Our
View: Paper referendum the real deal,
vote yes
So what is all of this referendum stuff about anyway? Didn’t we already
have an election? Who
said we should have another?
As many of you have probably heard, the Daily Forty-Niner and Dig magazine are
putting forth a referendum to be voted on by the students Tuesday and Wednesday
this week. The referendum asks for a $4 semester student fee to increase the
size of both publications. Upon hearing this, you might be asking yourselves
why you should part with your hard-earned $4. Let us answer your concerns.
If you regularly open the pages to this publication, you have probably noticed
that its size varies greatly. Because this paper is funded 97 percent by advertisements,
the size of the paper fluctuates with respect to how many advertisements it receives.
On what are considered “good” advertising days, the paper is eight
or 12 pages, with news, sports, opinion and diversions sections. On what are
considered “bad” advertising days, the paper is four pages, with
only a news and opinion section.
If you have picked it up on one of the “bad” days, you may be wondering, “Where
is the rest of the paper? Did I drop part of it and not notice? Why does this
resemble a newsletter instead of a newspaper?”
Well, rest assured you did not misplace any portion of the paper. That was just
all the space advertising allowed us for that day. The harsh reality is we most
likely had additional news, sports and diversions articles we wished we could
have published, but didn’t have enough space for them.
If passed, the 49er and Dig Referendum will solve that problem. It will deliver
a 12-page color paper four days a week with full quality coverage of the student
events you want to read more about.
Have you ever been disappointed to open a Monday paper and see that the sports
section is MIA? With the referendum, there will be a sports section printed every
Monday, recapping the events of the weekend.
Has your club or organization ever held an event, and the article written about
the event was printed two days late, or worse, not at all?
The referendum will allow the Daily Forty-Niner to publish more articles about
the events on campus,
and publish them on time.
We know there are lot of things that go on here at The Beach that we don’t
cover simply because our funds don’t support it. It just isn’t right.
It’s not right for us to miss it and it’s not right for you, the
students, faculty and staff, to miss it either.
You shouldn’t have to wait an entire week or a few days after the fact
to know what’s going on throughout your own campus. You deserve better.
Help us help you.
Other large universities in the Los Angeles area with daily newspapers, like
UCLA and USC, have sufficient funding and a larger staff. The Daily Bruin and
Daily Trojan are excellent examples to aspire to.
We too can achieve such levels of excellence. The dedication is here. Long, long
hours in the SSPA basement nearly until the sun rises and sets are a testament
to that. The potential is here. A university ranked so highly by The Princeton
Review is proof of that as well.
We encourage you to go out tomorrow and Wednesday and vote yes for the referendum.
It will only take a minute of your day, and you can look forward to a semester
of increased, timely and correct news coverage.
For more information about the 49er and Dig Referendum, please feel free to send
us an e-mail to 49er.dig@gmail.com.
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