USG votes down Student Media Fee resolution

By Robert Olson

A resolution to support a $10 student fee for the Daily Egyptian failed by a slim margin at the Undergraduate Student Government meeting Tuesday.

The original bill passed through USG in August recommended creating a Student Media Fee of $6, with $1 funding WIDB and SPC TV, and $5 to the Daily Egyptian. The amendment, defeated Tuesday, would have increased the fee to $10, and been renamed the publication fee, with the entire fee going to the Daily Egyptian.

“The resolution is also formatted similarly to SIUE’s format in the way which the fund should go and we decided should be within the DE itself,” Senator Christopher Wheetley said.

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Christopher Oliver, a graduate student studying professional media & media management, said he disagreed with the increase.

“I am not against this fee by any measure, I do think the DE at this point needs support from the students,” Oliver said. “However I do not think it should be at the dollar amount proposed tonight.”

USG President Adrian Miller said he was upset with how the Senators were willing to cut the income of the Daily Egyptian employees

“When you talk about 75 student employees, and faculty and staff on campus, that will be impacted by the DE not being able to operate fully it’s discouraging,” Miller said after the vote.

USG Senator Ashley Shine represents East Campus. She said her constituents do not want to contribute to the publication.

“They don’t see any importance in the paper because they don’t read the paper,” she said.

Kayli Plotner, editor-in-chief for the Daily Egyptian, said SIU students should want to be informed about their campus.

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“The DE is your paper… if you write a letter to the editor, if you write an opinion column… if you want to write about an injustice that you think is happening at your university, that’s your paper.”

Wheetley said that of the 40-plus attendees that attended a West Area General Assembly meeting that hosted Plotner, only two voted against the proposed resolution

Other allocations were made by USG prior to the amendment vote.

Five thousand dollars was allocated to the Political Action and Civic Engagement Society for their efforts to bring speaker Cornel West to campus.

Lindsey Knaus represented PACES at the meeting. She said she wants to fill Shryock Auditorium just as students did when West spoke at SIU in 2009.

The group has raised $16,900 and the remaining money allocated by USG will meet the $22,000 needed for the event.

USG allocated $1,393 to Phi Rho Eta for their annual Lip Sync event, and $185 for supplies and decorations to the National Association of Black Journalists for their Christmas Holiday Kid Fest, to be held Dec. 7.

USG also passed a requirement that would make registered student organizations responsible for telling the Student Funding Board and Senate if they had previously received money for the same event, and how much was previously allocated to their organization.

SIU Herpetology and Saluki Charming Majorettes were also officially recognized as registered student organizations by the USG Tuesday night.

Three students were nominated by President Miller and approved by the Senate to assist Peggy Sullivan on the Election Commission.

The commission oversees the elections, the three selected by Miller will be Tracy Shorter, Kevin Schrader and Andrew Niebur.

The next USG meeting will be Tuesday Dec. 3, at 6 p.m. in the Student Health Center Auditorium.

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