Albany Student Press
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The Albany Student Press or The ASP, the newspaper of the University at Albany, The State University of New York, is one of the oldest continuously published and independent college newspapers in the United States[citation needed].
First published in 1916 as the State University News, the newspaper has evolved into a comprehensive news agency with a circulation of about 10,000[citation needed]. It is released on Mondays during the school year and is published by the Albany Student Press Corporation.
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[edit] History
The State University News began publishing in the fall of 1916. It began serving the State Teacher's College, which would eventually become the State University of New York at Albany, or SUNY Albany. The newspaper officially changed its name to the Albany Student Press in the mid-1950s to reflect the growing shift to a major research university. By the 1960s, newspaper had a growing readership, increased coverage of world, national, and state events. The paper was published twice a week — Tuesdays and Fridays — for many years, but later switched to once a week. In the fall of 1997, The ASP launched SUNY Albany's only creative writing and arts magazine, The Fountain Pen.
The current masthead was developed in 2001. It depicts purple ASP lettering with a spear running through the letters. A snake, an asp, is intertwined with a spear. The helmet of Minerva, the Greek goddess of wisdom and symbol for UAlbany, is off to the side. Additionally, the Albany Student Press jumped to cyberspace in 2002 with its own website, TheASP.org. The website had to be temporarily shut down after it was discovered that the webmaster had used the source code from another college newspaper. The site was redesigned and used until 2006, when The ASP partnered with College Publisher to create their current online edition.
In 2005, the newspaper changed its printing service Staffield Press to printing with the Albany Times Union. The newspaper is now in full color on the front and back and is also significantly larger. Some charge the newspaper has "sold out" to media conglomerate Hearst Corp. (owners of the Times Union), a charge denied by editors, who still retain full editorial control over the newspaper[citation needed].
[edit] Breaking stories
When the University Auxiliary Services attempted to secretly change meal plans on campus in the spring of 2002, The ASP published a leaked copy of their proposals, which led to campus protesting and a different negotiated plan.
In 2002, the Albany Student Press broke the story of a professor who was caught plagiarizing over 50 pages of a published work. The story brought to light a cover-up by the administration and lead the faculty to demand an explanation and follow-up actions.
In 2004, Student Association, UAlbany's student government, had settled a legal dispute with student funds and it was kept quiet until reported by The ASP after a large investigation. The ASP also uncovered an incident in the spring of 2004, when two Student Association officials were involved in a drunken brawl in downtown Albany. Additionally, the newspaper reported that the University was not doing all it could to recycle, prompting an investigation from college president Kermit L. Hall.
[edit] Criticism
A popular column, "SUNY Girl's Guide," debuted in the spring of 2003. The column, written by Ginger Hanson ("The Suny Girl") explored the sexual comings and goings of SUNY students. While many traditionalists and religious students railed against the graphic portrayal of SUNY as one drunken party, it quickly catipulted Hanson into campus fame and became one of the most widely read columns in The ASP. The ASP was also attacked for their coverage of two Student Association leaders who were arrested in a drunken brawl in 2004[citation needed].
Stephen Leon, editor of the Albany-based alternative newspaper Metroland, in addition to being a professor at SUNY Albany, has a reputation of openly criticizing The ASP's writing in front of his students. A Facebook club was started in 2004 called "The Albany Student Press Sucks." The club calls the paper "rarely factual" and never reports on what students need to know.
Student Voice, a now-defunct student government funded magazine, published an editorial in an October 2005 issue stating that the newspaper was "trading innovation for renovation". While never mentioning the newspaper by name, the author referred to it as a "certain student press" and took the staff to task on several production errors and news gathering techniques.
