When our staff received word the Board of Trustees intended to table the proposed $9 student media fee, as time seemed to stand still, an array of emotions filled the newsroom: anger, heartbreak, fear and willingness to go to battle. So we did.

We took to social media with the hashtag #SavetheDE, and our alumni came to our rescue, advocating what the Daily Egyptian has done for their careers and what it means to the School of Journalism.

With faculty and administrative support, the DE staff proposed the fee in response to the Board’s direction nearly a year ago, when former SIU president Glenn Poshard instructed the Carbondale administration, and Daily Egyptian staff to develop a plan for long-term sustainability. He agreed to give the publication a lump sum to get through the summer months, and the DE got to work.

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Several cuts were made, including:

•Capping student salaries, saving nearly $87,000

•Ceasing Friday publication

•Lower quality supplies

These efforts only put a dent in our growing deficit. The fee proposal worked its way through the proper channels. It was approved with a majority vote by the Undergraduate Student Government in December, and had the support of Chancellor Rita Cheng in February, but because new SIU president Randy Dunn has been in office all of six days and didn’t have a grasp of the situation, the fee was tabled.

More than a year’s worth of hard work toward self-preservation came to a screeching halt.

Dunn claims he can’t support a fee he doesn’t fully understand. But what he fails to realize, is his ignorance on the matter and choice to postpone action could be the end of the Daily Egyptian.

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Dunn says he will support the publication the same way Poshard did, and revisit the fee next year. But the time for a student fee is now.

The DE proposed the fee as a long-term solution to continue publication. Putting another Band-Aid on our gaping $200,000 deficit of a wound is not going to fix the problem at hand. With a projected 2014 deficit of more than $300,000, the roughly $288,000 influx the fee was expected to bring was the lifeline the DE needed. If Dunn gives the DE the same amount Poshard did, and he gives it now, it will be enough to continue publication through the summer months, and that’s it.

Continuation of this 98-year-old publication into the fall semester would be a miracle.

The paper’s closure would mean the end of the School of Journalism. There is no selling point without the Daily Egyptian, and future graduates will be less prepared than their peers who worked for college dailies. It renders us moot in the field of journalism; an already bleak job market.

The Daily Egyptian has former editors in prestigious positions around the country in media outlets such as the Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Washington Post, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, USA Today Weekly Edition and Almanac of American Politics.

Meanwhile, Daily Egyptian employees excel in the classroom well before entering the job field. For the fall of 2013 semester, with an average of 15 credit hours, every employee carried at least a 3.0 GPA. The editorial board carries a combined cumulative GPA of 3.7.

Journalism is by no means an easy job. But the DE staff is a team, and this team of reporters, photographers, designers, editors, account managers, and press crew have had a very successful semester; winning 17 awards from the Illinois College Press Association, including two first place photos, a second place news story, and a third place sports story.

But the issue is not about the awards; it’s about the consequences of this decision, and what it means for the university. This decision could mean the end for the only print media outlet able to call itself the voice of the student body. Throughout the years, we’ve covered several difficult topics. From the economic crisis of 2008 to the presidential plagiarism scandal, to the 2011 faculty strike to crime on campus, the Daily Egyptian reported the news.

At times people can be upset by what we print, but it isn’t our job to make people happy. It is our job to inform the public of the on goings of this university and its community in a thorough, unbiased and truthful manner.

Having our financial stability left up in the air has left us angry, sad, morose and baffled. But mostly, disappointed.

So President Dunn, what will you do to make your claims of support evident? The Daily Egyptian has done its part. It’s time for you to do yours. How will you #SavetheDE?