Our campus newspaper The Current Student Newspaper is facing extreme budget difficulties right now and the Student Government budget committee has pushed for a budget allocation of $0, which would effectively delete The Current from campus life in its current form. That deletion could possibly spell the end to almost six decades of intense coverage of a campus very special to us all: umsl.edu/library/university-archives/Student%20Newspaper/index.html (thanks Josh Renaud for turning me on to this link). For anyone with any connection to UMSL - student, faculty, staff or alumni (such as members of the Official University of Missouri - St. Louis Alumni Association) - give these nearly 55 years of campus history a read. Student journalism plays an important role in capturing The First Draft of History for so many hundreds of thousands of campus community members every day. It provides student-reporters with a level of training and education that is simply unmatched (I know that my growth as a college student is so heavily tied to my experiences with The Current Student Newspaper). Not the least of which is my learning under adviser Judi Burch Linville, who continues to offer her support and council even today. I understand that there are a lot of issues right now, but I would strongly urge UM - St. Louis Student Government Association against removing a robust area of campus life. Newspapers play a remarkably important role in any democratic society, as they inform and orient all of us as to the issues facing our community - from the happiest human interest story to the darkest political scandal. Physical newspapers, on the newsstands, provide an easy-to-access and easy-to-share (as well as a physically prominent) place to start and encourage public discourse - much of this in the very spirit of growing #umsl_pride through openness and voice. To the 100s of student organizations on-campus, the newspaper is often their only outlet for publicity and news coverage. For the 10,000s of students on-campus, the story is often the same. I would never say that a newspaper, or any organization, is too big to fail. However, it is far too important to be dismissed. Information is a hallmark of our society, and removing information (by removing the newspapers funding) simply cannot be an option. I have the utmost respect for the administration at UMSL, and I am sure that Chancellor Thomas F. George will be able to his leadership to ensure the future of student journalism at our University.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 15:23:20 +0000
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