The College Fix

Seattle Central Community College apparently didn’t like the “newsy” direction its student-run magazine, The Central Circuit, was taking under its adviser. So it kept her in the dark about whether she would have a job next school year.

Shae Savoy, who has been advising the magazine since 2012, told the Student Press Law Center that after much pestering, her supervisor said she could apply for the adviser position in the fall when the school publicly advertises it:

Savoy said she thinks her removal is directly related to her defense of the students.

“I’m sure that if I had not made waves, I would still have my job,” Savoy said. “I know I can’t get my job back (now) … I don’t want to. I can’t work for someone who treats me like that.”

The school was used to “features” from the magazine, not actual scrutiny of the administration:

At the beginning of the 2013-14 school year, the Circuit staff decided that they wanted to do more news coverage, as opposed to the feature-heavy approach taken by earlier staffs, said Caitlin Sussman, who was a Circuit staff member last year. …

Circuit writers did multiple investigations throughout the year, some looking into campus or administrative issues, Savoy said.

The administration didn’t see eye-to-eye with Savoy, with the head of the publications board telling her that

Savoy’s loyalties should be with the school and that Savoy should have informed her of the investigations that the Central Circuit was doing. Savoy said she had multiple similar conversations with Evans throughout the school year.

Not the first time the school has flexed its muscle with student media at the college:

In 2008, publication was put on hold after the [student newspaper] Collegian adviser resigned in protest, alleging the college’s publication board was strong-arming the newspaper. Administrators said they were searching to replace the adviser, but one was never found and the paper ceased to exist, according to an article [Circuit Editor in Chief Casey] Jaywork published earlier this year on the controversy.

Read the whole article here.

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