FRUGALITY and economic discretion are commendable qualities, even more so when spending others' money. While the Appropriations Committee of Student Council displayed admirable frugality in allocating funds this semester, the discretion it used in the case of the Consortium of University Publications leaves much to be desired.
COUP, a group of 11 publications that include The Declaration, The Virginia Advocate and Critical Mass, went before the Student Council Appropriations Committee in February requesting $23,825 in Student Activities Fund money for next year. In a letter received on Friday, COUP was notified that the Committee removed $9,425 from their proposed budget, or 40 percent of what they asked for.
COUP plans to appeal $4,782 of the funding cut, and rightly so. Although the Committee did make several legitimate cuts, many things removed from the COUP budget are essential to the continuing publication of many of these periodicals.
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The largest expense cut from the budget is a Power Mac computer priced at $3,643. The letter COUP received from the Committee said that it "fully funded two other Macintosh [IMac] computers, which it feels will be sufficient."
The purpose of the Power Mac would be to do important layout and publishing functions that can't be done on the IMacs. COUP needs a computer that can handle these tasks, and having two that can't does little good.
The Committee also rejected two monitors that they claimed were linked to the Power Mac, worth $870 apiece. In fact, only one would be used for that computer, the other was for a server, which the Committee approved. This leaves COUP short a monitor.
Also rejected was a new digital camera, on the grounds that "Clemons has recently [begun] offering this technology in the digital media lab." From a publication standpoint, this does not make sense. Should all of the members of COUP go to Clemons every time they want to put pictures in their publication? The existing camera does not work with their computers, is the slowest available and functions very poorly.
The Committee also cut a software program that would automatically catalogue and update all software. This, according to the budget request, would be a "full-time job" for a member of COUP, and would save valuable time for many.
Because COUP didn't have a president last year, it didn't request or receive funds from the Committee. This year's requested funds would provide COUP with the financial and technological relief from the burden of publishing for a year without funds. According to projections in the COUP budget, future requests for funds would have significantly decreased if this year's proposed budget had been approved.
Also worth noting is the fact that the costs of production for members of COUP are much lower because all of these publications share equipment. If COUP didn't exist, Council would have to allocate much more money toward these groups. But despite the fact that COUP seems to be saving them money, the members of the Committee are content on short-changing these publications.
Although The Cavalier Daily covers a great deal of news around Grounds, the 11 publications in COUP provide more unique and different stories and viewpoints than we could ever fit in these pages. With liberal, conservative, political and literary publications, the members of COUP can reach our community in ways that this paper can't.
Even those who don't agree with the message or stance of every COUP publication can't deny that they have a large role in informing the student body. What members of the Committee don't realize is that the continuing funding of these publications should be a priority, due to the flow of information and ideas with which they provide the University.
While this column may sound like a PBS fund drive, the reality is that these publications are in danger of losing much of their funding. According to Chris Andino, president of COUP, "The immediate effects of the suggested budget will be reduced quality and quantity of these publications, and if we're not able to get the equipment we need in a timely manner, this may cause some publications to stop running."
There are plenty of ways for students to have their voices heard on this issue. You can go online and sign the petition supporting the proposed COUP budget (http://www.student.virginia.edu/~coup/petition.html), or e-mail your Council representatives to let them know that you are behind COUP's appeal.
These magazines and journals are a critical part of educating and informing the University community. If Student Council and the Appropriations Committee ignore the needs of these publications, then the University only will be poorer as a result.
(Brian Cook is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at bcook@cavalierdaily.com.)
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