About

Learn the history behind Nexus newspaper and meet our team of students, staff, and members of the Nexus Publishing Society.

Nexus became incorporated as its own society on March 22, 1999. Operated before that by the Camosun College Student Society, the newspaper now functions separately, complete with its own constitution, bylaws, elected student board, and paid CUPE staff.

The purpose of the society is:
To publish informative, analytical, and entertaining materials with focus on issues affecting Camosun College students. The society will strive to maintain current journalistic standards of truth, fairness, and accuracy.

Funding
Camosun students pay just over $85,000 in student fees towards the publication of Nexus (around $10 per year, per student) and revenues raised through selling ads and fundraising cover the remainder of the paper’s operating costs.

Nexus Publishing Society Board Of Directors
A board of directors for the society is elected at an annual general meeting in April of each year. Up to six positions are available–president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, and two directors-at-large. These individuals are responsible for maintaining the operational side of the society. They oversee the finances, policies and procedures, and staffing needs of the paper. They meet about once every two weeks. Vacancies during the year are filled through appointment by the remaining board members.

President – Celina Lessard

Vice-President – Keith Johnson

Treasurer/Secretary – Sam Ryder

Director at Large – Hanna Shultis

Editorial Committee
Contributors of the newspaper who attend our editorial meetings make up the editorial committee. This committee is responsible for decisions relating to the editorial side of the society. They meet with the editors to provide advice and feedback on editorial content, ranging from writing and photography to design.

Membership
Membership in the Nexus Publishing Society is automatic to all Camosun students registered in at least one credited course and paying student fees. Members are eligible to run for board positions and vote at the annual general meeting, held every April.

Autonomy
Student newspapers have traditionally been created and promoted by student societies. The student council, however, has an inherent conflict of interest when operating a student paper. Even the most sincere councillor, when dealing with the newspaper’s internal affairs, will be influenced by how he or she has been or could be treated in the newspaper’s articles.

In order to function as an independent scrutinizer and reporter, a student newspaper must be kept free from interference and control by political or funding bodies. If either can be used to manipulate the editorial content or operation of the newspaper, newspapers cease to function as they should.

Autonomy does away with the conflict of interest, and leaves the newspaper free of fear of reprisal or harassment for the way it reports on the student society, or anything else.

Autonomy usually requires becoming a separately incorporated legal entity with a board of directors on which student council does not have a significant presence.

Most student newspapers, including Nexus, continue to receive student fees via a student society, which is usually the only body on campus permitted to collect revenue from the students for the purpose of supporting student services.

But some student newspapers have been able to collect student fees directly from the college or university.

Student newspapers throughout Canada have been progressively moving towards greater autonomy. Freedom of the press is enshrined in the Canadian Constitution and defended throughout the world. Should it not be defended just as much on student campuses?

Nexus Publishing Society documents
Nexus constitution and bylaws
Nexus policies and procedures
Nexus publishing schedule 2023-2024
Nexus quick reference style guide
Nexus Publishing Society board meeting minutes

Nexus info
Nexus newspaper was established in 1990 as Camosun College’s official student newspaper and was incorporated as the Nexus Publishing Society in 1999. Since then, Nexus has produced a high-quality, bi-weekly newspaper consisting of articles written by Camosun students on local and educational issues.

Nexus policy on email statements instead of interviews:

Nexus newspaper has a policy to not allow sources to give us email statements instead of doing an interview.

The reason for this policy is that as journalists we need to have a chance to question people we are interviewing—Camosun staff, government workers, student groups—and hold them accountable. We need them to answer specific questions.

We need to do more than just print one side’s chosen narrative, or to reprint press releases.

We also need to know the person we’re quoting actually said what we’re quoting them as saying, otherwise we’re doing a disservice to our readers. There have been times when we’ve found out that emailed statements that were to be attributed to someone were not in fact said or typed by that person.

These are the reasons why we insist on an interview and will no longer run emailed statements. The intent is never to ambush or catch an interviewee off guard; it’s to give our readers an honest and complete story.

Nexus policy on removing/changing published articles:

As a matter of policy, Nexus does not remove or change published articles. These articles are part of a public and historical record; they are archived in paper and/or electronic versions. To change them means changing that public, historical record to fit someone’s requests, something we don’t do while we’re writing stories or after the stories are published.

Nexus will consider changes to online articles only in circumstances severe enough to warrant changing a public record; this happens rarely and must be with the approval of both the Nexus Managing Editor and Student Editor, and the changes must be clearly indicated in the story so readers know a change has been made.

Before submitting a request to change a published story, ensure your request meets one of the following guidelines:

1: The change is being requested for a legal reason OR

2: The change is being requested because we made a factual error

We will always correct a factual error that we have made, and will indicate we have made the error and have corrected it. We always appreciate being told when one of our articles has a factual error in it so we can do this.

Requests to remove an online story entirely will be approved very rarely and only due to extreme circumstances (for example, if the story is found to be libellous), and again must be with the approval of both the Nexus Managing Editor and Student Editor.

Please email editor@nexusnewspaper.com with any questions or requests.