Daily Collegian


The Daily Collegian is a student-produced newspaper and website that is published independently at the Pennsylvania State University. The newspaper is printed twice a week during the fall and spring semesters, and once a week during the summer semester. It is distributed for free at the University Park campus as well as mailed to subscribers across the country.
Collegian Inc., which publishes The Daily Collegian, is an independent, non-profit corporation and has a board of directors that is composed of faculty, students, and professionals. The mission statement of Collegian Inc. is "to publish a quality campus newspaper and to provide a rewarding educational experience for the student staff members."
The Daily Collegian is often considered one of the top student-run college newspapers in the nation receiving multiple notable journalism awards including National Pacemaker Awards, top rankings from The Princeton Review, and Sigma Delta Chi Awards.

History

The Daily Collegian marks its founding with the first student newspaper, the Free Lance. Published in 1887, the Free Lance struggled structurally and finically eventually disbanding in 1904. That same year, just months later the foundation of a new But that same year a new paper emerged, the State Collegian, was brought to life by former members of the Free Lance in its place. In 1911, its name was changed to the Penn State Collegian, and on Sept. 14, 1920, the paper began publishing on a semi-weekly basis. In 1940, the newspaper became a non-profit corporation, complete with an elected board of directors, and began publishing daily, changing its name to The Daily Collegian. Since then only major world events have stopped production of the print publication, including during World War I and World War II as well as the coronavirus pandemic. Moving into the modern age, the Collegian has pushed for a larger digital presence creating The Digital Collegian in 1996, the publications website that provides online access to articles digitally and print stories dating from 1988–present as well as cutting print production to semi-weekly from daily in 2017.

The Free Lance

The Daily Collegian traces its beginnings back to the creation and publication of the Free Lance a monthly news magazine born in April, 1887. The creators of the publication believed strongly that Student Journalism should be a "fixture of the American university.” The publication also sought to bring accountability to Penn State by using its pages to report on the university. The Bellefonte Central train brought the first copies of the Free Lance to town in April, 1887. Students celebrated the arrival of the first issue of the publication with an impromptu march down College Avenue in State College, Pennsylvania. The first issue of the news magazine was twelve pages long and selling for fifteen cents a copy. Quickly making a name for itself around campus the Free Lance and its publishers asked for more student produced writing as well as credit from the university
The Free Lance was highly criticized for the publication of multiple editorial writings in support of Prohibition. In one editorial the author stated that the movement would "rescue the wives and babes from the injuries of intemperance.” The paper also published editorials pondering coeducation stating a woman's education should simply “make her queen of the household and society” and that too much study would make women “permanent invalids”. In 1895 the Free Lance transitioned away from news and moved its focus to become a literary magazine publishing essays, poems and stories.
In 1895 the Free Lance transitioned away from news and moved its focus to become a literary magazine publishing essays, poems and short stories. This move would inevitable lead the already cash strapped publication to failure. In April 1901, as subscribers declined Free Lance begged for support from the university, students, and alumni to continue its publication. In its own pages it published an editorial stating, "we need your financial support." Throughout the next three years editors continued to asks for financial support and payment from delinquent subscribers, their requests were not met and the magazine concluded publication with its April 1904 edition, which did not appear on campus until May of that year.

The State Collegian

With a continued need for a student run publication at Penn State many of the same staff members that helped publish the defunct Free Lance came together to create a new publication strictly focused on news coverage. The group cited the failure of its predecessor to its shift away from news based content. The group published the paper under the masthead The State Collegian and published its first issue on Oct. 1, 1904. The paper was published once a week on Thursdays and grew, adding photos and printing as a broadsheet rather than on tabloid-size paper. The paper was printed by Nittany Printing and Publishing Co., publishers of the State College Times where the State Collegian shared a downtown office with the State College paper.

Penn State Collegian

In 1911, the State Collegian made the decision to change its masthead and publication name to Penn State Collegian to be more definite and expressive of its location and mission to report on the university and student issues. In 1914 a subscriptions to the Penn State Collegian cost $1.50 per year. Printing of the publication was interrupted because of materials shortages caused by World War I during the fall semester of 1918. The publication began printing its paper semi-weekly, publishing Tuesday and Friday editions In the fall semester of 1920. Reporters covered all aspects of daily life as well as global events. In 1930 The Collegian moved its offices to "Journalism Alley," on the third floor of Old Main.

