The SMU Daily Campus has been an independent, uncensored voice for students for more than 100 years. All of that will now end, and the paper has its own board to thank for it.
After years of mismanagement and disinterest, the board of the independent non-profit Student Media Company decided in January to dissolve and wrap the newspaper into SMU’s journalism department — a move that will allow SMU to exercise editorial control. No announcement was made until April, leaving us scrambling for a solution. When our alumni group, Friends of Student Media, offered money and a proposal to save the company, the board refused to hear it — many members didn’t even show up.
Prior to the meeting, we met with board spokesperson David Sedman, who gave us a fundraising goal and offered SMC’s financial documentation so we could propose a business plan. We pushed for donations — which, after only a week, amounted to well over $40,000 with pledges for even more — because we were led to believe that with sufficient funds, we could save SMC.
But the meeting made clear the board never had any intention of allowing such a thing. The members who attended (Sedman was not among them) refused to reconsider, saying it was “too late.”
The SMC’s bylaws require board members to “demonstrate a commitment to freedom of the press and to the preservation and advancement of the independence and autonomy of the company and its media.” The few who show up for meetings are doing the opposite.
The journalism department — through silence and inaction — has been complicit in SMC’s end. The newspaper that once was an asset to the whole university will soon become a university-funded vehicle for publishing journalism classwork. That is not what FSM rallied to support.
The board asked if we’d commit to providing the mentorship to the journalism-school run paper that we committed to providing the SMC. We will not. A school-operated press runs contrary to our deeply held beliefs and is antithetical to The Daily Campus’ century-long heritage.
Our effort was about preventing censorship — a battle we cannot fight if the school controls the purse strings. Both the board and the journalism school disregarded our motivations.
The Daily Campus has grappled with censorship since its founding and became independent a decade later so students could write freely. Articles dating back to 1936 decry SMU’s willingness to stifle student voices. More recently, The Daily Campus has faced threats of eviction from its campus office — for which it pays rent — and moves to block opinion articles. And, damningly, SMU removed its pledge not to censor student publications from its handbook in 2013.
We expressed these concerns repeatedly to the board and the journalism school. Neither were persuaded. Both said they did not believe the administration would attempt to censor students, ignoring all evidence to the contrary. They have offered no explanation for how they intend to shield the school-run publication from censorship by the administration.
We are deeply concerned about the quality of accountability journalism moving forward at SMU. The paper will be run by a journalism department that has lost its focus on tried and true reporting. The offerings of the journalism school — and the rise of the fashion media program — have directly led to a growing disinterest in the work of hard news in student media. It is not clear that, under the direction of the journalism school, there would be any regeneration of interest in holding SMU accountable. We hope we are wrong.
Killing the SMC was an avoidable choice. The money we raised came from dozens of alumni across the country. It was a remarkable show of support, and it is disappointing to imagine what such a willing alumni base could have done with more time and willing partners. We’re not going to allow the money we’ve raised to go to waste. The donations we’ve collected and the donations we intend to collect well into the future will be used to fund the work of students with similar ideals. We are excited to be part of the future of student media — even if we cannot be part of that future at SMU.
Chip Mahaney, ’86Ted Gangi, ’87Chip Stewart, ’94Kandice Keene Bridges, ’94, ’97, ’99Scott Slezak ’95Chad Watt, ’95Alan Fossler, ’96Christina James, ’97Hon. Amy Clark Meachum, ’97Jennifer C. Wang ’97Jennifer Bassman, ’98Matt Jacob, ’98Christina Hagegeorge, ’98Emily Muscarella Guthrie, ’98Stephen Blum, ’98James Pecht, ’99Feras Gadamsi ’02Nancy Black, ’02Courtney Alieksaites Keys, ’02Jonathan Dewbre, ’03Richard Martin, ’03Kris Norvet, ’03R. Kirk McPike, ’05Jessica Alexandre, ’05Clark Castle, ’05Veronica Terefenko, ’05Jessica Savage, ’06Austin Kilgore, ’06Mark Norris, ’08John Schreiber, ’08Sommer Saadi, ’08Cole Hill, ’09Laura Ratliff, ’10Nate Regan, ’10Taylor Adams, ’11Jessica Huseman, ’11Joshua Parr, ’11Stuart Palley, ’11Meredith Shamburger, ’11Pat (Traver) White, ‘11Ashley Withers, ’11Sarah Kramer, ’12Chandler Schlegel, ’13Kent Koons, ’13Brandon Bub, ’14Chase Wade, ’14Sidney Hollingsworth, ’15Christopher Saul ’15Demetrio Teniente IV ’15Patrick Engel, ’17Paula Streiff, former advertising advisorMark Witherspoon, former student adviser