"When I saw that we had received this petition, my heart just dropped."
Claudia Culley, a Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) journalism student and editor-in-chief of The Runner, felt a sense of dread when a petition with 150 student signatures to dissolve KPU's student newspaper came across her desk.
KPU's Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society (PIPS), which operates the student paper The Runner and visual arts magazine pulp MAG, received the petition in late August.
"It's a shock and it was something that I personally found really heartbreaking and also concerning," said Culley, adding the student paper is a platform for free speech for students. It covers issues at Kwantlen's five campuses including the Richmond campus.
While the petition did not mention why PIPS should be dissolved, it demanded Bylaw 11 in the PIPS bylaws be removed and for PIPS to destroy "all articles related to the KSA (Kwantlen Student Association)", both online and in print, according to Culley.
This bylaw states no elected Kwantlen Student Association board members can be a member of the PIPS board of general purposes nor a staff member of The Runner or pulp MAG, she explained
Culley added the bylaw exists to make sure there is independence and maximum autonomy for PIPS.
She told the Richmond News they do not know who started the petition aside that it began "at surface level involving students" at KPU.
After checking the student numbers on the petition with KPU, PIPS found many of the numbers were "just made up," according to Culley.
For those signatures with valid student numbers, many did not realize what they had signed when The Runner reached out.
"There were two sorts of narratives that we have been hearing. One, students were told it would lead to a trip to Cultus Lake if they signed (the petition) and were not told it had to do with dissolving PIPS or the student media," said Culley.
The other reason was more related to student politics and "needed a quick sign."
"I think in those circumstances, students just really succumb to peer pressure, you know, just being like, quickly sign this before you rush off to your class.
"Students were intentionally misled into signing this petition. So the way I'm seeing that is whoever is behind this petition was going out of their way to collect student signatures and are not informing students."
In August, The Runner received a letter from the KSA saying the paper's articles were "biased and defamatory" towards the KSA.
The KPU student association has been "very public" in their criticism of the student paper's reporting on them, according to Culley.
Because the letter was an opinion piece with concerns, she added, it was published like any other letter.
"However, I don't agree that our reporting about them is biased and defamatory. As a student newspaper, we're aspiring journalists ... we are not going to intentionally write biased and defamatory stories about (the KSA) because that would ruin our reputation as journalists and I think it would be very hard for us to find a job when we are done school," said Culley.
KPU's PIPS and its publications are spreading the word about the "misinformed signatures" on the petition and are encouraging students with concerns about their reporting or practices to speak to them.
"If there's things that students think we can improve on, I'm so happy to take their feedback and learn from that, because we're always willing to grow," said Culley.
The student-run newspaper is celebrating its 15th year of operation at KPU, and receives contributions from many journalism and creative writing students at the B.C. university.
"Dissolving PIPS would mean erasing 15 years of history at KPU -- a huge loss to the school's history.
"We help to really build the sense of community at KPU and we continue to strive for that."
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