The Gargoyle, University College’s student paper, has run out of money after printing its latest issue last Thursday.
The paper’s student levies are held in trust by the University College Literary and Athletic Society, which rejected The Gargoyle’s proposed budget on Oct. 25 over concerns that too much money was spent on food, alcohol, and parties. As a result, the paper does not have access to its $13,418 student levy fund. (Full Disclosure: Gargoyle content editor-in-chief Rosy Rong sits on The Varsity’s board of directors as CFO. Several Varsity staff also work for or have contributed to The Gargoyle.)
Roughly 20 per cent of the paper’s proposed 2009-10 budget of $15,030 was allocated to food, drinks (which includes alcohol), and two end-of-term parties, which the council felt was too high.
The UC Lit also raised concerns over whether Gargoyle staff were allowed to drink alcohol at production nights without using the university’s food and beverage services.
“The vote [to reject our budget] was done in about five minutes, without any questions being asked to the two editors [of The Gargoyle] that were at the meeting,” said Gavin Nowlan, treasurer and politics editor, who is also president of the Arts and Science Students’ Union. “They just voted it down without any discussion, which was kind of shock to us considering that the UC Lit is famous for arguing for hours about the spelling of people’s names in their minutes.”
“I guess it wasn’t fully pushed through [at the original budget meeting] that [the liquor, food, and drinks] were for appreciation purposes,” said Daniel Tsekhman, president of UC Lit. “I think a big issue at the previous meeting was that not all the information [about the budget] was given to us.”
The Gargoyle, which is published fortnightly (every two weeks), has production nights lasting upwards of 10 hours. Staff are not paid for their work.
Several members of the UC Lit met with Gargoyle staff last Friday to discuss the revised budget and alcohol policies at the university. An emergency meeting will be held sometime next week to vote on the new budget.
The Gargoyle and UC Lit have had disputes in the past over funding. The paper’s main concern is over how levy funds are doled out, which they say has been inconsistent and flawed, making it difficult to plan for the future.
According to current policy, The Gargoyle receives 60 per cent of its levy fund in the fall after its budget is approved, and the remaining 40 per cent after it is audited by UC Lit at the end of the school year. Nowlan said for the past two years, the paper has received 40 per cent of funding late: the balance for the 2008-09 school year didn’t arrive until September, and the remaining amount for the 2007-08 school year was sent in May 2009 because the audit was late.
Tsekhman, who did the audit last year, said the 2007-08 wasn’t finished until January 2009 because of missing records.
According to Tsekhman, members of the UC Lit feel The Gargoyle makes personal attacks against them, contributing to tensions between the two groups. “This is my second year trying to build a happy relationship [with The Gargoyle],” said Tsekhman.
Gargoyle editors are confident things will move forward soon, but have considered asking other student publications to lend the paper money to continue printing.
“The thing is, we don’t want to stop publishing,” said Nowlan. “We’ve even floated the idea of doing an issue in exile if we don’t have our money by next issue.”
