Name: aaron
Comments:
also senior one other thing, if we were not under funded already perhaps we could mkae lots of money but with the equipment and resources we have we do the best we can. The computers in our lab are basically worthless now and we had to fight just to pay someone to fix them. Once he is finished hopefully we will be able to do more, but we still need more and better equipment, you don't see the Roanoke Times working on computers that crash if you open Photoshop and Quark up at the same time, so how do you expect us to produce the same amount of money as them?

Name: rachel
Comments:
hi senior. it's not that i don't think we should have to pay any of the money back, it's that student media would like to break away from the university and run independently (like va tech.) the university expects us to make back thousands of dollars more than we are capable of making at the present time. when i said i would like to keep some of the money we make, i meant i would like to keep the extra money, after sabc costs are paid back. believe it or not, student media was making money over and above the amount due back before our underwriting was raised to a point where we couldn't meet it. thanks for your comments!

Year: Senior
Major: Education
Comments:
Rachel, last I can remember the reason why you don't keep the money you generate is because you don't have any to begin with. If I understand you correctly, student activities should give you money that it doesn't have. I believe student activity subsidizes your expenditures with the understanding you pay them back. So you're saying, don't pay them back? That's basically asking students to give money to a group, that has no evidence of support by even a majority of the student body. Doesn't that seem unfair to our student body? Don't you have a savings account that after you pay them back you get to keep the difference? I honestly think that if the media is supposed to publicize news and events that should be of concern to students, you should consider what students think about this issue versus you biasness in persuading them toward your side. Its only fair, don't you think?

Name: Lost in Cuba
Year: 2004
Comments:
I know what you are going through with budget issues... hang in there!

Name: Bryan
Year: Frosh
Comments:
The link to this has a typo "tsks" should be "tasks", unless Rachel's been hanging around RU administration and their fake words for too long! :P

Name: rachel
Comments:
i guess if student media got to keep any of the money we generated...we wouldn't argue so much.

Name: Courageless Writer (ha!)
Year: Senior
Comments:
Aaron, do you work for the State of Virginia? Your comment on the media making ad sales to support other campus activities sounds like the State talking about education. According to the SABC website (http://www.radford.edu/~sabc/fundedaccounts.htm) an excel spreadsheet as its called on that page, indicates that the student media spends around $100,000 a year but only generated $82,000. Sounds like they made sales to fund themselves not to support other campus activities. Its a shame you look at numbers in the whole and depict them as if their true. As my statistics professor once said, "if you play with the numbers enough you can make it say what you want." The truth is that students pay for their own activities and get NO support from media sales. According to that spreadsheet, students paid over $700,000 alone without student money. So you might want to get your facts straight. You seem to be making a similar arugment the state made when they said lottery sales would supplement K-12 education.

Name: Dave
Year: Senior
Comments:
Without student media I wouldn't have any journalistic experience. I sure as heck aren't learning much from the journalism department here.

Name: rachel (author)
Comments:
i would also like to respond to the poster before aaron who didn't leave a name.

thank you for your comments. i appreciate them but would like to clear a few things up.

1. If the tiered system was thrown out, no one new about it. I talked to the president of the sga and heth administrators who couldn't clear that one up. parhaps i should have interviewed you since no one knows what's going on around here!
2. As with the Art Dept, if SABC didn't fund media, we would close down as well.
3. There are more than two groups of student media! In fact, there are 6 very hard-working groups on this campus. The reason why all groups could potentially have a conflict with SGA is that the student media budget covers all media. SABC gives us a lump sum that is internally distributed. If and money is cut, it effects us all.
4. It is not my job to stand by a Tartan rack and count how many people reach into the bin...I can only speak for my group. In the four years I have been invloved in Whim, I have seen more dedication and talent than you can imagine. That is also true for many students in the other media. Do you realize that the Student Media at RU opperates on about half the budget of other schools? Most staff members are also volunteer, as there is no money in the budget to reward them for their contributions. I have seen tremendous improvement in media this year, specifically in Whim and The Tartan, and it is to the credit of these amazing students.
   Again, I thank you for your comments and hope you will email me at whim@radford.edu if you have any questions regarding this matter.

