CSUDH
might lose campus newspaper
By
Kyle Cavaness
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Cal State Dominguez Hills may become the first California State University
without a campus newspaper next semester due to a lack of funding and a lack
of solid commitment from school administration.
The CSUDH Bulletin, which publishes bi-monthly – only seven times a semester–– has
been previously funded primarily by the communications department, but budget
cuts throughout the CSU system have made the upkeep of the newspaper difficult
for CSUDH.
“
[The Bulletin] has just become too much for the College of Liberal Arts to
pay for,” said Garry Hart, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “I
think it is a university responsibility and not the responsibility of a single
unit,” he added.
The newspaper costs about $75,000-$80,000 per year to produce. The paper receives
a $7,000 grant from Associated Students, Inc., and brings in another $7,000
from advertising revenue. The rest of the funding is provided by the campus— which
is operating on a budget $1 million less than it was last year.
“
We aren’t in a situation where we can create revenue,” said George
Pardon, CSUDH vice president of administration and finance and chief fiscal
officer.
The Bulletin has gone through its share of hardships over the last several
years. Originally started as a campus-funded paper, Associated Students, Inc.
took on financial support for the newspaper for some time, but, as resources
dwindled, the Bulletin came back under the jurisdiction of the campus. The
difficulty, according to Pardon, is that the paper was restarted with “one-time” campus
funds that are no longer available. The funds, in short, are going to have
to come from somewhere else if the paper is going to continue.
The Bulletin is put out through a communications class as a campus production,
rather than being independent of the journalism department, as is the case
with the Daily Forty-Niner. The salary of the faculty advisor for the Bulletin,
Cathy Risling, is included in the newspaper production costs. Her concern,
however, is not with her job, but with what the loss of the paper will do for
journalism students at CSUDH.
“
For me, its more about the principle,” Risling said. “I care about
the students and the paper.”
For
a chance at a job after college, journalism
majors need to be able to provide prospective
employers with samples of their writing,
and published articles are key. Without
the Bulletin, chances for CSUDH’s
journalism students to be published regularly
would be lost.
“ How do you get a job without clips?” Risling said. “Where
will you get them [without a campus newspaper]?”
Most of the faculty, staff, and students feel that the loss of the Bulletin
would also take away a powerful student voice on campus and hurt the image
of the school.
“
Every CSU school has a student newspaper; some even have a daily newspaper,” Hart
said. ”“If Dominguez Hills doesn’t have one, students might
acquire a negative attitude towards the school.”
Fanette Davis, a CSUDH communications major and Bulletin staff member, is concerned
both for her future and the school’s if the paper is lost.
“
The school is losing and the students are losing,” Davis said. “I’m
shocked that the school would [consider] eliminating the course.”
CSUDH students are speaking out on behalf of the Bulletin through various means,
including a school-wide petition.
With students and faculty voicing their concerns, the administration believes
that the Bulletin will not be lost at the end of the semester.
“
We’re still optimistic that we will be able to sustain the paper,” Pardon
said.
The next publication of the Dominguez Hills Bulletin will be Wednesday. The
final issue is scheduled for December 7.
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