Clarification appended.
Update: 4:35 p.m.
The Student Government Undergraduate Senate called for an emergency meeting on Nov. 18 at 11 p.m. to discuss the rollover allocation.
At the time of original publication, the meeting had not been called.
Original editorial
The Eagle and AU’s many other student media organizations have had a long and tumultuous history with Student Government.
Recently, communication and relations between student media groups and SG have become even more strained. Last year, students overwhelmingly voted for the Student Activities Fee to be redistributed in favor of student groups, along with an $15 increase of the fee. Fifty percent of the fee will go to SG, 25 percent to student media and 25 percent to AU Club Council, which fills budget requests of all other recognized clubs. The Eagle viewed this measure as a great step toward equal budgeting and eagerly anticipated using the money to tell more stories to more people.
Unfortunately, eight months later, the relationship between student media and SG faltered once again. The SG Undergraduate Senate passed a resolution last year to give its leftover money from last year to the Student Media Board and the AUCC, as part of a transition to the new distribution that goes into effect next year. But the Student Media Board and AUCC still haven’t seen the money. Now, SG has demanded that all student media organizations and AUCC detail exactly what they will spend their budgets on before releasing the money.
SG, Student Media Board and AUCC each receive money from Student Activities to be distributed to their member organizations. SG’s Senate Finance Committee determines the distribution of SG’s money, the Student Media Board determines the amount each media organization receives and AUCC determines the amount it gives to each remaining club. By withholding the funds until the recipients detail their uses, the Senate Finance Committee is taking over the jobs of AUCC and the Student Media Board.
The Student Media Board already heavily regulates itself. The members adhere to strict rules, such as not spending money on food for organizational meetings. Adell Crowe, the adviser of the Student Media Board, oversees the funds. Before any organization spends money, she must approve the transaction.
Every dollar we spend at the Eagle goes toward informing our students, improving our reporting and increasing our readership. We can confidently say that this is the same for every student media organization.
Will Mascaro, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs, has been put in charge of the Senate Finance Committee, which is currently withholding the funds indefinitely. He recently sent out a memo that described the process of asking AUCC and Student Media Board to explain why they need the rollover funds.
“The Committee has made this decision in the hopes of promoting equality in the budget process and having a better understanding of where the money we allocate will end up going,” Mascaro said in the memo.
But President Sophia Wirth later called the facts of the memo “90 percent incorrect” at a town hall on Oct. 30.
Another problem is how the Student Media Board has been treated while trying to get the money from the original rollover. At a recent town hall between student media and SG, Mascaro was condescending toward student media representatives. He even told one editor in an email that she left a "bad taste" in the mouths of the people in control of her funds by asking when she would receive them.
Even more frustratingly, this lack of respect extends to the entire Senate. At a senate meeting where Student Media Board members spoke, one senator had to raise a “motion for senators to get off Facebook and listen to the people in front of you,” after it became clear that almost every senator was on Facebook the entire time the organizations were raising their concerns.
What’s worse is SG is unfairly asking the Student Media Board and AUCC to do something without indicating that they will hold the same level of transparency. For the sake of transparency, The Eagle will take this opportunity to detail what we spend our money on.
Each print edition we produce costs $2,731 to publish. The app we are currently developing costs $1,500 to create. Each year we pay small fees to submit articles for award consideration. Each submission costs $18, which means we carefully pick the pieces we send to keep costs down. Last year, The Eagle spent a total of $144 on award submissions. We also send writers to conferences and out-of-town sporting events. Last year, our conference fees were around $1,500, and to send a writer to cover the men’s basketball game, we spent approximately $200. We are desperately in need of cameras to expand our multimedia team, which could cost hundreds of dollars in necessary upgrades.
These things add up, but they are all necessary.
Is it too much to ask that if SG will question our spending like this, they will at least be as transparent themselves? If SG wants budgets to be in check, they would be better served to examine their own, rather than the eight already scrutinized (and much smaller) budgets of the Student Media Board.
edpage@theeagleonline.com
The Eagle is a member of the Student Media Board and receives funds from the board, including money from SG’s rollover. As part of the Student Media Board, the editor-in-chief of The Eagle will be asking Mascaro and the Senate Finance Committee to give Student Media Board the rollover allocation.
Clarification: The 50 percent to SG, 25 percent to Student Media Board and 25 percent to AUCC distribution was amended to include a six point margin of error.
