Shining a Spotlight

After The Calumet student newspaper staff at Iowa’s Muscatine Community College (MCC) became embroiled in a lawsuit with college administration over years of alleged censorship and First Amendment violations, former Calumet editor-in-chief Mary Mason and two other staff members decided to fight back by creating an independent newspaper called The Spotlight.

The lawsuit stemmed from a compliant received from a dean, who objected to having his photo published in a news article. When the staff wrote about the exchange in the paper this past February, The Calumet’s advisor, Jim Compton, was told he wouldn’t be returning to his position next year.

After that, Mason and her team began discussing the possibility of starting their own newspaper. She already knew how to do layout and she had built a relationship with The Calumet’s printer. From there, Michael Koretzky from the Society of Professional Journalists heard about the lawsuit and said if they raised $500, SPJ would match the amount.

Mason, who now serves as editor for The Spotlight, and her team started a GoFundMe campaign and received overwhelming support. At the time E&P spoke to Mason, they had accumulated more than $5,300 in donations. The Spotlight published its first issue in July and currently publishes once a month.

“Our first issue was a 16 page full color issue. We printed 1,000 copies and quickly learned that would not be enough,” Mason said. “We are looking at increasing that amount next time.”

The nine Spotlight staff members don’t have an office yet and work mostly through email and Facebook, but they meet once a week at their local library. The Spotlight is not affiliated with MCC or does not compete with The Calumet.

“The Spotlight is a bit risky because we don’t have that umbrella over us anymore,” Mason said. “My role is mostly the same, but now there’s a lot more networking involved.”

Mason hopes The Spotlight will soon be able to stand on its own. Although there weren’t any ads in the first issue, Mason said they’ve received interest from local advertisers and are currently collecting advertisements for future issues.

Even with the lawsuit still pending (Mason said there has not been any direct reaction from the administration about The Spotlight), the legal issue shouldn’t overshadow what The Spotlight is trying to do in the community. Mason said she’d like to see the newspaper “focus on news that is relevant to college media and academia that doesn’t always get press outside of college media.

“We would like to eventually be able to build it up to the college version of the AP or the wire.”

For more information, visit spotlightnewspaper.org

The Calumet is suing MCC for…

A full time instructor; it currently has an adjunct professor.

A Monday-Friday class schedule for The Calumet; it was changed to Tuesday and Thursday.

Restore The Calumet’s budget to $10,000 per school year after it was cut to $5,500.

MCC to support the First Amendment and the student newspaper.