Rocky Mountain Collegian

The Collegian editorial staff for the spring 2021 semester are:[4]

• Editor-in-Chief: Lauryn Bolz
• Content Managing Editor: Abby Vander Graaff
• Digital and Design Managing Editor: Matt Tackett
• Night Editor: Anna Schwabe
• News Director: Laura Studley
• News Editor: Serena Bettis
• Opinion Editor: Katrina Leibee
• Sports Director: Jack Taylor
• Arts & Culture Director: Jenna Landry
• Arts & Culture Editor: Noah Basley
• Design Director: Amy Noble
• Design Editor: Katrina Clasen
• Photography Director: Anna von Pechmann
• Photography Editor: Lucy Morantz
• Social Media Editor: Paige Moorhead
• Student Media Advisor: Jake Sherlock

On September 21, 2007, the paper’s editorial board ran the words “Taser This… Fuck Bush” in large bold font as an editorial. Members of the board stated that the editorial was a response to the University of Florida Taser incident, which had occurred earlier that week.[5]

Then-President Larry Penley responded: "While student journalists enjoy all the privileges and protections of the first amendment, they must also accept full responsibility for the choices they make. Members of a university community ought to be expected to communicate civilly and rationally and to make thoughtful arguments in support of even unpopular viewpoints." [6]

Community members and the campus’ College Republicans called upon Colorado State University’s Board of Student Communications to dismiss Editor-in-chief J. David McSwane, who had final say in all matters of editorial content.[7] After a heated public hearing and a closed-door meeting with witnesses, the board chose only to admonish McSwane for violation of two guidelines in the university’s student media code: use of profane language in an editorial and using poor judgment in framing the editorial.[8][9]

The university and Penley weren't done scrutinizing the Collegian, however. Penley began private conversations with the local, Gannett-owned newspaper, The Fort Collins Coloradoan, so that the Coloradoan would enter a "strategic partnership" with the Collegian and run it as part of the for-profit Gannett chain. [10] Student-journalists caught wind of a January 2008 meeting between Penley and then-Coloradoan Publisher Christine Chin, and showed up uninvited and unannounced to voice their displeasure. [11]They were turned away.[12][13]

"This takes privatization in a whole new direction and threatens the very core of student press freedom on that campus," wrote Kathy Lawrence, director of student media at the University of Texas-Austin, and a former College Media Association president. "Everyone who cares about an independent student press needs to sound the alarm loudly."[14]

Penley and the university released a statement on Jan. 23, 2008, and announced that CSU would accept a formal proposal from Gannett for their "partnership." [15]

The university in February 2008 formed an "advisory committee" to review the structure of the Collegian and to review proposals from Gannett and other interested suitors. [16]

The proposal offer was eventually extended to other corporate entities and to the then-Department of Student Media, which had been running the Collegian's business affairs — as well as those of CTV, KCSU-FM radio and College Avenue magazine. [17]

University officials eventually accepted a proposal by Student Media Director Jeff Browne that would create a non-profit media company working through a contract with CSU to provide media services and news to the student body and to the community. [18] The university's Board of Governors adopted the plan in May 2008, and the Rocky Mountain Student Media Corporation began operations that summer.

Larry Penley's term as CSU president ended abruptly in November 2008 with his resignation under fire. A Colorado Independent investigation uncovered Penley's questionable handling of money, including shifting money away from academic colleges and the library and into athletic department coffers, and the tripling of his own office's budget. [19]

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