Citing a “continuous decline in the quality of the content,” the mostly student-led publications board at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, suspended publication in late January of the school’s student newspaper, the Exponent, according to a report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
The Plain Dealer reported that Amanda Fischer, a junior at the college and chairwoman of the Publications Board, announced to the Exponent staff on January 20 that the weekly paper would have to temporarily suspend publication pending the appointment of a new editor and staff.
Angry newspaper staff members have cried foul.
Melisa Bauer, editor of the Exponent, told the Plain Dealer that she believes the paper was shut down because of both the paper’s content and personality conflicts between the newspaper staff and student leaders.
She said that some members of the student senate and the college’s student body president had complained that the paper was not newsy enough and published too many non-campus items such as movie review.