Engaged in a legal battle with their community college administration, Iowa students were successful in raising money to start an independent newspaper. The goal was $500 and students have already raised over $5000. to pursue stories in depth that they were reluctant to do under the eye of the administration. The students are suing the school after the Muscatine Community College administration fired their faculty adviser and cut back their funding after they published a series of probing news stories in the college newspaper. (Student Press Law Center, July 2, 2015, by Trish LeBoeuf)
The students used GoFundMe to raise the money, got the support of the Society of Professional Journalists and plan the first issue of The Spotlight for July 10. (The Poynter Institute, July 7, 2015, by Kristen Hare)