The Rocky Mountain Collegian serves the Colorado State University community as the twice-weekly, student-run newspaper.

The publication was founded in 1891 as a university publication, but it separated from CSU in 2008 following a decision to run an editorial that read “Taser this … F*ck Bush” in response to the University of Florida tasing incident. The publication gained editorial independence from CSU after 2008, allowing students the full authority to decide what stories are covered and published. Students at The Collegian are allowed to criticize and praise the University in stories that are true and unbiased, following the Code of Ethics outlined by the Society of Professional Journalists.

The Collegian spent the first day of publishing of the school year to introduce its readers to the student editors providing them content this academic year and to reflect on the most impactful stories of the 2017-2018 school year as part of an ongoing initiative to increase transparency with its readers and members of the campus community.”

The Collegian became a 501(c)3 non-profit company, known as Rocky Mountain Student Media Corporation, in August 2008 following the publication’s separation from the University. The corporation houses The Collegian newspaper, College Avenue Magazine, the KCSU radio station, the Collegian Television station, Student Video Productions, the OnSpec video training team and advertising, marketing and creative services staffs.

RMSMC’s mission is to provide students with learning experiences by offering hands-on experiences in various forms of media. The corporation receives half of its $1.2 million budget from the advertising and marketing staffs and the remaining half from student fee money allocated by the Associated Students of CSU, the University’s student government.

Because a majority of RMSMC’s funding comes from student fees, the corporation and The Collegian began an initiative in May 2017 to increase transparency with its readers and members of the campus community.

The Collegian spent the first day of publishing of the school year to introduce its readers to the student editors providing them content this academic year and to reflect on the most impactful stories of the 2017-2018 school year as part of this ongoing initiative.

The Collegian is one of the oldest student newspapers west of the Mississippi River, and was previously the only student-run daily newspaper in Colorado. It is a digital-first publication with content published on our website daily while also printing Monday and Thursday during the school year.

We hope you enjoy reading about the students who spend many late nights putting this paper together, and we hope you’ll continue reading The Collegian throughout the year.

Collegian Editor-in-Chief Forrest Czarnecki can be reached at editor@collegian.com or on Twitter @forrestczar.