Despite a last-ditch effort by alumni to preserve the SMU student newspaper’s independence, The Daily Campus will end its print edition and become a part of the university’s journalism department. Friends of Student Media, the alumni group that had raised concerns about the potential for university censorship, was able to raise about $40,000 in a week to try and keep the independent Student Media Company in business.
In a letter sent to SMU President Gerald Turner and journalism faculty at the school, the group says that it was told by members of the company’s board that it was “too late.” The money, and any future donations, will instead “be used to fund annual scholarships for Dallas-area students who plan to study journalism at colleges and universities with independent student presses,” according to the letter.