The Daily Collegian

As the Penn State Collegian had became an essential part of providing news to the Penn State community, publishers of the paper believed a semi-weekly print schedule was is no longer adequate and decided to begin printing daily. The publication was rebranded to Daily Collegian and began publishing five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday, on September 5, 1940. During the transition the publishing offices were moved to the basement of the Carnegie Library, now known as the Carnegie Building. During this change Collegian Inc. the publisher of the Daily Collegian was chartered as a non-profit corporation by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on May 20, 1940. More than a year after making the switch to daily, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entered World War II. The Daily Collegian cut production days because of shortages of materials due to wartime rationing from 1944 to 1948. The Daily Collegian became a part of the Associated Press member network in 1956, submitting stories from their writers to the wire service.
In 1961 The Collegian moved to 20 Sackett Building.
In 1972, The Collegian moved its office location to 126 Carnegie. In 1979 The Collegian earned the Associated Collegiate Press' Five Marks of Distinction for the second consecutive rating period. in the fall semester of 1979 The paper started production on The Weekly Collegian.

Newspaper Burning

In 1993, the paper criticized the Society for Professional Journalists after it offered a $250 reward for information on the persons who stole half a conservative campus newspaper's run, burning part of it. The Collegian said the thieves were engaging in constitutionally protected speech.

The Daily Collegian Online

The Daily Collegian launched its first website, Daily Collegian Online, in the summer of 1996. This allowed the paper to deliver news articles online and improve access to digitized articles from its historical print issues. The Daily Collegian online was somewhat unusual in that it did not rely on the College Publisher network and instead was published independently. During the transition the Collegian became an affiliate of UWIRE, contributing and distributing and promoting press releases and articles from its network of newspapers and online news publications. Beginning with the Fall 2006 semester, "The Digital Collegian" was renamed "The Daily Collegian Online" and debuted a new home page layout. A Web department was formed with the purpose of creating online updates for breaking news and posting stories on days when classes weren't in session. The Daily Collegian Online also features a series of student-written blogs, including multiple arts and sports blogs, as well as a blog written by the paper's editor in chief.

Digitizing of archives

Penn State's Libraries Special Collections/University Archives, Preservation and Digitization Department, and News and Microforms Library met with Collegian Inc. in spring of 2003 to discuss digitizing all issues of the Free Lance, State Collegian, Penn State Collegian and the Daily Collegian through 1922. At the time Collegian Inc. owned some of the last remaining paper copies of the Free Lance but the copies had yet to be scanned to microfilm to preserve them. At the time only researchers, alumni, and students had access to historical print issues through bound issue books located at the University Archives. The proposed project set out to scan all issues April 1887-August 2, 1940, in total 16,000 page images, in a year or less. In spring of 2004, one year from that first meeting with Collegian Inc., the 1887-1940 segment was completed and made publicly accessible online. After the success of the initial project Collegian, Inc. granted permission to digitize all issues through 1988. The second scanning project was completed over four years, making in total 132,736 total pages publicly available in 2008. The university's status as a state resource library allowed the project to be state funded, Penn State's Library provided all funding for conversion, software/hardware, on-going maintenance and upgrades. The project came in at a cost of $178,541.00. The University Libraries allowed Google to crawl its database starting in 2007, making historical content searchable. This spawned [|multiple lawsuits] as formerly inaccessible articles and arrest and disciplinary reports became easily publicly accessible.

''The Collegian Chronicles''

The book, The Collegian Chronicles: A History of Penn State from the Pages of The Daily Collegian was published by the Collegian Alumni Interest Group and edited by Marv Krasnansky in 2006. It includes a detailed history of Penn State life told by more than 90 former Collegian members, including editors, reporters and business managers.

''The Paper''

The Daily Collegian is the subject of a documentary film called The Paper. The film was directed by Aaron Matthews, who used the student newspaper as a case study for the problems that face all newspapers today—flagging circulation, minority coverage, and access to sources. The film made official selection at multiple festivals, including the 2007 Philadelphia Film Festival.
The film was co-produced by Aaron Matthews and the Independent Television Service and had major funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Distribution for the film was carried out by Icarus Films.
Released and distributed in 2007, the documentary was filmed from 2004-2005 and followed the newspaper while Editor-in-Chief James Young ran the staff.
Cinematography for the film was done by Wayne De La Roche and the music was composed by Tim Nackashi.
The Birmingham Weekly called it "An insightful new documentary", while the Boston Globe stated, "What we see at the Collegian is a resonant microcosm: This paper's crucible is every paper's."

