Our current coast-to-coast membership has over 30 student publications, divided into six regions. Membership provides publications with access to a community of student journalists, discounted conference rates, opportunities to participate in Pan-Canadian student journalism projects, and benefits like legal support, CWA membership, and mentorship opportunities.
Below is our list of membership benefits.
Programs and events
Annual NASH student journalism conference and the JHM Student Journalism Awards
If you are part of the staff of a CUP member publication, you can get 25% (may vary) off your NASH tickets! That’s three days of full journalism-focused events at Canada’s largest national student journalism conference. Connect with mentors, learn about specific journalism beats and form friendships with fellow student journalists around Canada!
CUP has been hosting the JHM student journalism awards since 2003 and honoured many student journalists and publications over the years. Entry is open to all Canadian student publications and members submit their JHM submissions for free. Non-members are charged $15 for the first submission, and $5 for every subsequent submission.
Regional conferences
CUP hosts smaller regional conferences, roundtables and meetups providing member papers more chances to connect.
Annual equity workshop
In October 2020, CUP held its first-ever equity training workshop. “Reimagining campus media” tackled a variety of topics through an intersectional lens including challenging internal prejudices, supporting your sources, a “how to fix a newsroom” segment on making your newsroom more trustworthy to the community, a “fearless questions” segment where we provided a safe space for “dumb questions” about equity, and our special theme for the night: reporting on policing.
While many publications hold their own equity trainings (and we encourage you to), we recognize that not everyone has access to the resources training takes, such as finding the folks who are both qualified and have lived experience for training a bunch of journalists, compensating your hosts and organizers, and even just having the time for it. So CUP is making this an annual event, open to all, including non-CUP members.
101 webinars
Following the success of our equity and diversity training workshop in October 2020, CUP board members have decided to organize half a dozen workshops aimed at providing insight for student journalists in fall 2021. From leadership lessons for editors-in-chief and managing editors to dealing with being harassed as a journalist, these will aim to provide the basics of navigating the student journalism world. These events will be free to all CUP members, and ticket prices for non-members will vary.
These are the some of the 101 webinars in the works:
- How to cope with journalists being harassed online
- Unpublishing: Best policies and practices
- Editing your constitution
- How to apply for journalism grants and awards
- Training for chief, managing and coordinating editors
- Trauma-informed journalism
Resources
Our Slack
Join our CUP Slack for a direct line of communication to not only the CUP team, but also fellow student journalists across our membership. Resources shared include tips about job opportunities, CUP events, reporting advice, region-based channels and more! Open to all members.
Email president@cup.ca to join.
Emergency student press meetings
During student press crises that come up throughout the years—think COVID-19 and Ontario’s Student Choice Initiative—CUP hosts emergency meetings where we exchange information, advice, experiences and resources to our fellow student journalists.
CUP’s newswire
The CUP Wire is a service that offers CUP member publications the chance to republish articles from other member publications. The Wire is a great way for publications to inform readers on the events that are making headlines in the Canadian post-secondary world. Stay tuned for more information on how your publication can use and participate in the CUP Wire.
Legal support
CUP members have access to CUP’s legal support. CUP covers each member’s first hour of legal costs each year, and provides access to some of the best media lawyers in Canada.
Reporting grants
In April, CUP launched a LGBTQ2IA+ reporting grant of $300 per person to three student journalists to report on a story related to the community in any form they please—writing, multimedia, video, anything! We’re also planning our first BIPOC reporting grant — details to come this fall.
(There’s still one LGBTQ2IA+ grant left, email president@cup.ca to apply!)
National NewsMedia Council
CUP’s partnership with the National NewsMedia Council offers free ethical advice and conflict management services for its members.
That includes:
- Language when covering sexual assault cases
- Responding to allegations of bias
- Responding to unpublishing requests
- And more!
- NNC can be reached via email, Twitter, Facebook or phone. Visit their website at mediacouncil.ca.
Discounts and partnerships
Every year, CUP works on finding new sponsors and partnerships that will benefit our members. More details to come this fall!
CWA Media Union membership
Through your CWA membership, you can apply to journalism awards, funding for training opportunities and access the media union’s support. Check out their website for more information about membership benefits, or email president@cup.ca for any inquiries.
Receive support and advice from people with experience
The Canadian University Press also acts as an advocacy group to support student publications when you’re facing external pressure, especially from your universities. We can provide letters of support, public statements, advice, consultations or some other forms of assistance.
Follow our Twitter page to keep up-to-date with scholarships, paid writing and job opportunities, conferences and more in Canada.
You can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook Visit our website to learn more at cup.ca.