What Is The Lumberjack at Northern Arizona University?

Updated

The Lumberjack is Northern Arizona University's student-run news outlet, published under the banner "Northern Arizona University's Student Voice Since 1914" at jackcentral.org. It serves NAU students, faculty, staff, and anyone following campus life in Flagstaff, and it covers the kinds of stories a campus community needs: news, featured and popular pieces, opinion, sports, and student life. If you want to follow NAU from a student perspective, this is the publication to read.

What The Lumberjack covers

The outlet describes itself as the student voice of the university, and its coverage reflects that role. Based on what appears on the site, you can expect:

  • Campus news — reporting on university administration, student government, protests, and institutional decisions.
  • Featured and popular stories — the pieces drawing the most attention from readers at a given time.
  • Student opinion and commentary — perspectives written by and for the NAU community.
  • Sports and student life — coverage of campus athletics and the day-to-day experience of being a student.

A concrete example of the kind of reporting it publishes: a featured story on NAU charging the president and vice president of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) over an on-campus protest. That is the sort of institutional, student-affecting news the outlet treats as its core beat.

How to read and follow it

  1. Go to jackcentral.org. Current stories and featured articles appear on the homepage, so you can see what the staff considers most important right now without creating an account.
  2. Browse by section. News, featured, and popular items are surfaced on the site, which lets you move between hard campus reporting and lighter student-life coverage.
  3. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter. The site offers a newsletter signup, which is the simplest way to get a regular digest of coverage rather than checking the homepage manually.

Who it's for

The Lumberjack is most useful if you are:

  • An NAU student who wants to know what is happening on campus and how other students are reacting.
  • A prospective student or family member trying to understand the university's culture and current issues.
  • An alum or Flagstaff resident who wants to keep up with the institution.
  • A journalist or researcher looking for student-press coverage of NAU events and administration.

If you need official university announcements, enrollment deadlines, or administrative policy documents, go to NAU's own channels — The Lumberjack is independent student journalism, not an official university communications office. If you want student-reported context, reaction, and accountability coverage, that is exactly what it provides.