Full Disclosure: Mario Trujillo is the editor-in-chief of Conceptions Southwest
Written into the ASUNM government’s constitution is a clause that automatically allots 8.5 percent of its budget to Student Publications.
The ASUNM Steering and Rules Committee passed a resolution asking for help to foot the bill.
In a resolution that will go before the full ASUNM senate next Wednesday, the Graduate and Professional Student Association, the Faculty Senate and Staff Council are all asked to help out with funding.
“With this resolution, I am taking this from kind of a student publication board perspective,” Sen. Alicia Barry said. “I was very alarmed to find the GPSA, the Faculty Senate and Staff Council do not contribute the way we do, and I would like to see their participation with that.”
The ASUNM allocation for Student Publications is an estimated $57,212.
Student Publications is an umbrella organization for the Daily Lobo, Conceptions Southwest and Best Student Essays.
ASUNM is funded by the undergraduate student body. Every full-time student gives $20 in student fees to it. Part-time students pay a fraction of that.
ASUNM Sen. Sean Mallory said these organizations should support an outlet — the Daily Lobo — that they all use.
“I think that over the last couple weeks, organizations have been pretty active in where their student fees are going,” Mallory said. “And it seems kind of unfair that the outlet they are using to attack our organization is something we fund entirely.”
Yet, not all of the government budgets can fund Student Publications.
Elisha Allen, president of the Staff Council, said that the council’s budget is miniscule. That takes into account one staff member, some supplies and a staff picnic. All the other members are volunteers. He said helping to fund Student Publications would entail a layoff.
“We couldn’t fund a lot without killing our whole operation,” said Richard Wood, Faculty Senate president.
The Faculty Senate budget is “pretty tiny,” Wood said.
Vivian Valencia, University secretary, said the Faculty Senate’s budget is estimated at $55,122 for fiscal year of 2010.
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The only other organization with a budget comparable to ASUNM, of $763,983, is the GPSA council, which has an estimated 2009-10 budget of $341,116.
President of GPSA Lissa Knudsen said she isn’t against the idea of helping split the funding. The undergraduate population makes up about 19,000 students. The graduate population is about 6,600 students.
“I’m not completely opposed to funding the Daily Lobo, because
obviously graduate students read the Daily Lobo,” Knudsen said. “It’s just a matter of how much.”
The Student Publications Board does not only fund the Daily Lobo.
According to the 2009-10 Student Publications Board budget, Conceptions Southwest and Best Student Essays are funded almost solely from ASUNM and GPSA. GPSA contributes $1,350 to each magazine. The Student Publications Board allocates approximately $5,800 to each magazine from the ASUNM allotment.
The other approximately $40,000 from ASUNM government goes to the Daily Lobo. That comes out to about 5.3 percent of the total $749,500 Daily Lobo budget for 2009-10.
Business manager of the Daily Lobo, Jim Fisher, said that while the ASUNM funding is crucial and makes a statement that the students support the paper, it isn’t large enough to create a conflict of interest when covering ASUNM.
“I think the amount makes it not a real conflict,” Fisher said. “If they were providing 70 or more percent of our budget, it might have been more of an issue, but at this point, it is not an issue.”
