Your Student Paper is in Perilous Danger

Will you FIGHT for The Husky Herald?

UW Bothell has been growing for the past 20 years, striving to expand in size and quality, needing financial support along the way, in pursuit of its full potential.  Similarly, The Husky Herald is growing.  In only our 5th month of operation, we are still in an infantile stage, and lack of financial support at this juncture would be crippling.  In these past 5 months, our board of directors, along with our excellent team of staff writers and photographers, has provided a sound structure that will lead to flourishing success if allowed to grow and operate without hindrance.

Currently The Husky Herald is receiving some funding from the Student Activities Fees committee (SAF), which ultimately comes from you the students when you pay your tuition each quarter.  A group of students here on campus are in charge of distributing that money to various groups, clubs and offices.  A few more examples of who is funded by SAF are the Career Center, ASUWB, and the Literary Journal.  You can visit www.uwb.edu/studentlife/safc for more detailed information of SAF and its policies and procedures.  Specifics of the preliminary budget that SAF awarded can be found here.

Unfortunately, the preliminary SAF budget for next year leaves The Husky Herald short on staff to create content that is of a diverse nature, accurate in content, and quality in style.  The budget attempts to dramatically alter the make-up of the board, such that vetting, in-depth discussion, and majority consensus of decisions would be all but destroyed.  Lastly, given the weekly hours necessary to execute proper publication operations, the proposed budget for next year would force Herald members to work at less than Washington State minimum wage.

Given the above facts regarding the SAF proposal, it is difficult to envision The Husky Herald producing a publication worthy of such a fine and unique university, with discerning intelligent readers such as yourselves.  We at The Husky Herald refuse to produce a low quality publication.

Losing The Husky Herald does not just mean losing something to read while waiting for class to start; The Husky Herald is much more than that.  The Husky Herald is a space for students to speak their mind, for clubs and departments to promote themselves, for students to learn how our campus is operating and where it is headed.  It is a tool of accountability for all who participate in the representation, development, and management of our university.  It is a means of ensuring that we remain a tight knit campus while staying connected to the larger UW network.  Lastly, The Husky Herald lends legitimacy to UW Bothell, as any top tier university should have a quality student publication.

The Husky Herald needs your support; our survival depends on it.  Please express your support for The Husky Herald and its requested funding amount.  You can do this by:

  • Emailing Sam Shupe, Editor-in-Chief at editorinchief@uwb.edu
  • Emailing Lauren Burnes, SAF committee Chair at llb8@u.washington.edu
  • Attending the open forum meeting with SAF, Friday April 9th at 9:15am in UW1-103
  • Adding your comments to this letter’s posting on The Husky Herald website
  • Signing this letter’s corresponding petition

Thank you for your support!

Regards,

The Husky Herald

For Reference: the two below documents are our original request to the SAF committee and our proposed budget, which was submitted January 27 of this year.  Statistics on readership since then have changed.

SAF request 2010-2011 Justification

12 Responses to Your Student Paper is in Perilous Danger

  1. JWG

    April 3, 2010 at 8:16 am

    Hello-

    It is dissapointing that the SAF committee has not seen fit to fund The Husky Herald in such a manner that it may continue to provide interesting, relevant and topical information to the students at UWB and those in the community.

    I hope that the preliminary budget is adjusted so that The Husky Herald can continue to thrive. Please take a moment to express your support.

    Best, JWG

  2. Tarly

    April 3, 2010 at 4:57 pm

    OK, I’m NOT getting why a Newspaper on a College Campus would not be funded!!!! What a wonderful opportunity for the next generation of leaders to get involved and express themselves. Our freedoms are being challenged every day right now and free speech is being suffocated. I for one want to HEAR what the 20-somethings have to say. This is their world and by golly they have a say. Not to mention they are a very valuable voice in Bothell. UWB and Cascadia are your neighbors and I’d think everyone would want to keep them close and support them. How sad it would be to lose the voice of the students we hope to promote and support who will lead our country as we get old. Shame on anyone not willing to back the Husky Herald. (COOL NAME BTW)

  3. Whidbey

    April 3, 2010 at 5:19 pm

    I am both disappointed & saddened to learn that UW Bothell is not adequately funding your student newspaper. This outstanding paper is not only the voice of the student body, but also the face of UWB to our community. How dare you not fully fund this newspaper?

