As statehouse coverage shrinks, student journalists are stepping in to fill the void

Across 30 states, college reporters are covering statehouse journalism gaps  — and the experience is changing their lives.

The office Colleen Steffen shares with a bunch of student journalists is far below the graceful stained glass rotunda and elegant marble floors of the Indiana Statehouse.

Their space — one of 30 or so cubicle offices now used for the working press, but rumored to have started as a horse and carriage stable — features yellowed walls and the lingering smell of hot dogs, thanks to the snack stand next to it.

But Steffen and her Franklin College students love “The Shack,” their concrete-bunker-turned-newsroom.  

Steffen is the executive editor of The Statehouse File, a news outlet run by students at Franklin, a small, private, liberal arts college in Franklin, Indiana, that’s been covering the Indiana General Assembly since 2005.