Thursday, March 12, 2009
Fallout from the economic recession is affecting campus widely. Student Senate’s budget issues are the most recent in a long line of troubling financial situations. Student Senate faces inflationary costs each year, but this year Adam McGonigle, Wichita junior and student body president, has indicated no new student fees will be assessed. Recently, McGonigle floated a proposal to eliminate or reduce the student media fee and “retire” the campus security fee to provide the increased funding needed for service fees, which fund programs such as bus transport and Watkins Memorial Health Center.
But slashing the student media fee is a misguided solution that will result in fewer services from student media organizations, possible student job losses and a long-term reduction in student hiring by the organizations that receive money from the fee.
KJHK, with nearly 30,000 listeners in the Lawrence area, receives significant revenue from the fee. Tom Johnson, music and media coordinator for KJHK, said the station received two-thirds of its revenue, about $100,000, from the student media fee and raises the other third itself. According to Johnson, almost 80 percent goes toward payroll for staff that includes 12 student executive members, a part-time broadcast engineer and one full-time adviser. Without this money the station could not function on a daily basis. The remaining 20 percent pays for needs such as phone and office costs, maintenance, licensing and more.
As a large recipient of the student media fee, The University Daily Kansan could be heavily affected, according to Jon Schlitt, sales and marketing adviser for the paper. Schlitt said The Kansan received $111,000 from the student media fee this year.
“Funding we receive from Student Senate goes directly to paying for student positions here at the paper,” Schlitt said.
He said advertising was already down for the year, and said he could not paint a rosy picture of what might happen if additional funds were lost because of a reduction of the fee.
“Significantly reducing that amount would therefore lead to a significant reduction in student jobs here at the paper and in addition would also greatly damage the ability to provide news coverage to the student body as a whole,” Schlitt said.
In Student Senate, the money from funding fees is managed by boards of student senators. According to Felix Zacharias, Wichita junior and chairman of the Student Media Fee Board, the board draws up a budget in the preceding year to fund services in the coming year. Last year, his board distributed roughly $100,000 to KJHK, $20,000 to KU Filmworks, $15,000 to Kiosk, the student literary magazine, and $1,000 to KUPedia, in addition to funding for The Kansan. Zacharias said he doubted some of those organizations’ abilities to survive without the money, and at best they “might be able to limp along.” Zacharias also said maintaining First Amendment expression on campus was essential, and he felt it would be curtailed without these organizations receiving the funding they needed.
The Senate’s remaining options are narrow. A fee increase of any type seems unlikely. There is no political will for an increase and the University administration has not expressed support for it. This means Senate must cut existing fees to offset those inflationary costs. But balancing the entire Student Senate budget by eliminating only two fees is a shortsighted solution, especially when the costs of such action would have a profoundly negative influence on crucial student services and student jobs.
During a budget crisis, the University should be united by the common challenges of reduced funding. Everyone at the University, from undergraduates to professors, custodians to police, suffers from funding cuts. Student Senate should focus first on fees that do not support student jobs, such as the newspaper readership fee, which provides national publications such as USA Today and the Wall Street Journal to students. Senate should then spread remaining cuts widely to maintain service as close as possible to the current level.
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Comments
Editorial: Cutting campus media fee would reduce student jobs
As I understand it, newspaper readership fee is already being looked at for a cut. Pretty much every fee is. In fact, last weekend the Student Senate reduced their own salaries (of exec members that is).
Everyone is taking cuts, Kansan. And you guys aren't any more important than Watkins Hospital, Hilltop Childcare Center, Legal Services for Students or any of the other fee run departments across campus also looking at cuts.
It's time for everyone to tighten their belts - including the Kansan.
Editorial: Cutting campus media fee would reduce student jobs
Everyone is taking a fee cut - which is true, but as Doherty said, there is no need for these two fees to be cut entirely, as McGonigle originally proposed (but recently retracted after the fallout from Alex Porte's disemination of this information to The Kansan). If The Kansan were to cut any staff positions, it would be a tragedy. Students who work there are already offered nothing more than three measly class credits. Often times, this does not reflect anywhere near the amount of time they spend working for the newspaper. Those staff members that are paid are not paid for the amount of work they actually do either.
To cut more than 5 percent of The Kansan's share of the fee (and that is a generous number in the first place) would be a detriment to students at this University. The Kansan is one of the few academic related areas of KU that is nationally renowned. Not only would the value of present, past and future journalism students' degrees be neagtively affected, the value of all students' degress would decrease if The Kansan were to decrease production or cut student salaries.
Editorial: Cutting campus media fee would reduce student jobs
Correction: McGonigle released a final recommendation several weeks before this Porte lie became an issue.
Editorial: Cutting campus media fee would reduce student jobs
Wow...the Kansan supports Alex for whisteblowing, but when I try to present correct facts my comment gets erased?! I'll say it one more time...the Kansan was incorrect in saying that the Fee cut would apply to the entire media fee, when it really just had to do with the Kansan. Because Porte spread unofficial, somewhat false facts, KJHK and other media outlets freaked out because they thought they would be cut! The Kansan again is only good for sudoku and sports.
Editorial: Cutting campus media fee would reduce student jobs
The first article that was written said these places are being cut to pay senate members more. Good idea, cut security, health and news on campus. Sounds like a real genius to me. Three of the most important things our campus can have. Wow. Well when campus becomes unsafe, watkins is no longer free and i have no idea what is going on in lawrence or on campus, I will rest easy knowing the senate members are happy with their pay.
Editorial: Cutting campus media fee would reduce student jobs
And to the person who said the Kansan is only good for sudoku and sports...come into stauffer flint, take a look at the walls, and admire the NATIONAL awards it has won.
Editorial: Cutting campus media fee would reduce student jobs
We have news? I thought we had a gossip rag and a sports magazine. The only media I actually would care about is KJHK. Sorry, Kansan. But you know, it wouldn't bother me a bit if the KUpedia got cut, completely, deleted. Have you seen it? It's what you might call an incestuous back woods version of wikipedia. The vast majority of "notable" people are either directly copied from the real wikipedia or (big surprise) the student senators themselves. And yeah, they don't need raises. People are shocked when I mention they get money at all.
Editorial: Cutting campus media fee would reduce student jobs
connerm: Well... good.
I'm going to go work on my comebacks. We shall meet again!
Editorial: Cutting campus media fee would reduce student jobs
KUpedia isn't taking money at all next year, Pantheon. Their startup costs were $1,000 and they have declined funding for next year.
Editorial: Cutting campus media fee would reduce student jobs
Once again, friends, the exec staff for student senate is already accepting salary decreases. I know that doesn't help your story but it's true.
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