What Awaits the Vanguard’s Future?

Paulina Reyes

October 21, 2024

There still has not been minimal activity on the Vanguard, the original student newspaper I had worked on the last two semesters with Max Hassel. Meanwhile the Independent has continued to stand as the revolutionary student newspaper on its own. We have collected students’ opinions, letters, stories, and poetry. From horoscopes to word puzzles we have slowly created the medium that could have been produced on the Vanguard if Dr. Generals, the Community College President, and Jenevia Weaver, the Head of Student Life, put into focus what student writers want:

The delay in finding a new advisor for the Vanguard has felt like a halt that required student writers like me to keep pushing for a resolution for the future of the Vanguard. This campus needs an outlet for student reporters, journalists, and writers alike. A blog, a comic strip, or a movie review, we need a place where students can let their creativity shine and work on their investigative journalism skills.

The fact that the Vanguard has not been given the attention it deserves to find a new advisor to get started right at the beginning of the semester is still baffling to me and the rest of The Independent team. The Independent is doing its best, with 8 publications and our recent literary edition, we have humbly gathered our campus interests in student reporting once again. It could be so much more if this school valued funding us properly and gave us our proper newsrooms, print in color even. So, what is stopping the Vanguard from taking so long to be back up and running? To start the student newspaper again, we need not one but several advisors who are well-versed in the field of journalism, communications, and multimedia at the Community College. We need an active, paying position for advisors to put in the time students need to guide this newspaper to be everything it deserves and can rightfully be. 

After countless emails with Mrs. Weaver, and uninvited office visits in which she was in a meeting, I have yet to hear a response on what will become of the Vanguard. I have emailed her asking for support for student journalists like me. No response. I have asked her who would be potential student editors on the Vanguard. There was still no response. She eventually told me it would all be announced soon. 

If the Vanguard were moved into the Communications Studies and Mass Media Department (CS&MM) at CCP, the student news would be valued as a program for journalists to get experience in reporting and do incredible endeavors. Journalists here would have experience and training that they could carry on after they graduate. We could connect with Multi-Media and do documentary journalism and podcasts.

The Vanguard would operate as real newsroom, made up of student editors, with a team of advising editors, well paid and respected in the Communications department as our own Journalism program. Media and film students, photographers, artists, and journalists need a space to put their work and invest in projects. If we were to have this support as a classroom space and trained, the students can produce their project ideas, they would be able to publish it in the newspaper, working and transforming the Vanguard if the students put in their work.

The students have been putting in the work as well, the Independent is just a taste of what the student journalists, writers and creatives can do here with what we have. Imagine all we could do if the school properly supported our journalism and storytelling here at CCP. If we had funding and changed the way the Vanguard ran, teachers in the communications department may be more interested in helping students if they just made it their own program.

The Independent is in a silly predicament of having complete editorial freedom. Dr. Generals may not like this newfound freedom of speech for students. Due to this, The Independent may face threats of defamation, “we will cross that bridge when we get there.” It is risky for The Independent to run without an advisor on campus, yet this will not stop students from writing and saying what they believe must be improved for a better college experience here at our community college. For now, we can only hope for the best, be thoughtful with our words, and report the facts we know are true. Student journalist M.P. Hassel has gotten into contact with the nominated future Faculty Advisor of the Vanguard Anyabwile “Aaron” Love, who is a professor of the Black Studies program, Liberal Arts honors program, and advisor to All Black Student Alliance. We’ll see from there.