The Hilltop, the student-run newspaper at Howard University, is demanding better resources from the school’s administration, according to a statement released Thursday.
In the statement, the executive board of the 93-year-old-publication said that lack of proper funding and resources was curtailing the quality work they were trying to produce.
“As the student voice of Howard University, we are struggling to properly reflect the thoughts, ideals and beliefs of the student body due to a lack of necessary resources,” the statement read.
Their list of demands include funding, functioning equipment and access to publishing software among other things. The Hilltop is a weekly publication that also publishes digitally.
A subsequent social media campaign —using the hashtag #WWYDHU — also highlighted the paper’s impact on student life, including its recent coverage of the university’s 150th homecoming celebration and the potential campus shooting on Oct. 17. In its most recent print issue, the front page asked “What would you do without The Hilltop?”
The university has yet to respond to their demands.
The Hilltop has a storied history that first started in 1924 when it was founded by Zora Neale Hurston and Louise Eugene King. It is said to have been the first daily newspaper at a historically black college and university.