   Name: Aaron Talbott
   Major: Art
   Comments:
   In response to the last article, I don't agree with your views or respect them because you don't have the courage to leave your name or any information about you. Now as for your response, the 50% of ads in the tartan is necessary because without it there would be no Student Media. Student Media as a whole produces a large amount of the money for all campus activities and organizations. Actually Student Media brings in more money than any other organization, yet we are one of the least funded. If you think that there should be no Student Media then I say lets get rid of the media studies department here because there will be no "real world" training for anyone. Without student media in colleges and universities then media as a whole would be gone eventually. Where would you get your information? Why don't you give student media a try and see if you can live with the HUGE salaries that the student media leaders and staff of the different publications get (please note the sarcasm for everyone not involved with student media).

   Comments:
   Its unfortunate that you have to argue the case for student media in a letter to the editor. Your concerns need to be made to the SGA. In addition, I'd like to comment on your article. First, there is no tier system. Because of a lack of definition that separated funded and partially funded groups, the system was thrown out in the Summer of 2000. So the only way groups are defined is funded or not funded. At this point, anyone can get funding from SABC. However, there is a procedure that requires approval before any "new" account is set up. So your arguments are moot on that point. Secondly, the art accounts were removed because they are not technically "student-runned." Their budget is a supplement to state funding to support student directed productions. If things were done for the right reasons, the Arts would not need student activity funding. But Dr. Ferran, never cared about the Arts to give them money. More notably, if the SABC decided not to fund the Art Museum it would close down. Lastly, the student media is not necessarily all media. The only two media groups are the Whim and Tartan. The Beehive, Exit 109, and ROC-TV are simply productions of students. In the event, they conducted themselves to educate the community on social/political issues, I'd recognize them as the media. So with the remaining two medias I do not see there to be a conflict of interest with SGA. Why not go independent? Is it because there has been a lack of leadership to even consider that idea? See if you don't want to have any "perceived" control by SGA then get funding elsewhere. Who gives you the right to use STUDENT money without their explicit direction? The SGA was created by the Board of Visitors to be the voice of students. In addition, the SGA controls the student money that is collected for students. That's how it is everywhere. As a matter of fact, in most schools its called an SGA Fee - not student activities. So in the end, when the Student Finance Committee votes on your budget they do say and recognize the fact that students (as a whole) feel the media needs to be funded. By the way, have you ever done a survey to see how many students really like the idea of paying a newspaper that has at least 50% ads in them? When was the last time you checked how many are being taken from the racks? I have a feeling the readership of all student medias are declining. Also, how do you explain to students that they pay for a yearbook where less than 10% of the student population even buy it? Ok I think I've made my point. You're asking for autonomy but have no specific evidence or factual information that can support your rationale to treat the media as an independent agency from other SABC funded groups. Oh let me point out one more thing, John McGuire was NO HERO to student activities. He's the reason the budgets were cut a total of 23% over a two year period. In any case, I applaud you for standing up for what you believe in. But in the future, please explain to students why its important to THEM that they fund a media in which MOST of them don't care about. The way I know some students seeit - ITS A WASTE OF MONEY!!!

   Name: Brian
   Comments:
   I can see that side Greg. The other side of having an SGA rep is so the two groups can communicate needs. For example, Lauren Estes was the Student Media Committee's SGA rep. She was WONDERFULLY receptive to pro-media ideas and discussions. She was essentially our "contact" over in SGA and often gave media ideas for stories/articles. She played it cool by staying pro-student. Not pro-SGA or pro-MEDIA, just pro-student. RU needs more of Lauren's caliber.

   Name: Greg Norman
   Year: 1998
   Major: Media Studies
   Comments:
   This really scares me. The whole idea of the SGA having any kind of sway over student media is a fundamentally flawed idea. Even having an SGA representative on the Committee sounds like a bad idea to me. The Student Government shouldn't have any control or say over matters that seriously affect the student-run media outlets that report on them. I have a story that perfectly illustrates my opinion. Several years ago, while I was pulling double duty running Whim and working on the Tartan, I wrote a story about a controversial SGA election that took place, where hearings were involved several days before the annual CAB budget meetings that would determine funding for various organizations, including Student Media. While waiting outside for the hearings to start, one of the SGA members involved in the matter, who was also on the Campus Activities Board, said offhandedly within my earshot something to the effect of "It'd be too bad if The Tartan didn't get any funding this year..." Nothing ever came of the remark, as my article was pretty critical of the matter and The Tartan obviously still received it's funding, but the incident made it very clear to me that the SGA has no business in the affairs of Student Media. It's like having US government officials sitting on the board of the Washington Post.

   Name: Shaggy
   Comments:
   Good points Rachel. I be damned if Student Media is controlled by a bunch of SGA peeps who have no idea what it is all about.

   Comments:
   i agree! i dont want the sga taking over everything. too much power