One of The University Star editorial board’s goals this year was to create content that Texas State students wanted to see and felt represented them. We hope we did that this year and set up the future editorial boards to be able to continue.
Star Divas is our editor chat name, but we think this name represents much more than just a chat, but a mantra of our year. Everything we’ve written, photographed, broadcast, designed and posted, we’ve done with confidence and tact.
The year started with a bang in July 2025, when Texas State agreed to join the Pac-12 Conference in the next school year. The decision actually happened on the same day as our summer print production, so the news got to be our above-the-fold front page story with an awesome photo illustration. That paper ended up being our first of many that were hard to find on campus due to everyone picking it up.
Two weeks before school started, the Divas went to University Camp to team-build and bond before starting on the crazy year. This set up the foundation for us to work together and be more collaborative than ever before.
We started with a 16-page paper, our longest paper of the year. Usually, the Back-to-School Issue goes all night, sometimes until 1 or 2 a.m., but we finished this paper by 8 p.m. This was through efficient time management and decisions, a theme that continued for the remainder of the school year.
Just a few weeks later, our biggest saga of stories began. Former associate history professor Thomas Alter was fired after speaking at an online socialism convention. It required more than just a simple news brief, but weeks and months of following in-depth coverage.
Not only did it raise concerns of free speech among faculty, but it also brought the university to the national spotlight. While that put a lot of pressure on us to write hard-hitting and strong pieces, we knew our focus had to be on our community and how our coverage would be useful to them.
Texas State was again at the forefront of free speech conversations when freshman Devion Canty Jr. was forced to withdraw after a video of him “mocking” Charlie Kirk’s death went viral on X. Gov. Greg Abbott reposted the video on X, asking President Kelly Damphousse to expel him from campus. The next day, Canty was gone.
One of our most eye-opening moments came while Black students on campus protested against the racism and threats they faced after the Canty video went viral. At the protest, members picked up our print paper that week and started reading quotes and information from it about these situations. To us, that proved our words hold power, but also made it clear that our community looks toward us to represent them.
Our coverage within free speech issues didn’t stop there, though. We discussed how faculty felt about the changes, student protests and more.
Another large story we had to cover was the Halloweekend shooting on The Square that left one person dead and two others injured. We were there on scene talking to people and getting all the details. We even saw some of our highest engagement on our coverage. Our community cared, so we kept pushing and reporting.
All of these stories taught us so much, not about just journalism, but about the community around us and what really matters to them.
This year may be over and some of us may be leaving, but our mission still stays the same: We are here for you and the community as a whole. Thank you to everyone who interacts with us and holds us accountable when we slip up.
We will continue to uphold the first amendment, and we hope to see you keep reading.
