During my tenure as editor-in-chief of The Spectator for the 2024-2025 academic year, I was repeatedly disheartened and, at times, deeply frustrated by what I believe to be a blatant lack of support and understanding that Seattle U’s administration affords to student journalism. 

At the beginning of the school year, I scheduled a meeting with President Eduardo Peñalver to introduce myself and to set up lines of communication between his office and The Spectator moving forward. My hope was to have a productive conversation regarding the ways that the administration could support student journalism and how The Spectator could effectively communicate with higher-ups. This was not, in my opinion, the outcome of our discussion.

While the specific contents of the meeting itself are to remain off-record, I left his office feeling deeply discouraged, emotionally rattled and as though my own character—and, much more importantly, that of The Spectator’s—had been called into question. 

After this meeting, I did not feel much hope that The Spectator would be able to obtain a level of support from the administration conducive to preparing student journalists for the professional world. Throughout the year, whenever Peñalver was reached out to with a request for comment, we were denied the ability to meet with him in person.

I am acutely aware that the responsibilities of a university president are demanding and time-consuming and do not wish to ignore or negate this fact. I do want to state, however, that it is my opinion that showing up is a key element to showing support for your students.

When we requested Peñalver to be a guest on Cherry Street Chat, The Spectator’s podcast, his response was that he would only continue to interact with The Spectator via email. 

This was especially disheartening given that this has not always been Peñalver’s position. In 2022, The Spectator filmed a “13 Questions with The President” segment, where students filmed in his office. It is apparent, then, that he has changed his mind over time. 

I would like to make it explicitly clear that what I would deem as a lack of support for student journalism is not only behavioral and situational—but structural.

In Seattle U’s student media policy, it is stated that while the university believes “in an atmosphere of freedom and responsibility for all members of the university in the search for truth and in the expression of personal opinion,” the university ultimately “reserves to itself final authority in matters of policy, practice, and content.”

I am a firm believer in responsible journalism, and that students should be held accountable in instances where such journalism is not practiced. I, too, believe that students ought to have the right to contest instances in which the administration seeks to control, remove or edit content. 

There is no such process available to student journalists in the student media policy, and this opportunity has not been afforded to me. 

In a meeting with a member of upper administration this autumn in which I personally felt there was a precedent of administrative overreach being discussed, I calmly and repeatedly asked that I be directed to the appropriate bodies to discuss my worries about this. I was continually denied the ability to do so and even called “defiant” by the member of administration—something that felt demeaning to both myself and the rights of student journalists on campus.

Student media is, and always has been, fundamental to advocating for younger generations’ right to develop into, understand, and shape the world around them. Additionally, it is key to holding academic institutions accountable for the manner in which they interact with their student body and the community at large. 

It would be both my presumption and hope, then, that any university which claims to be dedicated “to educating the whole person, to professional formation, and to empowering leaders for a just and humane world” would in turn be dedicated to supporting student journalism. 

I personally have not felt that Seattle U’s administration has supported student journalism during my tenure as editor-in-chief.

In writing this, I acknowledge that I am opening my message up for both backlash and personal interpretation, and am doing so willingly. I do want to be deeply clear, however, with my intentions in publishing this. 

My hope for the outcome of this article is to spur discussion on how administration can better support student journalists, and to serve as a form of accountability for the ways in which I feel they haven’t. My intention is not to slander this university, the administration, or President Peñalver.

Truthfully, I have a deep love for this university. I admire the community it cultivates, the Jesuit ideals it was built upon, and what I hope it can someday be. 

A part of loving something is calling it to be better. 

Student journalism is deeply important to this university, to society and to the future of our country. I am asking that the university review the manner in which it interacts with The Spectator, and student journalists more broadly, to help build a future where students feel they are heard, supported, and protected from administrative overreach.