Collegian photographer arrested

A Daily Collegian photographer on assignment during an October 25, 2008 riot in downtown State College was charged with two misdemeanors. Michael Felletter was charged with failure to disperse, a second-degree misdemeanor, and disorderly conduct, a third-degree misdemeanor, after police say he failed to leave the area of the riot despite multiple orders from police.
The riot had broken out after no. 3 Penn State Football defeated no. 10 Ohio State Football 13-6.
According to the criminal complaint, State College Police Officer Nick Argiro saw Felletter taking photographs and told him to leave the area at about midnight. About 20 minutes later, Argiro saw Felletter taking photographs of officers attempting to arrest a subject, and Argiro again ordered Felletter to leave. Police alleged Felletter "was causing the crowd to become more exhuberant , excited, and destructive."
Felletter said he identified himself as a member of The Collegian staff after he told an officer people were throwing objects at the backs of other officers. He said that officer expressed no problem with him being there. Felletter said that he was only asked to leave the scene of the riot once by Argiro. He said Argiro threatened him with pepper spray and arrest, and when he continued to take pictures of Argiro over his shoulder as he left, the officer demanded his license. He denies police charges that he refused to leave when told and that he incited the crowd to become more destructive.
Felletter was represented by State College attorney Andrew Shubin, who took the case pro bono on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union.
On Jan 11, 2009 Penn State Judicial Affairs, now called Office of Student Conduct, chose not to sanction Felletter after he was charged, a result his attorney said showed the university "understood the prominent First Amendment issues involved."
On January 22, 2009 charges against Felletter were dropped and new charges were re-filed. Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira said that the case “isn't about the press taking pictures” and centers not around the First Amendment, but on Felletter's refusal to obey a police order. Felletter's misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct was dismissed. He now is only charged with failure to disperse.
on March 5, 2009 Magisterial District Judge Carmine Prestia dismissed Felletter's disorderly conduct charge saying the crowd's actions were not Felletter's fault. The judge dismissed all of the counts of failure to disperse but one, saying a sole charge was sufficient. The press is not above the law, he said. "The media has no greater right to the scene than the general public," Judge Carmine Prestia said, "Mr. Felletter cannot hide behind the First Amendment,".
On April 23, 2009 attorney Andrew Shubin served a motion formally spelling out why he believed the prosecution of Collegian photographer Michael Felletter violated the First Amendment. "Because the Commonwealth's dispersal order to Felletter was based upon his status as a member of the press, not in spite of, it violated the First Amendment, and as such, the charge must be dismissed," the motion read.
Shubin also wrote that Felletter's coverage of the riot was valuable to both citizens and the government. "Indeed, the Court should take notice of the irony of this prosecution where, as here, the State College Police ultimately took Felletter's photographs off The Daily Collegian's Web site and published them on their own site, facilitating the identification of others who were ultimately prosecuted,". Shubin also argued that the commonwealth failed to provide enough evidence against Felletter because a photograph shows him on the sidewalk, moving away from the scene at the time of his arrest. The picture also shows other students casually walking away and not acting disorderly, according to the motion.
On July 23, 2009 Centre County Judge David E. Grine dismissed the remaining charge, failure to disperse, against the photographer citing "unclear" evidence. Grine ruled it is uncertain whether Felletter's compliance with police orders to "move along" was adequate when he moved from the street to sidewalk. Additionally, Grine blamed the rioters for their behavior—not Felletter, according to the ruling.
On July 31, 2009 Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira filed an appeal to the Superior Court in the case against Felletter.
On October 14, 2009 The Superior Court of Pennsylvania requested briefs of Felletter's case, moving his dismissed charges closer to an appeal.
On March 11, 2010 press release, Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller announced she had filed a motion to drop an appeal for the case against Felletter. With this motion charges were dismiss and all appeals were dropped.
Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, said Felletter's case was "extremely rare" because the county did not immediately dismiss the charges. While it isn't unusual for police to cite journalists during an event like a riot, LoMonte said authorities normally immediately realize their mistake.

Website Redesign

In 2010, The Daily Collegian Online was redesigned once again, showcasing a new layout and focus. The site highlights its more active use of social media, including its acquisition of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr accounts.

