January 1993
| Revision History | ||
|---|---|---|
| Revision 1 | January 1993 | |
| The Alternative Orange. January 1993 Vol. 2 No. 3 (Syracuse University) | ||
| Revision 2 | September 13, 2000 | |
| DocBook XML (DocBk XML V3.1.3) from original. | ||
(CUP/NLNS)—Vancouver, BC—The University of British Columbia (UBC) Young Conservatives, upset by what they perceive as an intolerable leftist political slant in the UBC campus paper, The Ubysey, have initiated a petition to cut off the paper’s funding—in effect, to shut it down.
The petition, put forward during early October’s Clubs Days, calls for a student referendum on discontinuing funding for The Ubyssey. It reads, “Due to the nature of the material produced by The Ubyssey, being unrepresentative of the members of the Alma Mater Society of the University of British Columbia we wish the President. . .to call a referendum asking Should the members of the Alma Mater Society of the University of British Columbia continue to finance The Ubyssey in any way? [note: The Alma Mater Society is the UBC student union—nlns ed.]
Students currently contribute about $1 from their student fees to help subsidize the paper, which works out to approximately two cents an issue.
The petition has received more than enough signatures needed by AMS bylaws to put the question to a referendum, according to the UBC Young Conservatives. “I’ve always thought The Ubyssey was a political machine, not a newspaper,” says Jason Saunderson, the club’s vice-president. “The editors use it for their own political agenda. A paper that propagates the views of the left is the wrong place for the AMS to be putting its money.”
Saunderson wishes to see a new student newspaper that would more accurately represent what he considers to be the point of view of the UBC student body. When asked whether he thinks this point of view coincides with his own, and that of the Young Conservatives, he replied, “That’s what I hope.”
The new paper proposed by Saunderson would be run by a committee set up by the AMS—for which Saunderson hopes to run—and would be edited by an editor elected each year by the student body. Current Ubyssey editors reacted strongly to Saunderson’s initiative. “The Ubyssey has not always had the political stance it currently has. Things change. But this is the wrong way of effecting change,” said Lucho van Isschot, a member of The Ubyssey editorial collective.
Paula Wellings, also an editorial member said, “our doors are open to everyone. The Ubyssey is representative of the input of its volunteers, and anyone can volunteer. If you join the collective, you get a voice.” Wellings is especially concerned over the proposal to install a student-elected editor. “We [UBC students] don’t all vote for the president of the ski club. There are about 70 volunteers at The Ubyssey. Shouldn’t they be the ones to choose who they put their trust in? If you contribute, you have a say in who runs the paper.”
Van Isschot counters Saunderson’s approach by addressing the Young Conservative directly: “I’d like to invite Jason Saunderson to come work at The Ubyssey. He’s more than welcome to contribute.”
Commenting on Saunderson’s charges that The Ubyssey does not represent the views of most students, van Isschot replied, “The point of a student newspaper is not necessarily to be representative. The point is to provide students interested in writing with a place to hone their skills.
“If left-leaning or progressive people have been drawn to The Ubyssey, that may be because those are the people currently most interested in journalism at UBC. Besides, if you read the newspaper, you’ll find that The Ubyssey is representative of a pretty wide variety of political perspectives. And the Young Conservatives are not. I doubt whether [the Young Conservatives] represent the UBC student body. The Conservatives aren’t even a force in BC,” he said.
Saunderson must now decide what to do with the petition, which he claims contains more than the 1000 signatures needed to call a referendum. The referendum must take place within 30 days after the petition is presented to AMS council. According to council vice-president Carole Forsythe, if a quorum of students say ‘no’ to continued funding of The Ubyssey, the paper would have to shut down almost immediately.
If not, the Young Conservatives’ initiative would simply be tossed out. “Personally, I consider having a student newspaper essential,” she says.
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