COC newspaper canceled

College of the Canyons' print newspaper was dropped due to budget cuts

Calvin Alagot / Roundup

College of the Canyons’ 40-year-old student newspaper, Canyon Call, was canceled last month due to the dropping of several advanced journalism classes.

COC now lacks the resources required to sustain a student publication.

Canyon Call has been replaced as the main distributor of news on campus by a weekly online broadcast called Cougar News, found at www.cougarnews.com.

Mark Ehresman, a former editor in chief of the Canyon Call, expressed his feelings regarding the cancellation of the paper.

“I think it’s terrible that people aren’t going to have the same opportunity as when I was there. I learned more in those two years than I ever learned in any classroom,” Ehresman said.

There are only two journalism classes that remain at COC — Mass Media and Society (J-100) and Beginning News Writing (J105). All of the advanced journalism classes have been dropped due to “low enrollment.”

“That firsthand experience can’t be duplicated by some story you write for a class,” Ehresman said.

Currently enrolled beginner journalism students, rather than writing for print, are posting their stories on a blog.

“I had the amazing opportunity for two years to speak my mind. I had a platform to express everything I felt,” Ehresman said. “It was a great part of my life and I had a lot of writers and editors that felt the same way.”

Craig Leener, a former sports editor for the Canyon Call, is the head of the coalition of concerned students, educators, journalists and private citizens who are mounting an effort to save the Canyon Call.

Leener started www.savethecanyoncall.com “to increase the awareness that the newspaper is gone.”

“With the Canyon Call students have the opportunity to voice an opinion,” Leener said. “Now, with the newspaper gone, if you want to voice an opinion you’re out of luck. That’s 25,000 students right now without the opportunity to express their first amendment right of free speech on campus.” calagot.roundupnews @gmail.com

The cancellation of Canyon Call is not an isolated event. Several student publications throughout the Southern California area have either been canceled or put online due to budget cuts.

California State University, Northridge’s Sun Dial is no longer in print and has had to go online.

The CSU Dominguez Hills Bulletin no longer exists.

The Cerritos College Talon Marks was canceled because of low enrollment and budget cuts, just as the Canyon Call was, and was recently reinstated with mass support from the community as well as a petition drive.

Links to sign the petition to save the Canyon Call can be found on Leener’s Web site at www.savethecanyoncall.com.