Daily Lobo column
If you haven’t already voted today in the ASUNM election, do it now. Or after this class. Or whenever you have time. Before this day is over, find your way to a polling place and have some kind of say in your student government.
Since you’re reading this column, I can safely assume that you are at least a semi-regular reader of the Daily Lobo. Not everyone makes it back to the Opinion page and bothers to read through everything here. Most of the time, it’s the front page, the sports section or the coupons that students look for, and the rest of it is just window dressing.
As a reader of the Lobo with enough interest in the opinions of your fellow students to turn to this page on a regular basis, I’d like to entreat you to consider voting against Associated Student of UNM Amendment One today. It may seem a tad unstylish to come out so blatantly with a position like that, but this is hardly the time for subtlety.
Honestly, I don’t know all that much about the men and women running for Senate this time around. Before voting, I’ll check the Lobo’s information on them and see if there are any I feel like supporting. I highly suggest you do the same.
The Lobo’s ability to publish voting information on the people running for Senate probably does those candidates a lot more good than any number of flyers they could hand out on campus. Having an explanation of each person’s views on the issues helps us make a better choice about who we want representing us. The Lobo’s ability to remain neutral in an election and report candidly on the issues is one of the greatest benefits of having such a high-quality independent newspaper on campus.
Readers who have never spent much time on campuses around the nation may not realize just how highly the Lobo rates among college newspapers. In last year’s College Media Advisers conference, the newspaper placed fifth in its best of show contest. In 1998, it placed third in the competition.
Most colleges have, at best, a weekly or monthly flyer. Rarely do they have multi-page daily newspapers that also maintain a high-quality Web site specializing in campus news.
I won’t over-exaggerate the threat that Amendment One poses to the Lobo. The paper will still exist if it loses ASUNM’s funding. It may have to cut back on frills such as the Web site, some of the staff reporters and printing in color, but nothing that most people will really notice.
What’s at stake, however, is the UNM community’s commitment to maintaining an independent newspaper. The Lobo is one of UNM’s most prized traditions, even if a lot of students don’t think of it that way.
If a fair portion of the paper’s funding can be granted or withdrawn at the whim of the student government, how might that affect future editors’ judgment regarding stories about ASUNM or individual senators? Might not the pressure of the budgetary process make it just harder to speak out through the Lobo about what you see wrong with the student government?
On top of that, what does cutting back the funding for our independent newspaper say about our University’s priorities? Is that money really needed for student groups?
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The majority of ASUNM’s money goes not to student groups but to the organization itself. This year, the Senate itself got $23,198 of your student fee money.
Where does that money go, exactly? I confess I am ignorant of what monetary needs the Senate requires, but it seems to me they don’t really need that much money to discuss bills and vote on them.
Right now, 8 percent of the student fees automatically go to the Daily Lobo. Amendment One will remove the automation of that process and force the Lobo to apply for funding like a student group. It will also effectively cut the budgets of the other two products of Student Publications, Best Student Essays and Conceptions Southwest, to the point where they may not be able to continue.
As a Lobo reader who is interested enough in the paper to have read through this entire column, you must now find the time to stop by one of the many polling places around campus and make your voice heard.
All it takes is for you to fill in a single scantron bubble to do your part to make sure the Daily Lobo doesn’t have to sell off even more of its space to advertising to live up to the quality UNM expects and deserves from its independent newspaper.
