My name is Ella Spurlock and I was the last managing editor for The Vista. I began as an art reporter, became a copy editor, then managing editor. Now, I hold no position. I have not graduated, changed departments or taken another role. I was pushed aside by my adviser, professors and current members of The Vista.
I joined at the start of the fall 2024 semester, when the Editor-in-Chief at the time, Jake Ramsey, visited my class to talk about the paper’s mission. I was immediately interested. I had seen Vista racks around campus and heard professors emphasize its importance, so I reached out to Ramsey and became a reporter.
At first, I was a rookie covering art and local events. Because The Vista had recently lost its longtime adviser, George Lang, the only real guidance came from Ramsey. The department eventually placed Professor Erika Williams in the role. It was her first year teaching at UCO while finishing her Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma, so advising a newspaper was unexpected.
With no dedicated adviser and no urgency to hire one, I questioned why the department that claimed to support us refused to provide a qualified, full-time adviser.
By semester’s end, Ramsey asked me to serve as copy editor. Soon after, he offered me managing editor for spring 2025. I accepted. The role helped me evolve as a reporter and grow close with members of the staff, but it was also when I learned about the budget cuts our program would face.
The Mass Communication Department was not alone in facing reductions, but the cuts The Vista faced drew attention from students, faculty, staff, alumni and journalists alike. Because of this, the Student Media Advisory Board, consisting of professors Joe Hight, Sherri Ward, Mark Hanebutt, Chad Perry, Mark Scott and David Nelson, met to review budget proposals before sending them to Liberal Arts Dean Elizabeth Maier.
In May, members of The Vista during the spring 2025 semester, including myself, attended a budget meeting where we were told our budget would be merged with UCentral’s. Instead of printing 20 to 22 issues, we would print biweekly, based on the academic calendar. At first, I thought this compromise could work. I was wrong.
Soon after, administration asked for a map of Vista racks so they could be removed. Hight advised delaying the action until August’s meeting to discuss the final budget proposal, but Maier emailed:
“When we met in May, I said The Vista would be digital starting in fall 2025. It was a statement, not a request. That decision is final and not up for debate or negotiation.”
The board had no real choice. At the August meeting, when donors offered to help fund print, we were told if print was included in the proposal, both The Vista and UCentral would lose all funds.
Alarm bells went off.
What was the motive for all of this? Why push so hard to keep us from printing? Why were donated funds not allowed, even though the Dennie Hall Endowment had covered expenses in the past? No answers came. Only one board member, Hight, truly stood up for The Vista. Others stayed silent despite pleas from students, alumni and staff.
I felt abandoned. UCO was supposed to support me. My professors were supposed to guide me. Instead, they dismantled the one place that felt like home.
As fall approached, The Vista did not have an editor-in-chief, but I had been approved by the advisory board to serve as managing editor for the 2025-26 academic year. As managing editor, I approached Williams with plans for the digital paper and organized our first budget meeting with staff members from the previous semester who wanted to continue. Then, on Aug. 26, announced to me just hours before, an advisory board meeting was held to choose an editor-in-chief. I was voted out. Kenna Attaway, with no ties to The Vista, was installed instead, citing prerequisites and experience.
On Sept. 16, Attaway published an editorial criticizing journalists who protested the digital-only move:
“To see these well-respected journalists not present all sides of the story, as we are taught to do, and instead believe the first thing they were told, is very disheartening.”
She praised the university’s decision. Soon after, I learned no former Vista staff members were rehired. I was the last. Until I wasn’t.
I quit.
I will not work with those who dismiss seasoned journalists. I will not stand between the university and the student body and fail to serve as a true watchdog. I will not bend to an institution that does not want me to succeed or watch people I consider family lose opportunities and education.
It was never just about printing a newspaper or a job title. It was about standing up for students, for my family and for myself.
The Vista‘s motto was “Our words, your voice,” and that could not be any further from the truth now, but those students’ voices will not be lost forever. They will be heard again in The Independent View.