Expungement orders

In July, 2010, in what was called a highly unusual move, two Centre County judges –– Judge Bradley P. Lunsford and Judge Thomas King Kistler –– ordered The Daily Collegian and The Centre Daily Times to delete archived news stories about five defendants in criminal cases after a lawyer sought to have the records expunged.
The orders were obtained by State College lawyer Joe Amendola, who was quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer saying: “What's the sense in having your record expunged if anyone can Google you and it comes up?”
The five defendants had either pled guilty to criminal charges ranging from aggravated indecent assault to possession of marijuana, or completed pretrial diversion programs that resulted in no finding of guilt. Amendola said that an earlier client was having trouble finding employment despite having her criminal record expunged. Prospective employers Googled her name and found a 1992 Collegian article detailing her crime.
According to reports, at the time more than 40 other expungement orders, requiring The Daily Collegian and The Centre Daily Times to delete online content, were submitted to the courts by the same law office.
Then Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Collegian, Elizabeth Murphy, objected saying: a newspaper is fulfilling its responsibility when it reports the facts as they happen. In these cases, the charges were brought lawfully and the newspaper reported them correctly, she said. “In my opinion, The Daily Collegian is a record of history as it happens,” Murphy said. “It is not a record of the court, it's not a government entity. We’re here to report the news that happens day in and day out, and that's my bottom line.”
On July 6, 2010 Judge Bradley P. Lunsford rescinded the orders in three of the cases, after The Centre Daily Times and The Daily Collegian objected. But two other orders, signed by Judge Thomas King Kistler, remained in effect.
It was reported at the time that such orders could possibly have wide ramifications in the future for the news media, which have broad rights under the First Amendment to report about court cases. The articles remained in the archives of both newspapers as they awaited Kistler's decision.
On July 8, 2010 two other orders, signed by Judge Thomas King Kistler, were overturned. The expungement orders were revised to remove any reference to the Centre Daily Times and the Daily Collegian. Judge Thomas Kistler told The Philadelphia Inquirer, "It was never anybody's intention to restrict .” Kistler Acknowledged the strong protections given the news media by the First Amendment, saying, "I can't tell them what to do."
Kistler claimed court officials had not noticed that the newspapers were on the list of expungement orders sought by lawyer Amendola. "It was a breakdown under the rush of the system," Kistler said.

Conversion to broadsheet

The 2013-14 school year the Collegian converted from tabloid-format magazines to broadsheet, the format preferred by advertisers and readers.

Ceasing daily print

On December 8, 2017, Editor-In-Chief Sam Ruland, Managing Editor Lauren Davis, and Digital Managing Editor Mark Fischer announced that the Starting in the spring semester the Collegian would move away from printing five days a week and would instead print twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. The shift was made as a majority of the publication's readership was coming from online. The print edition would be kept to feature "long, in-depth pieces, being confined to day-to-day coverage,".

SpotlightNews app

On April 15, 2018 The Daily Collegian announced its partnership with SpotlightNews a mobile phone app described as "the only news platform built on machine learning,". The app features publishers from student, local, and global news. 60 days after the announcement the Collegian, who had a mobile app formerly, transitioned to Spotlight entirely for a mobile app experience.

James Building demolition

On November 29, 2018 after 30 years in the James Building a university-owned property in downtown State College the Collegian announced a plan to move into the new Donald P. Bellisario Media Center, which was planned to open in the fall of 2020 at the site of the Willard Building.
Penn State had announced plans earlier in the year their plan to demolish the 100-year James Building located at 121-123 S. Burrowes St. and replace it with a $52.8 million building that, "Will serve as a hub for the Invent Penn State entrepreneurial and innovation initiative,".
The space the Collegian is slated to move to will be in a closed, 852-square-foot corner of its third floor. The private “Collegian Suite,” will face a large open newsroom with designated Collegian desk space. However, some other student news organizations have been invited to utilize said newsroom as well.
In the fall semester of 2019 the James Building was demolished and the Collegian moved its office to Midtown Square, another university-owned property in downtown State College. The media center is scheduled for completion in Fall 2020 and ready for student and faculty and students to begin working there in Spring 2021.

