Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Kirsten Becker (left) and Jeannette Law, both freshmen at West Valley College, work on one of the final issues of the Norseman, which is being phased out along with the college's journalism program.

West Valley College decides to cut journalism program

By Tim Persyn

Anyone interested in majoring in journalism at West Valley College should find another college to attend.

So said Ed Myers, dean of student services, in response to West Valley's decision to eliminate the college journalism program at the end of this spring's term.

The decision to cut journalism was made during the 1993-1994 school year, a period when the college's administration was making significant budget cuts. Two years later, some students and staff think the move to gut journalism is unnecessary.

"The college is saying, 'We don't care about journalism students,'" said Richard Cameron, West Valley journalism instructor and adviser to the college's newspaper, The Norseman. "What's happening at West Valley is a matter of priority."

Myers agreed with Cameron's assessment that eliminating journalism was a matter of priority. However, Myers defended the cuts, saying the program had too high a cost and too low an enrollment to be sustained. "We've reshaped our priorities and looked at more cost-effective programs," he said.

For instance, the college will offer a multimedia certificate, which will incorporate instruction on some aspects of journalism but will not offer the prerequisites needed for a four-year university degree in the discipline. Myers described the multimedia program, which will combine computer, information and visual literacy: "It will be a skill-based certificate that will meet the needs of the labor market."

Cameron said instruction in newswriting will not be a part of the multimedia program.

Meanwhile, De Anza College in Cupertino is devising an interdisciplinary program that will include a newswriting course.

The people most affected by the cuts to journalism will be students. Cameron said that before the college decided to eliminate the program, a student could come to West Valley and fulfill prerequisites for a journalism major. This opportunity lured some present West Valley students, who now wonder what they will do.

"I feel stranded," said Norseman editor Sean Penello. Before he enrolled at the college in the fall of 1994, he did not know the journalism program would be gutted. Now he's looking at switching schools so he can continue with his intended major, photojournalism. "I'm taking it day by day," he said.

The cutbacks in journalism have caused some hard feelings toward the administration among some students and staff. "I feel a little betrayed," said Penello.

Josh Paige, the paper's assistant editor, said, "If they wanted to fund the paper, they could."

Cameron received a shock when he looked at his assignments for next year and saw the newspaper wasn't one of them. "I was flabbergasted when they took the paper away," he said.

He has been the adviser to The Norseman for 16 years. Next year, he will work as a lab supervisor in the technology center and will teach special assignments and develop curricula.

With plans to discontinue The Norseman as a credit class, the fate of the student newspaper is not fully known. Myers said the college is studying ways to continue a student voice on campus, but that any future student newspaper will not be linked to an instructional program.

He added that the college is organizing a task force, to include students, which will study the options available for developing a student newspaper.

"They have vague plans for trying to put together a volunteer newspaper," said Cameron. But without an instructor, he said students will lose out on journalistic training, which teaches skills like writing and critical thinking in a unique way.

Volunteer newspapers at community colleges have shaky histories, added Cameron. "Other schools that have tried volunteer newspapers have found that it doesn't work," he said.