The San Mateo Daily Journal reports that a former editor of the College of San Mateo student newspaper has launched a petition drive to save that student publication. The college, part of the tax-funded San Mateo County Community College District, has decided to eliminate the classes that support The San Matean due to low enrollment.

“We are collecting signatures because we want to show how many people
truly care about The San Matean,” former editor Kayla Figard said in an email to the Daily Journal. “We are also hoping to use it as a tool where people can comment and share what kind of impact the San Matean had on them. It may not get CSM to reinstate the classes but at least it will show how many people were impacted by the San Matean.”

Here’s a link to the petition. 

The president of the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club, Marshall Wilson, has offered to speak with college officials as to why the classes were canceled and to offer assistance in reviving the journalism program or to continue journalism education at CSM and the publication of the San Matean as a club activity.

“The College of San Mateo has run an excellent journalism program for many years and it is extremely unfortunate that classes were canceled,” Wilson said.
“Journalism teaches students to ask tough questions and to dig into important issues. Journalism also teaches students the craft of writing, an extremely important skill in this information age.
All public institutions are facing difficult decisions due to budget constraints.”

(The San Matean’s faculty adviser is Ed Remitz, who is a member of the Press Club’s board.)