This is your newspaper. It’s a small group of us that put in the long hours and late nights that it takes to create a paper, but we’re here for you-to report on the news and views on campus and off that is of interest to U of T students.
While we don’t want to bore you with internal politics, we do want to let you know what’s been going on at your newspaper. The board of directors of The Varsity, a group of students and professional representatives, are proposing major changes to the way the paper is run, despite the objections of the current masthead and much of the volunteer staff.
Our door is open to all students and alumni interested in contributing to The Varsity or even just to comment or discuss something you’ve read in the paper. We have a large pool of volunteer writers, artists, and photographers, and are always looking for more. It’s these people who act as our eyes and ears on campus, representing the interests and passions of the student body. However, as we rely on a student levy ($1.25 per full-time student), we are required to have a board of directors to oversee the financial and operating aspects of the newspaper. This board is supposed to represent the students.
The board would like to change the current democratic structure of the Varsity (where all the editors are elected through a free vote of staff-anyone that’s contributed six submissions or more to the paper during the past year) by giving the board power to hire the Editor-in-Chief of the paper, and in turn, that EIC would have the power to hand-pick his own masthead. The board insists that they need to have more input into who the EIC is (presumably, we can’t trust the students who work so hard on this newspaper to elect qualified people to the job), and that the EIC needs to choose his own people to work with.
This goes against decades of tradition at not only the Varsity, but at student newspapers across the country. Over the past two days, we have received an outpouring of support from fellow campus papers all over Canada, all of which follow the same democratic principles that we do. Ira Dubinsky, News Editor and board member of the McGill Daily, writes, “Student newspapers are community organizations that function best when governed collegially. To do otherwise would compromise the cooperative nature of a student newspaper and put at risk a unique learning and working environment.”
We have presented our position to the board of directors, who currently refuses to listen. They suggest that their plan is the only way to improve the paper and move forward. We, the editors who have worked tirelessly all year to make this newspaper the best it can be, cannot fathom how a board that is supposed to be working for the paper has decided to essentially ignore our concerns.
The board is supposed to represent the students-in short, you. Several of the members of this board have barely shown up to meetings all year, and yet they claim to represent you. Now they want us to believe that this is not a power grab. We’re not fooled, and we don’t think you will be, either. The board is planning to vote on their proposed bylaw changes (there are several more that we won’t get into here) at the Varsity’s annual general meeting. All students are urged to come out to show support (full-time students have a vote on the matters presented at the meeting). Unfortunately, we don’t yet know the exact date and time of the meeting, thanks to the usual board dithering, but we promise to keep you posted (see the next issue of the Varsity or our website for details).
Board members keep insisting that “a newspaper is not a democracy.” Well, it is here, and it should continue to be. We pride ourselves on being an open organization-you’re all welcome to be a part of this great institution-talent can be nurtured, but heart isn’t something you can hire. Let your voice be counted-write a letter, attend the AGM, speak out. After all, it’s your paper, too.
