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| Remitz |
Ed Remitz, the faculty adviser behind the muckraking student newspaper at the College of San Mateo, announced his retirement Friday (Aug. 18), a few days after he learned that four of the five journalism classes he taught were canceled this fall.
The student newspaper, The San Matean, often went head-to-head with college administrators, questioning how money was spent and the secrecy behind those decisions.
Administrators said the courses supporting the paper were canceled due to a lack of enrollment this year, although there had been similar problems with low enrollment in previous years.
More broadly, Remeitz felt The San Matean taught its young journalists to question authority and ask tough questions of powerful decision-makers.
But Remitz said that school officials told him that The San Matean — which was entirely produced by students, with no editing by Remitz — contained too many typographical errors and didn’t present a positive image of the tax-supported San Mateo County Community College District.
“Every effort should be made by a college to protect its journalism program and I don’t think every effort was made here to save it,” Remitz told the Daily Post.
Remitz had taught at CSM for 23 years. Previously he was a reporter at the Sacramento Union newspaper. He’s also a member of the board of the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club.