BURLINGTON, Vt. — Two professors from Cal State San Bernardino, Dr. Thomas “T.C.” Corrigan and Dr. Gregory Gondwe, joined journalism educators and reporters from across the country at the first-ever National Conference on Student Reporting and Local News, held Oct. 3–4 at the University of Vermont. The gathering, hosted by the Center for Community News (CCN) at UVM, brought together faculty, students, journalists, and funders to focus on how university-led reporting programs can fill gaps in local news coverage while training the next generation of reporters.
At the conference, CCN shared its newest research showing just how widespread this model has become. According to the center’s publicly available ‘2025 Impact Study,’ nearly 3,000 student reporters produced more than 11,000 stories for local news outlets nationwide in 2024–25. These stories covered everything from city council meetings and school board debates to environmental concerns and community events. Many of these stories were published in counties that the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University has identified as “news deserts”, or areas with little or no professional local coverage. According to CCN, 172 colleges and universities now run reporting partnerships, with 48 new ones launched in 2025 alone.
The first day featured opening remarks from UVM Provost Linda Schadler, CCN Board Chair Kathleen McElroy, and CCN Director Richard Watts, who outlined plans to double the number of student-led programs in the next two years.
Panels explored the benefits of these initiatives from different viewpoints. David Boardman of Temple University and William Falls of UVM explained that student reporting strengthens higher education’s role as a civic partner.
Another focus was funding. Speakers from the Knight Foundation and Press Forward noted that philanthropy is keeping many programs afloat but that funders are shifting their approach. Instead of supporting projects labeled strictly as “journalism,” they are emphasizing more constructive language. Press Forward’s latest policy report, for example, uses the term “information stewardship.” Representatives stressed that funders increasingly look for projects that fill gaps with solution-driven, community-focused reporting.
One much-anticipated keynote, by U.S. Senator Peter Welch of Vermont, who was scheduled to speak about federal policy on press freedom but did not happen. According to CCN’s Meg Little Reilly, the senator could not attend because of the ongoing government shutdown. Even so, his absence served as a reminder of how fragile democracy can be, and why steady, community-based reporting is so important. Student journalists, she noted, are playing a growing role in providing that coverage.
For Dr. Corrigan and Dr. Gondwe, the conference also served as a recognition of their work, as both were officially named CCN Faculty Champions, a designation now listed on the center’s website. Dr. Corrigan emphasized how these partnerships can transform both student learning and local media.
“We know local news is in crisis. The question is what to do about it,” Corrigan said. “This conference was important for CSUSB faculty to attend because CCN exists to grow and support news–academic partnerships. In these arrangements, student journalists work under faculty supervision to cover not just their campus, but the broader community. They gain valuable reporting experience, and they help local media fill information gaps.”
Professor Corrigan also noted that the conference introduced innovative models that could benefit CSUSB students directly.
I think news–academic partnerships hold tremendous promise for academic institutions like CSUSB, our student journalists, and Inland Empire broadcasters and publishers,” he said. “I’m particularly excited about the ‘student newswire’ model. In that system, universities aggregate students’ best community reporting and make it available to local media, similar to the Associated Press or Reuters. In some regions, students are already being paid for their contributions. That’s a win-win for students, universities, publishers, and the communities they serve.”
If developed locally, this approach could mean more CSUSB student stories reaching regional outlets, and more opportunities for students to be recognized and compensated for their work.
The Center for Community News is a nonpartisan organization established in July 2022 to grow and strengthen university-led reporting programs across the United States. It is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the UVM College of Arts & Sciences, and individual donors.
The center builds on the success of UVM’s Community News Service (CNS), launched in 2019 as a partnership between the university and community newspapers across Vermont. CNS pairs student reporters with professional editors to provide trusted coverage to local outlets. It has also served as a laboratory for experimentation in new models of community journalism. The growth of CNS and increasing demand from schools nationwide inspired the creation of CCN to support and document similar programs across the country.