper

w00t, w00t: Visuals editor Will Wooten starts redesign blog

Let the Web design blogging begin!

Will Wooten, visuals editor at The Miami Hurricane, has started a blog about online journalism, specifically the redesign of The Hurricane’s Web site.

Will is overseeing the aesthetic side of the project and will be posting updates and information about the redesign process. The blog will also act as a means for gathering feedback and discussing the new site.

And what is the name of this forum?

“Will’s Blog.”

Why such a simple name?

“The reason is, it is what it is. I don’t want anything creative.”

What about the design and color scheme?

“The serious bloggers are going to be using a reader anyway.”

Unrelated, my favorite quote from Will came as he was updating his resume last semester. As he was finishing, he realized something:

“I forget to put that I was Time Magazine’s person of the year in 2006 on my resume.”

Montclair newspaper funding restored

An AP story (via Editor & Publisher) from this morning reported: Funding restored to N.J. college paper.

Here’s an except:

Montclair State University’s student government decided Wednesday to temporarily restore funding to the school’s weekly student newspaper, after its decision to freeze the paper’s funding a week ago was criticized as an attempt to stifle freedom of the press.

After more than five hours of deliberation, the Student Government Association legislature voted 12-0, with seven abstentions, to restore funding for printing and office supplies to The Montclarion for 30 days, during which time student government and newspaper leaders are expected to try to resolve their differences.

Here’s a news story from The Montclarion: Montclarion Budget Unfrozen for One Month and here’s my original post on the news: Monclair State newspaper funding cut by SGA.

Monclair State newspaper funding cut by SGA

The Student Government Association at Montclair State University in New Jersey has cut the paper’s funding. As a result, they are no longer able to publish:

Montclarion Presses Stopped by Student Government

Here is the paper’s editorial.

The New York Times picked up the story yesterday:

Student Dispute Threatens Montclair State’s Paper

Here are the first three paragraphs of the Times’ article, which give a good overview:

In a rancorous dispute that has pitted student journalists against student government, the editors of Montclair State University’s weekly newspaper were forced to stop publishing last week after the student body president froze the paper’s financing.

The editors of the paper, The Montclarion, claim that the president, Ron Chicken, improperly used his authority, cutting off the newspaper’s funds to silence criticism of the student government.

The student body president, however, told the Montclarion’s editors that they had violated the by-laws of the student government association by hiring their own lawyer.

The Society of Professional Journalists (full disclosure: I’m a member) posted on its site a letter to the Montclarion editor, excerpts of which were just to members sent via e-mail:

Letter of support to Montclarion editors and staff

Weigh in: What are your thoughts on the situation? Has this happened/could this happen at your university?