As The Retriever barks back to life after several years, Ann Tropea, assistant director for engaged media in the Center for Democracy and Civic Life, and Arpa Shahnazarian, The Retriever's editor-in-chief, are sharing the story of the paper’s revival in The Nutgraf, a Substack newsletter about student journalism, and presenting at MediaFest, the nation’s largest gathering of media students and their advisers.

Tropea, hired in 2023 to advise and help revive The Retriever, heard from students that WMBC, UMBC’s student-run online radio station was also in need of support, and set out to bring them into the Retriever newsroom. Students from Bartleby, UMBC’s creative arts journal since 1972, were looking for more connection to campus and soon became part of a unique student media collective.

In The Nutgraf article, “Three student media groups merged. Their budget tripled,” Tropea and Shahnazarian describe how the Student Media Collective came to be, including the transformation of the abandoned Retriever newsroom and the invitation to WMBC, which Tropea also helped revive, and Bartleby to share the space. Transformed “...into a bustling hub of collaboration….The move not only revived their physical newsroom but also tripled their budget, secured stipends for previously unpaid students and created a unified voice for student media on campus.”

At MediaFest, Tropea and Shahnazarian will share the Student Media Collective’s story in their presentation, “How to build a media center in 547 days”: “Here’s how we turned an abandoned newsroom into a hub of media production through a strategy of relationship building and radical co-creation in order to unite and revitalize three different media groups on UMBC's campus.” 

The Student Media Collective is a charter student organization with a shared constitution. It is governed by an executive board of six students, two from each publication. From The Nutgraf: “There is no hierarchy within the executive board,” said Tropea, who serves as a non-voting advisor. “It’s all collaborative and run on consensus.”

You can also catch Tropea and Shahnazarian’s WMBC show, “AA Batteries,” on Fridays at 3 p.m. 

Read more about the Student Media Collective in UMBC Magazine.

Read more about Tropea in UMBC Magazine’s “Meet a Retriever.”

thumbnail caption: Tropea and Shahnazarian (front) with members of the Student Media Collective and Dr. Renique Kersh, Vice President for Student Affairs