Wednesday, April 7, 2010
There have been numerous national and local news sources, student senators and journalists who all have something to say about the potential fee cut of $83,200 to the Kansan. Student Senate is scheduled to vote on the issue tonight, and we feel a vote supporting this cut is not only unconstitutional, but a petty motion that is not in the best interest of the study body.
Regardless of the differing viewpoints, we wanted to clarify a few things about this potential cut before the decision is made tonight.
1.) This money will eliminate more than student “salaries.”
Exactly how much an $83,200 cut will impede the Kansan’s ability to continue to produce the same quality product can not be known at this time. What we do know for sure is that this cut will not only affect student workers, but it will decrease the quality of our content coverage.
In addition to content, it will also hurt student workers. The money given to students who work at the Kansan does not begin to cover the amount of hours they actually spend working at the paper. The reason editors are paid is because it is such a demanding job; it is virtually impossible to maintain another job at the same time.
2.) Student Senate also funds other student salaries such as student tutors.
This will affect an entire school at the University
The Kansan is one of the main reasons the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications can compete nationally with other schools. Journalism students are required to take two advanced media classes to graduate. These are classes such as “newspaper reporting,” “newspaper and online editing” and “magazine writing.” All of these classes interact directly with The Kansan. Graduating with a journalism degree without experience working at a quality newspaper will hurt students’ already difficult chances of finding a job post graduation.
3.) It’s about the relationship not the lack of money.
We have heard the argument that, “Everyone’s had to take cuts.” If this was the case there would be a 10 percent cut across all student groups. This isn’t even a 10 percent cut across all campus media groups. This cut would be singling out the Kansan specifically. Student Body President Mason Heilman said in a Kansan article on March 10, “To me, this is one of the most inappropriate relationships Student Senate has with any other outside group.” This potential cut is not about needing the money; it is about some student senators’ personal problem with the relationship.
Mason didn’t respond to calls before this went to print.
4.) Other schools operate with a similar fee
Out of all of the Big 12 schools, the Kansan receives the least amount of monetary support from the student body. Schools that don’t have an apparent subscription fee often have endowment funds, which the Kansan has been told by the University it cannot utilize.
5.) It can be illegal to make this cut
For more information about this legality of this issue read Tuesday’s article “Senate to vote on Kansan fee cuts."
6.) The relationship is not a conflict of interest
The student fee goes through the campus media board which directly allocates the funds to various campus media, including the Kansan. The endorsements of student candidates written by the editorial board are consistent with how national editorial boards operate. the Kansan should be as educational for journalism students as possible, and to have a newspaper board that does not cover topics as pertinent to the study body as Student Senate elections would be pointless.
We hope this has helped to clarify what has become a controversial issue. Tonight, student senators should act in the best interest of the students they represent by voting against this proposal.
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Comments
Editorial: Setting the record straight
Okay, I am going to number these responses 1-3, and not 1, 1, and 1, which doesn't make any sense.
Just because other schools may have inapporpriate relationships between their governments and school papers doesn't make it right, it just makes it popular.
The engineering students are not paid to build their Formula SAE race car, and yet they spend prohibitively high amounts of time on it as a senior project. Why should the student body fund an internship for the Journalism students?
The amount of coverage that this paper has given to saving itself eclipses the amount of coverage that fee cuts to nearly every student organization have gotten. Even the LJ World has come to your coverage aid, because they print your paper, and wouldn't want to lose the revenue. (Even though they prohibit you from distributing outside of campus).
Nearly every student organization has had at least a reduction in fees due to the simple fact that budget cuts have been happening everywhere. Why should the Kansan be exempt from this squeeze? If anything, there is real world experience there, as print media is disappearing and having it's revenues slashed in the digital age.
Perhaps a midway point could be reached where the Senate cuts a portion of the funds, and maybe the UDK will show a more progressive digital stance, as well as awknowledging the huge economic and environmental costs that printing 10,000 papers a day incurs.
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