The Racial Politics of College Newspapers

By Justin Elliot, September 14, 2007

Why college newsrooms are often neither diverse nor racially sensitive.

(Editor's Note: This story originally appeared on CampusProgress.org)

When the Kansas State Collegian failed to send a reporter to cover the Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government in 2004, the school's Black Student Union didn't take the snub lightly -- after all, the event had attracted 1,000 participants to K-State's campus. The controversy soon escalated. Meetings were held between minority groups and the white editors of the Collegian, who apologized repeatedly for their misstep. Complaints about a pattern of poor coverage persisted and eventually the administration reassigned the paper's longtime faculty advisor. That action led to a free press lawsuit against K-State that is still pending.

"The staff can be all white, for all I care," Natalie Rolfe, the Black Student Union president, said at the time, "but they need to be diverse in their minds."

Was she right? Can a college paper composed entirely or mostly of white reporters and editors ever adequately cover communities of color on campus? Today that's a very real question for student dailies across the country. [Continue reading…]