Barstool Sports editorial

On September 21, 2019 NBC News released an editorial titled “Barstool Sports and the persistence of traditional masculinity in sports culture". Penn State's Dean of Communications Marie Hardin was quoted in the editorial multiple times, where she criticized Barstool. The paragraph reads: "Conservative ideology appears to be a core part of Barstool Sports — especially its portrayal of gender roles, with hypermasculine, sports-loving men and hypersexualized, submissive women. The site's reinforcement of conservative American values is what makes its content stand out from its competitors, Marie Hardin, the dean of Penn State's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, said. In many ways, Barstool has resisted some of the more progressive discourse around sports. And I think there's a niche for that,” she said. "There's a market there and they're able to capture that."
On September 23, 2019 Barstool Sports President Dave Portnoy responded to the editorial focusing on Hardin's comments on Fox News's Tucker Carlson Tonight. On the segment Portnoy pushed back against the editorial's narratives that Barstool sports is overwhelmingly conservative and claims of hyper-masculinity. Toward the end of the segment Portnoy pushed back against dean Hardin's quotes saying, “There were sentences in that article––I think I'm a fairly smart person––I still didn't know what they were driving at. The Dean of communications at Penn State, if you listen to what she said I would never let my kid into her class.” Portnoy then challenged Hardin to a debate saying, “I will go to your class Marie Hardin, I will let you have the moderator, I will let you put your people in and I will put you in a mental pretzel because you have no facts.” After the show, on September 24, 2019 Portnoy indicated he would give $20K to THON for debate with Hardin.
On September 24, 2019, then Collegian Assistant Sports Editor Jake Aferiat penned an editorial backing Hardin and condemning Portnoy for his comments on Carlson's show titled "Marie Hardin is right, Barstool has a culture problem and this latest attack proves why". Aferiat's editorial agreed with comments made in NBC's editorial and took issue with the "vitriol currently exploding on her latest Instagram post" as well as Portnoy's proposed donation for a debate. Aferiat stated, "The petulant gesture puts Hardin in a position where if she says “no,” she seems to be anti-THON, which isn't a fair message or characterization to portray."
Portnoy quote tweeted the editorial, saying that Aferiat excluded the line in the NBC News story Barstool was mad about. “Conservative ideology appears to be a core part of Barstool Sports — especially its portrayal of gender roles, with hypermasculine, sports-loving men and hypersexualized, submissive women.” Portnoy's tweet came with a wave of criticism and personal insults directed at Aferiat as well as the Daily Collegian.
Then Collegian Editor-in-Chief Elena Rose joined by Aferiat argued the quote Portnoy took issue with may not have been Hardin's words as it was not made clear in the article as only the second sentence in that paragraph was directly attributed. Hardin was quoted in an interview saying “s I have stated earlier, I stand by the comments attributed to me in the story,” but declined to comment further.
On October 20, 2019 Portnoy donated $20,000 to THON during the Barstool College Football Show. The show was held before Penn State Football's annual White Out game at the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity, which is not recognized by the university. Portnoy made a visit to campus for the show wearing a shirt that read, "I promise not to bash Dean Hardin even though she lied about us first and stinks at her job and should be fired."

Coronavirus

On January 24, 2020 Penn State announced it was monitoring an outbreak of COVID-19 as it had begun to spread inside of the United States. In February, Penn State restricted travel to China, Italy and Japan as well as requiring students returning from CDC level 3 threat countries to be quarantined. During Spring Break, on March 11, 2020, as the COVID-19 Pandemic was becoming a threat in the United States, Penn State canceled all in-person classes at its 20 campuses until at least April 3 which was later extended to the remainder of their spring and summer semesters. Students and faculty were asked to stay home, and away from campus because of the outbreak. The Print Edition of The Daily Collegian, printed bi-weekly, was suspended and all news coverage was posted digitally.

Collegian publications

NameClass YearFormer PositionNotabilityRefs
1936WriterAn American journalist and social critic. Packard was the author of several books, including The Hidden Persuaders, and The Naked Society. Pennsylvania State University distinguished alumni.
1982WriterAn American sportswriter who writes for Sports Illustrated and its online magazine SI.com. Verducci writes primarily about baseball. He is also a reporter and commentator for Fox Major League Baseball and MLB Network.
1969Editor-In-ChiefAn American author of crime fiction, particularly legal thrillers. He has written two series, known generally by the names of the protagonists: Jake Lassiter and Solomon vs. Lord. His novels have been translated into 21 languages. Pennsylvania State University distinguished alumni.
1954WriterFirst female president of Pennsylvania State University's Board of Trustees and former vice chairperson of Pennsylvania State University. Pennsylvania State University distinguished alumni.
1948Editor-In-ChiefFormer Editor-In-Chief of the Pittsburgh Press and science writer for Scripps Howard Newspapers. Pennsylvania State University distinguished alumni.

Editor-in-Chiefs

† Resigned

The Daily Collegian