Responses
Amanda, 2/26/2004, 1:47:57 PM
Professional newspapers can endore candidates, so why shouldn't yours? Your real problem is getting funding from student government.
The newspaper should not be an extension of the student government. You should be able to freely criticize their actions without fear of retaliation. With your situation, it would be difficult to pursue stories that might have a negative impoact on the student government.
I would try to get that bylaw, and any other bylaw that ties you to student government, changed. You shouldn't be labeled a "student government organization." The newspaper should not be used as the student government's pet project.
Are there other ways to get funding? Speak to some administrators and express your concern that you can't objectively cover student government's actions because of the funding you receive from it. Try to get the funds directly from the college itself. Maybe the funds given to student government to support the newspaper could be held back and given directly.
I'm also from a small college campus of just over 1,000 students so I know how touchy student government can be. It's hard enough trying to report on politics on a small campus without having them waving funding cuts in your face. Cut those ties if you can.
My newspaper is not connected to the student government at all. We receive funding from the college, along with the money we bring in from advertising. I know that some college newspapers do get their funding from student government, but it's not a good situation to be in.
The newspaper should be the voice of the campus. And that voice is entitled to its own opinion.
Dylan, 2/26/2004, 3:21:12 PM
The newspaper I work at, The Spectrum of North Dakota State University, gets roughly half of our funding from the student government. It ends up being around 56 thousands dollars a year, so its pretty substantial.
Anyway, long before I got here, the newspaper and student government negotiated a contract giving us a fixed amount of funding each year. They cant cut our funding and have no input over our content. It works out pretty well.
Thats my suggestion...secure your funding, then fill your pages with whatever seems appropriate to you, not the student government.
Paul Stolen, 2/27/2004, 2:31:29 AM
Hi Martha,
You are in an interesting situation. As a newspaper you have a right to endorse a candidate and the student government can't prohibit you from doing that, it would be a form of censorship. However, you do run into the problem that you receive funding through the student government as a "club" and thus would all under the amended bylaws. However, it is my opinion that the freedom of the press, or lack of censorship, should supercede the bylaws of the student government. If you are concerned that your funding will be pulled as a result of your endorsement of a candidate that is wrong and can be prevented. If this is the case, contact the student press law center and I'm sure they would be happy to contact your student government on your behalf, and it's a free service.
We are fortunate enough at our paper to have ad revenue cover 93% of our paper's budget. I would suggest forming long term goals on how become more financially independent. If you attend any of the ACP conventions they have great workshops that can help you improve your advertising department.
As far as the issue of endorsing a candidate, I think that is up to each paper's editorial board. In the past there have been some years where we have made an endorsement and others where we have not. Two years ago we made an endorsement and as I recall there were some people that got very upset by this, including some staff members. I think to supplement this, you could have one of those staff members write a column in support of the other candidate. I am unsure if our paper will support a slate for student government president/vice-president this year. I would like to perhaps make a difference on campus by choosing one, however I have to give it more consideration first. I don't think there is anything wrong with you endorsing a candidate.
I think you are on the right track to question the student government. If nothing else, run a story (unbiased) about how the student government is trying to sensor you and get some quotes from journalism faculty and even your local paper's editors. I also think you are on the right track by posting a forum question here. I think there are a lot of student papers that face the same issues and we can all learn from each other’s experiences. Please feel free to email me if you have any more questions.
Paul Stolen
Executive Editor
Advance-Titan
stolep66@uwosh.edu
Allan, 2/27/2004, 8:28:13 PM
It's illegal in California to use government funding to endorse a candidate for public office, even student government. This law seems like a First Amendment violation and I wonder if it would survive a Constitutional challenge.
Lisa, 2/27/2004, 10:15:21 PM
At our paper, we do endorse candidates for student government at election time, and we haven't really had a problem with it. SG members may or may not disagree with our recommendations, but I think it benefits the students to have a newspaper offer its opinion especially because we are the the watchdog of student government and also the ones who are "in the know." In addition to our endorsement in our editorial, we also give a breakdown of the candidates for each position and what their platforms are so that students can have the info and make their own educated decisions.
More than 50 percent of our budget is funded by student government and even though we are at a large university (34,000 students), when we run something the SG president doesn't like, or not cover something that they want us to cover, he still sometimes suggests that he will reduce our funding. I don't let it bother me because I know that legally they cannot deny us funding because we wrote something negative about them in an editorial, for example.
I also suggest you check out the student press law center. Their website's FAQ section is particularly informative on what your rights are as a student journalist.
Amber, 3/5/2004, 5:51:36 PM
I'm the Editor in Chief of a community college paper, and we get most of our funding from the student council too. We ran into problems with the council having expectations of our paper.
I think it's clear that government and press don't mix, but until we can become financially self-sufficient I had to figure out something. I went in front of the council and explained to them that we are not a campus club, we are the press. I made it clear that our paper is not free for students, and the money they give us pays for a subscription to each student on campus.
This seemed like a quick fix to a potentially bad problem. We are looking for other sources of funding. It would be great if we could bypass the council and get funding straight from the administration.
Good luck and stand strong!
Amber
Stephen Yeargin, 3/10/2004, 1:42:17 AM
This will be the first year (at least to most recollection) that our newspaper will endorse a candidate for SGA Senate or the Executive Council. We are also trying the waters here, but I think it will go over fairly well.
The one thing I'd urge is that you keep the editorial as objective as possible, pointing to experience over such things as personality. A campus forum or other event held by the newspaper with the candidates puts more validity into your endorsement.
In addition to the endorsement, we plan to also run short bios of all the candidates. This, again, adds to the validity and not just looking like a candidate has the newspaper wrapped around his/her finger.
As far as the funding issue, we are placed under the Student Affairs budget, not the SGA's. I'd wager that nobody in their right mind would threaten funding cuts in light of a couple of well-worded editorials.
Best of luck,
Stephen Yeargin
Executive Editor
-
The Pacer
UTM's Student Newspaper
314 Gooch Hall
Martin, TN 38238
E-mail: pacer@utm.edu
Office: 731-587-7780
Fax: 731-587-7791
Cell: 615-406-1665
