‘A vital voice’: Langara’s student newspaper The Voice faces end with journalism program

Langara College’s student newspaper was not part of Oksana Shtohryn’s plan — neither was journalism.

The Voice is where Shtohryn wrote for a newspaper for the first time. Before moving to Canada three years ago, she was a lawyer in Ukraine for an anti-corruption non-profit.

“I realized that what I really enjoyed about being a lawyer was not the law itself, but explaining it in really simple and plain words,” she says.

Shtohryn graduated from the journalism program in early June — weeks after the announcement that the program may be paused.

The Langara journalism department operates The Voice. If the program ends, so will the student newspaper.

Langara College wrote that faculty leadership is reviewing the program and may recommend pausing the upcoming fall semester intake due to low student demand, in a statement to The Runner.

Yet, for department chair Barry Link, it’s “definitely” the end of the program.

“The college is technically right in saying that it’s a pause because they’re not canceling the program, … but they’re not taking in new students, which means no students to teach, no courses, and no program,” says Link, who graduated from Langara’s journalism certificate program in 1992.

Declining international student enrolment has impacted many B.C. post-secondary institutions.

By August 2025, Langara’s international student population had decreased by 700 compared to the spring 2024 semester — when the federal government’s study visa cap began.

Prior to the cap, 37 per cent of Langara’s student body was international students — one of the highest proportions at a B.C. public post-secondary institution.

The Voice reported that Langara College’s financial strain has led to reduced student supports, mental health services, library hours, and academic resources.

Program cuts are also common. Langara’s one-year journalism certificate was suspended last year, and just the diploma remains.

The college’s 60-year-old journalism program is one of four in the Lower Mainland. The University of British Columbia, the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Kwantlen Polytechnic University round out the region.

The 20-or-so students remaining at Langara’s journalism program could be the last graduating class of a school with a decades-long history.

The newsroom at the centre of campus

Link says The Voice is a product of two capstone courses — one that teaches students how to be reporters and the other how to be editors.

“It is a vital voice — a vital source of news. Without it, there’s nothing,” he says. “Without it there, people don’t really know what’s going on.”

While Langara had an independent student newspaper, Link says it stopped publishing.

He adds that The Voice covers everything from administration concerns to sports at Langara and in the south Vancouver community.

Student journalists fill the gap where traditional media can’t, Andrew Mrozowski, president of Canadian University Press (CUP), a national student journalism organization, wrote in a statement to The Runner.

“[Traditional media] don’t have the time, the capacity, and for the most part, the care, to tell the stories about students on our campuses, or how things in the community will impact our campuses,” wrote Mrozowski, who is also the executive editor of the Silhouette, McMaster University’s student newspaper.

Mrozowski adds that student newspapers struggle with shut downs, editorial autonomy, and defunding.

The Interrobang, a CUP member, at Fanshawe College in London, Ont., was shut down by its student union last April after nearly 50 years of publication, he wrote.

“The reasoning given was that the student union felt that students didn’t want the service. There was no data provided to support this,” Mrozowski wrote.

In 2024, the undergraduate student association at Queen’s University attempted to end The Queen’s Journal’s editorial autonomy, one of the oldest student publications in Canada.

Last year, the University of Ottawa’s campus radio station was defunded after 50 years by a student referendum.

“I always like to say that campus publications are the last line of defence for a student,” Mrozowski wrote. “Without us, there would be no accountability on our campuses, and institutions would have free reign.”

During her time at The Voice, Shtohryn covered Langara faculty’s 92 per cent non-confidence vote in CEO and President Paula Burns.

“Getting those voices on record felt really important, and I felt like this is really important, serious journalism,” she says, adding that many faculty lost work and were afraid to speak out.

“I would say that was probably the highlight of my college career.”

Sage Smith, part of Langara’s last journalism certificate graduates, also covered faculty concerns with layoffs due to the international student cap.

When 200 faculty were laid off at Langara, The Voice broke the story, Smith says.

“We had different news organizations coming up to interview us as a literal source, because we’re the ones who are actually paying attention to what’s going on in our school,” she says.

The Voice’s on-campus coverage also includes the Langara Students’ Union (LSU).

“[The LSU] is an incredibly closed, secretive environment where a lot of students are wondering what they actually provide to the school,” Smith says.

They add that the student union only accepts media inquiries through an online form and had been critical of The Voice’s coverage in the past.

“They were able to give pretty stock and preset answers, and … that is not how critical media should function,” Smith says.

Link says if The Voice is shut down it will be a “good day for the LSU.”

The LSU did not respond to The Runner’s request for a comment before publication.

B.C.’s post-secondary system

The federal government’s cap on international student visas was expected to have an 18 per cent drop in study permit approvals in B.C. Yet, the province saw a 66 per cent decline.

The British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS) says in the past 18 months, more than 180 programs have been cut, suspended, or paused, along with 14 campus closures and more than 1,300 layoffs.

“These program cuts are not an isolated decision,” says BCFS secretary and treasurer Cole Reinbold.

“Since 2008, all new funding to B.C. public post-secondary schools has been from international students,” they say. “That is not to villainize international students — that’s to say the B.C. government has used international students as a crutch to fund the system.”

However, Link says declining enrolment isn’t the only issue at Langara.

“The other issue is there just doesn’t seem to be an appetite on the part of the college, at this point, to support or change it with something different.”

Reinbold adds that student newspapers like The Voice remain important.

“Student newspapers are on the ground. They’re one of the few documenting the student experience as we see it today.”

The Avison report, a review of B.C.’s public post-secondary system, is expected to be released in the fall.

The future of journalism

Langara’s program pause comes at a time when educators argue journalism is more essential than ever, despite industry challenges.

“The journalism industry is constantly changing. It’s been changing my whole life,” says Tracy Sherlock, KPU’s journalism department chair.

Sherlock was part of the 1987 journalism diploma graduating class at Langara.

When she attended the college, journalism students used typewriters, a dark room for photography development, and manually cut-and-paste articles onto the page.

“These programs are fundamental to keeping journalism going. Somebody’s got to be training the journalist to be out there, uncovering the truth, and holding power to account,” Sherlock says.

“If they don’t, the whole of society will pay for it.”

KPU journalism instructor Chad Skelton says the industry has changed, but so have journalism students.

From 2008 to 2025, 605 local news outlets closed in 388 Canadian communities, the Local News Research Project reported. While 420 news outlets launched during that time, 156 of them closed.

“As the journalism industry has become more challenging, in a weird way, I think we actually get students who are more serious about journalism,” he says.

Skelton, who has taught at KPU for more than 20 years, says some students weren’t keen on journalism, rather they wanted to be on TV or gain fame.

“There’s not a flood of journalism students entering the market, and I think in some ways, especially for entry-level journalism jobs, we’re not graduating enough journalism students,” Skelton says.

KPU graduates about a dozen journalism students each year.

Archie McLean, an associate journalism professor at Calgary’s Mount Royal University (MRU) and J-Schools Canada chair, a national organization that represents journalism schools, says Langara’s position is part of a larger trend.

“Over the past decade or so, there have been five or 10 programs that have made a similar decision,” McLean says.

These program suspensions include the University of Regina and Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s photojournalism program, he says.

MRU’s journalism school has been operating one of the on-campus student publications, The Calgary Journal, for more than 50 years.

“Our students are finding stories or different angles on stories all the time that mainstream media just miss…. Sometimes it’s just as simple as framing a story in a way that might appeal to a young person,” McLean says.

He adds that Langara has a longstanding reputation as a first-rate journalism program across the country.

“We need more journalists in the world, not fewer.”