The future of University of Central Oklahoma’s student newspaper, The Vista, is unclear following a decision to immediately end the print publication.
The Vista was established in 1903 and is distributed on the Edmond campus for free. This fall will mark the first semester the publication won’t print in 122 years, said Joe Hight, interim chair of the Student Media Advisory Board and UCO’s journalism ethics chair.
Printing newspapers is still a viable learning tool for journalism students, he said. The Vista will continue to publish stories online, but Hight said there’s no strategy in place for the publication to immediately go all digital.
“I use digital products myself all the time, but there still is value in using the print product as a learning tool,” Hight said. “That it’s a part of history. That once you put something down in print, it’s there to be referred back many decades from now. It can’t be changed or altered or anything like that.”
With a need to cut the student media budget by $18,000, the Student Media Advisory Board recommended reducing The Vista’s print publication to twice a month and using funds from the Dennie Hall Endowment Fund to supplement additional publications, Hight said. Those funding the endowment specified the money be used for The Vista, including print operations, he said.
The board’s decision followed lots of research and hearing from students, including staff members of The Vista, Hight said.
Despite the recommendation, Hight said Elizabeth Maier, dean of UCO’s liberal arts college, made the call to cease printing The Vista immediately. Maier cited a “mandate” from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education and the Regional University System of Oklahoma to be more efficient with resources, he said.
Maier did not immediately return requests for comment. It was not clear which directive she was referring to.
The Vista will “transition to an online digital publication” this fall semester, which begins Monday, said Adrienne Nobles, a spokesperson for UCO, in a statement Wednesday.
Nobles said The Vista previously had an online digital edition, in addition to print.
“This move maximizes university resources and aligns with industry trends and expectations,” she said. “UCO will continue meeting students where they are, offering a relevant, high-quality educational experience focused on career readiness.”
Hight said The Vista’s stories are currently published online under UCentral’s domain, UCO’s student media network. But without its own website, he said there’s concern The Vista name will be lost with all branding instead tied to UCentral.
The Student Media Advisory Board is scheduled to meet Thursday afternoon on UCO’s Edmond campus. At the meeting, Hight said he will read a statement from the dean, emails from concerned students and faculty, and discuss the future of The Vista’s operations and the elimination of the publication’s campus news racks that were removed this summer.
In recent years, other student media publications have also ceased print editions but continued digital publications.
University of Oklahoma’s student run OU Daily stopped printing its weekly newspaper in 2022.
At Texas A&M, the student newspaper The Battalion ended its print operation in 2022. The Maneater, University of Missouri’s student newspaper, stopped printing in 2023.
Oklahoma State University’s The O’Colly continues to print once a week and publishes online.
Mark Thomas, Oklahoma Press Association executive vice president, said printing is a small expense compared to a university’s total expenditures.
The estimated cost to print The Vista for a year is around $12,000, according to an editorial in the publication.
“If they say it’s the money, let’s open the expenditures of the entire university and let’s look at how they’re spending the money,” Thomas said.
But if the decision were instead based on the viewpoints published in student media, it would be difficult for the university to overcome, he said.
Pressure on student journalists to be a “mouthpiece for the administration” doesn’t silence them, Thomas said, because students will still find a way to be heard.
No one contests that digital publications are an important tool and skill, especially for breaking news, he said.
“But there are certain things that you want to have archived and to live on for a long time,” Thomas said. “And so that kind of a unilateral mandate to come down and say, ‘We’re just not going to print anything anymore,’ says that they really don’t want to have an archive that can’t be changed.”
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