Written by Bailey Wilson, Managing Editor. After over a year of investigation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has charged two men with the murder of a VSU college student who was killed in October of 2023. Long, 21, was bartending at The Pier on Oct. 29, 2023, when the shooting occured outside of the bar. She was shot while closing ...

Written by James Brown, Entertainment Editor. The VSU Spectator took home several awards in writing, reporting and photography excellence, including the coveted “Watchdog” award, at the 2025 Georgia College Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest in February in Athens, Georgia.  GCPA is an organization that prides itself on benefitting newspapers and journalists across various colleges in Georgia. The organization helps colleges ...

Written By Christopher Mercer, Sports Editor. Photo from GSC.com Television deals have become a vital part of sports, and over the last few years, they have changed how we view our favorite sports events. In 2020, the Gulf South Conference entered into an agreement with Flo Sports as its new official streaming partner and distributor for all of its athletic ...

Story and photo by Jenna Arnold, Editor-in-Chief. VSU’s campus lost over 1,600 trees due to the recent storms through 2023 and 2024. The campus faced hardships with hurricanes Idalia, Debby and Helene.  VSU was first recognized as a tree campus in 2013 by the Arbor Day Foundation. The Longleaf pines have been a crucial part of VSU’s identity, since the ...

Written By Christopher Mercer, Sports Editor. Photo Courtesy of Flickr  The VSU Blazers soundly defeated the Union Bulldogs 100-80 in the first round of the Gulf South Conference championship tournament.   Before this matchup, the Blazers won both regular-season matchups, 102-79 on Jan. 9 and 106-100 on Feb. 22.  This game was complete domination, as the Blazers held the lead ...

Written by Jasmine Hightower, Copyeditor. The City of Valdosta honored the winning team from VSU’s social media class during a city council meeting Feb. 20.  During the fall 2024 semester, students in the social media class taught by Dr. David Nelson worked alongside the Valdosta’s Public Information Office to create a social media campaign to increase public engagement within the ...

Written by Jenna Arnold, Editor-in-Chief. The second largest wetland in the state of Georgia, Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area (WMA), has been under construction for four months and has restricted access to the general public.  Fallen trees and flooding caused by Hurricane Helene have damaged the boardwalk and prevented people from walking across the wetland and climbing the steps of ...

By James Brown, Winter Dube and Ansley DeCenzo, Spectator Staff Writers  The entire VSU community is being heavily impacted by federal and state directives related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts at universities nationwide.  VSU President Richard Carvajal spoke at a recent Faculty Senate meeting regarding how the federal decisions have impacted the university, including many changes to the ...

Written by Jenna Arnold, Editor-in-Chief.  Anyone walking around VSU’s campus and through its buildings might run across blue containers marked for various types of waste to be recycled – paper, plastic or aluminum. One might assume that waste would end up at a recycling plant. But the waste deposited in those recycling bins scattered around VSU’s campus go to the ...

Written by Ashley Jones, Web Editor. On the evening of Feb. 19, VSU and SGA held a candlelight and floral tribute to celebrate the life of Tanique Thomas, a freshman student who died on Monday, Feb. 17.  Thomas’s mother, friends, fellow SGA members and members of the community joined each other to honor her life and support each other through ...