What Kinds of Stories and Topics Does The Broadside Cover?

The Broadside (thebroadsideonline.com) is the student news site of Central Oregon Community College, and its coverage centers on COCC campus life, Central Oregon community events, student opinion, and arts and human-interest features. If you are looking for reporting on local organizations, campus activities, or student perspectives in the Bend/Central Oregon area, this is the kind of content the site publishes.

Campus News and Student Life

The site's main news feed covers day-to-day life at COCC and the surrounding student community. Recent examples from the homepage include:

• Student wellness and spirituality — a story on students finding peace through meditation and prayer.
• Campus events — coverage of the COCC job fair, including how students and employers reacted to questions about artificial intelligence and the job market.
• Student government and leadership — profiles and commentary on figures in the college community, such as a piece asking whether a departing figure left "a legacy of fun."

These stories are reported by student contributors, staff reporters, and editors, and they are dated individually, so you can tell how current each item is.

Central Oregon Community Events and Local Organizations

The Broadside also reaches beyond campus into the broader Central Oregon community. A representative example is a feature on KPOV, a radio station in Central Oregon that offers a "Be a DJ" class through COCC. The article explains that the class runs in spring and fall, is open to the community, and combines a Saturday morning lecture with an evening session at the station, where participants learn the rules of non-profit radio and prepare for their own show.

That piece illustrates the site's typical local-community angle: it connects a COCC offering to an off-campus organization and explains how members of the public can take part.

Opinion Pieces and Featured Columns

Opinion and columns are a regular part of the mix, written and bylined by editors and staff reporters. Examples visible on the homepage include:

• An opinion column with a wry, personal tone ("Opinion: it could be worse").
• A recurring featured column, "Echoes of Oz," which uses The Wizard of Oz as an extended metaphor for personal experience with divorce and moving back home.

These pieces are clearly labeled as opinion or columns rather than straight news, so you can distinguish personal commentary from reported stories.

Arts, Culture, and Human-Interest Stories

The site carries lighter and more narrative-driven features as well. Alongside the radio and job-fair stories, the homepage highlights culture coverage such as a "Coachella Highlights" item. Human-interest writing — profiles, first-person reflections, and community profiles — runs throughout, often blending campus and local themes.

How to Tell What You're Reading

What This Means for You

• If you're a COCC student or staff member, the site is a source for campus news, events, and student perspectives.
• If you live in Central Oregon, the community and local-organization stories (like the KPOV radio class) may be relevant even if you're not enrolled.
• If you want opinion or creative writing, the columns and featured pieces are a distinct part of the site's identity.
• If you need breaking national or world news, this is a student publication focused on campus and local coverage, not a general-interest news outlet.

The Broadside's scope is best understood as campus-first reporting with a consistent local Central Oregon thread, rounded out by student opinion and human-interest features.