TJ O'Sullivan of The Virginia Informer, an independent conservative student newspaper, exposed a potential contract that could harm the ability of student publications to receive university funding. Campus reformers interested in bringing an independent voice to their campus should take advantage of our Student Publications Workshop and personal advice and support from CampusReform.org staff.
The Senate Policy Committee met on Sunday, February 21st with Vice President Ryan Ruzic to discuss the content of upcoming Publication Council Contract negotiations. The Publication Council serves to "provide guidance and financial supervision for undergraduate and graduate student publications," and draws its funding from the Student Assembly.
The first major area of discussion revolved around lowering the cap on the Consolidated Student Publications Reserve Fund. As it stands now, the cap is set at $100,000. Currently, the account is valued at roughly $83,000 with the Student Assembly favoring lowering the cap to $50, 000 or less. Senator Eric Scalzo (J.D.) suggested a two year "spend-down" period in order to allow for the account to meet the final cap.
