LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: Five things to know about The Signal and student press

The Signal celebrated Student Press Freedom day Feb. 24, emphasizing the importance of the press and its essential role in our democracy. 

However, there are misconceptions and misunderstandings about how the press operates here on campus and in the world at large. 

As part of its mission, The Signal is dedicated to informing, engaging and educating its audience about the purpose and value of student press on campus. With this in mind, here are a few things about The Signal’s role and how the staff achieve this mission.

1. The Signal is completely independent 

Although The Signal has a staff adviser who is the manager of student publications, all decisions regarding operation and publication of The Signal are made by the editor-in-chief and editorial board. All decisions ultimately lie in the hands of the editor-in-chief. 

The Signal’s independent status means that it is not a marketing/press team for the university or the administration. Its independent status ensures we maintain a public record, a neutral, objective and uncompromising–or unbiased–stance and also serve as watchdogs for our community.

The Signal is completely student-run, meaning that all decisions are made by professional student journalists with advising from the staff adviser. The staff often seeks advice from their adviser but has no obligation to follow that advice. The Signal’s editorial team and editor-in-chief operate autonomously.

2. The Signal is operated by professional student journalists

Every week, The Signal editors pitch story ideas and convene at biweekly assignment meetings to determine assignments for each issue. The various pitched ideas for coverage come from campus, local, regional, national and even international stories but always hone in on the impact to our primary audience, UHCL students. The student editorial board considers the pitches and assigns stories based on relevancy, importance to the public record, newsworthiness, timeliness and other factors. The Signal editorial board always welcomes story pitches and contributions from the community.

Editors and reporters then conduct research, interview sources and write their drafts. After going through a rigorous multi-stage editorial process, students’ work is published in the latest issue and included in the corresponding newsletter. 

This deliberate process is imperative to our successful operation and achievement of our mission. Furthermore, the process yields quality work that receives national recognition.

The Signal has won two Columbia Scholastic Press Association Silver Crown Awards, a Gold Crown Award, and is a finalist for the 2022 Gold Crown Award. Our editors and reporters have also consistently received recognition for their outstanding student journalism from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association, College Media Association and Associated Collegiate Press. Additionally, our editorial staff are card-carrying members of the Society of Professional Journalists.

When administrators, staff or faculty treat us as though we are inexperienced or unknowledgeable, it belittles and devalues the work we do that we are rightfully recognized for.

3. Prior review & trusting the learning experience

Although The Signal has published various pieces on prior review in the past, it is one of the most common and frustrating requests staff receive when conducting interviews and doing their jobs. Prior review occurs when a person reads materials before they are published. This is unethical and does not occur in credible news organizations. 

Prior review can result in censorship, even if not directly done by the person requesting the review. Prior review by sources can lead student journalists to self-censor in their coverage. Thus, students lose out on the valuable learning experience of covering a topic because of a lack of trust between staff and faculty at an educational institution and the students who come there to learn.

While the concern to not be misquoted, misinterpreted or otherwise misunderstood in our coverage is completely understandable, it is our job to write, edit and publish the articles. To ask a student journalists to review their work in advance demonstrates a lack of professionalism and respect for their credibility, but it also represents a greater distrust of students who are trying to learn and, inevitably, make mistakes they can grow from.

Above all else, requesting a prior review is not just disrespectful of the learning experience offered by being involved in student press, but it could lead to an attempt at prior restraint. Prior restraint is when a government or institution prohibits speech in advance of its publication.

If an error remains in an article after it has been published, part of the student journalist’s experience is to recognize or be made aware of those errors, correct them, and notate any changes that had to be made as a result of mistakes on behalf of the reporter and editorial team. This experience is not taken lightly, as the mistake and subsequent correction remains published for all to see. This practice is key to building and preserving trust and transparency with our audience.

4. The Signal maintains a public record of history at UHCL

Journalism is often called the first rough draft of history. As such, one of The Signal’s essential functions is to serve as the official paper of record at UHCL. The students who report and edit for The Signal work diligently to preserve history with campus, local, national and international news articles, featured life, arts and human interest stories, opinion-editorial content and multimedia projects, documenting the student experience at UHCL since we published the first issue in 1975.

Because The Signal works to maintain a public record of history at UHCL, which is a public institution, it is especially important that what we document remains part of the public record. Therefore, The Signal generally does not unpublish content from the website. Although we make limited exceptions on a case-by-case basis using our unpublishing policies and procedures, The Signal adheres to industry best practices and ethical standards with a strict unpublishing policy that errs on the side of maintaining the public record.

This function is essential because it helps stakeholders hold the institution accountable for its promises, track the university’s response to crises like pandemics and natural disasters, cover changes in leadership, and include all sorts of additional historically important information. It also upholds the credibility of the paper, as The Signal staff publish articles documenting history and contributions from the community which reflect the institution over time.

5. The Signal is a forum for all UHCL constituents

In alignment with the philosophy of shared governance, The Signal strives to serve as a forum to which all UHCL stakeholders have access. This includes accepting contributions from faculty, staff, students and alumni, receiving comments on coverage to encourage discussion, hosting opportunities to engage with stakeholders and working to include your voice in coverage as often as possible.

As an established forum for student expression, The Signal receives additional protections under the First Amendment that many student newspapers do not as a result of the Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier decision. Encouraging comments on articles, accepting contributions from the campus community and including your voice in coverage is fundamental to maintaining our rights as student journalists. It’s also a key part of upholding democracy and its values.

Student press doesn’t stop here

While these five points represent some of the fundamentally important things for UHCL’s stakeholders to understand about student press, there is always more to learn about the role of the press in society, and the place of student press within that.

For more information about student press freedom, check out our coverage, the Student Press Law Center and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.