A major point of pride for The Daily Campus is that we are the only editorially independent, student-run daily newspaper at the University of Connecticut. An independent newspaper is an invaluable resource to university students, faculty and staff, as our reporting and opinions are not motivated by the desire to be a public relations outlet, but to hold administrators accountable, unveil the power structures governing this institution and shine a spotlight on issues that students care about. We have no vested interest in bolstering UConn’s public image and, in doing so, distracting from decisions and actions by this institution that harm students, university employees and the planet.
However, one major, widely read source for UConn news does not share this desire for truth and accountability.
UConn Today is a daily news outlet run by the UConn Department of Communications in addition to UConn Magazine, a seasonal publication with circulation of over 250,000 “alumni and friends of the university,” according to the magazine’s website. The stated goal of the magazine — and transitively, UConn Today — is to “inspire pride in our institution, encourage dialogue on a variety of issues, and present diverse viewpoints and stories highlighting our alumni, faculty, and students.” In other words, UConn Today includes stories written by Communications staff, students and alumni to share the accomplishments of UConn community members, developments in research and scholarship and advancements in the university’s overall prestige.
As a media outlet for UConn Communications, UConn Today will necessarily produce positive coverage of the university and will not platform dissenting views that might damage its reputation. The Daily Campus Editorial Board understands that this is common to most corporate entities and that UConn is far from unique in having a PR outlet. The Daily Campus is not asking that university communications comport themselves like a legitimate news organization. Rather, the Editorial Board wishes to communicate that UConn Today is not a publication that should be read at face value; its coverage pushes red herrings to the UConn community that seek to misdirect attention away from institutional problems and distorts facts to improve the standing of the university in the eyes of the reader.
A typical UConn Today piece might look like a recent article, published April 16, 2024, titled “Engineering Entrepreneurship: Hacking for Defense.” The article covers a Fall 2024 course offering for engineering students called “Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Defense.” The course, according to the article, “encourages dynamic student teams to develop solutions to critical United States Department of Defense and Intelligence Community problems that have been submitted by various sponsoring organizations.” It continues that the course would directly aid the U.S. military and government intelligence agencies by “[increasing] the speed at which their organization solves specific, mission-critical problems.”
The Editorial Board wishes to reframe the message so casually conveyed in this UConn Today article: Through this course, student labor will be funneled into the U.S. military more than it is already through the university’s myriad military- and weapons manufacturer-funded research centers. The neutral framing of the militarization of academia is what makes UConn Today so problematic; it should not be encouraged, let alone considered normal, for our education to be used for war-making.
On April 10, 2024, UConn Today published an article by university spokesperson Stephanie Reitz advertising the long-awaited Sustainability Action Plan released by university President Radenka Maric in late February. As the Editorial Board discussed upon its release, the administration failed dramatically to present a framework that could meet the challenge of climate change, proposing only greenwashing half measures and exalting past sustainability action at UConn without providing a comprehensive plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and carbon zero by 2040. Reitz’s article, coming out over a month after the plan’s actual release, takes the same tone, claiming the plan “delineates specific actions to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030” contrary to the plan’s ambiguity.
UConn Today’s preferred practice of showcasing the university’s national rankings and accolades — most of which are completely arbitrary — best epitomizes how it heralds academic achievements while committing to policies that undermine students and academic departments. An article published April 15, 2024, announcing that graduate education at UConn is rising in national rankings across the board stands in stark contrast with the UConn administration’s intentions to slash academic department budgets by 15% over the next five years — but this is not a convenient truth for university communications. That UConn can celebrate its academic programs on one hand and cut their budgets on the other shows that students need to read university communications with a critical eye — or read Editorial Board coverage — to understand the true story of what is happening at this institution.