  4. Louise Hutmacher

    April 3, 2010 at 5:34 pm

    I agree weith Tarle all the way!!

  5. UWBHusky

    April 5, 2010 at 7:19 pm

    As I see it, there are a few problems with this article. The first is that you are asking for money without informing your readers how that money is going to be used. How many staff members do you have? How many hours each week do they work? What is the circulation of the Husky Herald (ie. how many readers do you have)? These are all important pieces of information that should be addressed before any additional money is allocated.

    Also, you are treating the Husky Herald like a beloved institution, when in reality it is a student publication that has been around for less than half a year. Out in the real world, you have to build a business model and prove your viability as a business before investors will support you. Think of SAF (and by extension, UWB students)as your investors – what are we going to get out of this money? Frankly, from the quality of this article, I am not convinced that the Husky Herald should receive any significant amount of funding from SAF. You say that you “refuse to produce a low quality publication,” yet I have trouble taking seriously any article containing typos (such as substituting ‘were’ for ‘where’) and obvious grammatical errors (vetting, in-depth discussion, and majority consensus of decisions are three separate things, so they are all but destroyed, not is).

    I question whether or not the students who work on the Husky Herald should be receiving monetary compensation. It seems to me that reporter (and editor, photographer, etc…) positions should be filled either by student volunteers or by students earning credit toward graduation. Perhaps the Husky Herald could be formatted as an internship or independent study, rather than as a business that employs students? Do the literary or policy journals have paid staff? I may be incorrect, but I think they all operate on a volunteer basis – what makes the Husky Herald more deserving of funding than these two other, longer-running campus publications?

    My intention with this response was to raise some questions that I don’t feel have been properly addressed by any other students. Hopefully you are all starting to think a little bit more critically about this issue – I plan to attend the SAF meeting on Friday and I hope to see you all there to discuss this further.

    And as a side note, I would recommend emailing Lauren Burnes directly, rather than emailing Hung Dang. I have contacted Ms. Burnes, and she has been prompt and thorough with her replies.

  6. MootSkoot14

    April 8, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    @UWBHusky

    I am surprised you could even compare the Husky Herald to the Literary Journal or the Policy Journal. It kind of makes me chuckle… How are they even remotely similar? Unless you mean that they should be considered the same thing because they all publish typed up words for public viewing? hmm…

  7. Husky23

    April 13, 2010 at 2:34 pm

    @UWB Husky,

    I am having trouble taking YOU seriously. What business model should the Husky Herald follow? Just curious to whether or not you have any experience in the field at all? Please enlighten me.

  8. JWG

    April 17, 2010 at 8:35 am

    What was the result of the SAF meeting on the 9th? Did The Husky Herald get the additional funding that it requested? -JWG

  9. UWBHusky

    April 19, 2010 at 7:49 pm

    @Husky23: There’s no need to get personal – I am simply stating my opinion, just like everyone else that has commented on this page. I am not familiar with every possible business model, so I cannot presume to choose the best one for the Husky Herald. It is up to the people in charge of the Husky Herald to create a viable business plan based on the goals and capabilities of the group. I never claimed to be an expert in the field; I know that there are plenty of people more qualified than I am regarding business matters. However, I do have some experience with starting a business, so I am not completely ignorant on the topic.

    @MootSkoot14: Yes, the Husky Herald is different from the literary and policy journals. The content and style of the Husky Herald differ greatly from those of the journals, and the Husky Herald puts out a far greater volume of articles/pieces per quarter. Because of this, I do believe that contributors to the Husky Herald should receive more than simple acknowledgment; however, I do not necessarily believe that they should be paid. I believe that the best option for everyone is to provide some sort of academic credit for Husky Herald staff.

    @Husky Herald: Thank you for providing a copy of your requested budget. This information was not available when I submitted my original post, so I appreciate the opportunity to review this information.

  10. JWG

    April 28, 2010 at 2:56 pm

    Has the SAF committee come to a conclusion yet regarding the budget? Since The Husky Herald asked for the support of their readers (to which I complied) I was hoping to see an update on this topic. Does anyone know? -J

  11. EditorinChief

    April 28, 2010 at 11:23 pm

    The budget has not been finalized yet, but it is moving through the appropriate channels to get there. We will post an update when it is approved by the UW Board of Regents.

  12. JWG

    April 29, 2010 at 9:28 am

    Thanks for the update. By the way, I like the new format of the paper. -JWG

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