In the end, it doesn’t matter; the Student Choice Initiative will do irreparable damage
Last weekend Doug Ford tweeted that he had heard from so many students (although it’s still unclear who these students are) that they are “tired” of paying student service fees because they are “excessive.” That’s why his government put forward the Student Choice Initiative, a decision that will allow students to opt-out of “non-essential” student services like student unions, clubs, radio, and newspapers.
Ford’s tweet accompanied a CBC article on Ryerson University’s student union that reported under president Ram Ganesh, the student union had run up a $250,000 credit card bill due to reckless personal spending and financial mismanagement.
What Ford doesn’t realize is that the reporting that was done to break the story was investigated by The Eyeopener, Ryerson’s student newspaper. If you read the CBC article, it’s clear the CBC depended on The Eyeopener to further proliferate the story while adding an interview from a former Ryerson student union president.
This begs the question about student services: what is worse? The possibility for mismanagement and corruption? Or the death of student services that give students countless employment opportunities and services that are essential to many students, like transit passes and campus food banks? Or even worse, the death of the watchdog that keeps the latter transparent and accountable.
The editorial team at The Ontarion believe that delineating “essential” and “non-essential” services is philosophically and morally wrong. Democracies thrive with watchdogs overlooking positions of power to ensure transparency. University administrations and student unions need student journalists to keep them honest, or in the case of Ryerson University, to report on rampant dishonesty.
For a government that is enamoured with free speech, finances, and job creation, the Ford government does not carry those values when drafting campus policies. There is a cognitive dissonance between what the Ford government values and where funding lies.
Free speech requires a free, independent press that is able to dig into investigations and ask those in power tough questions. Without a free and independent student press, organizations can continue without having to answer any questions from nosy reporters seeking truth.
Student newspapers serve their communities through transparency, but they also do an economic and professional good through hiring full-time staff members in managerial, accounting, and advertising positions, as well as hiring students and recent graduates in need of work experience in editorial and production positions.
Is the loss of this many jobs plus countless opportunities for the community to get work experience, build skills, and create portfolios worth the roughly $200 students might save per term? We at The Ontarion don’t think so.
In a recent interview with David Piccini, conservative MPP for Northumberland-Peterborough South, The Ontarion found that he volunteered for the student newspaper when he attended the University of Ottawa nearly a decade ago, writing on sports and politics. Piccini, who worked closely for the Student Choice Initiative, agreed that student newspapers allow for a great experience and exposed him to literary work and a variety of writing that enriched his experience. He also noted that the newspaper had a high readership and he was “confident” that students would continue to fund their school newspaper.
What Piccini doesn’t seem to realize is the precariousness of the newspaper business today and how that precariousness leaves student newspapers waiting to see if cuts will prevent purchasing of required equipment at best, or lead to jobs lost and being shut down at worst.
Student newspapers rely on a student levy and without it we will stand alongside hundreds of local newspapers that have either already been closed or are at the brink of folding.
Local newsrooms are an endangered species and news deserts are an increasingly familiar landscape in small communities. That’s an objective fact. Two years ago the Guelph Mercury stopped printing following declining print ad sales, dwindling subscriptions, and a lack of revenue from online advertisements. The newsroom of nearly 30 people shrunk to a four-employee newsroom at the Guelph Mercury-Tribune; Guelph Today told The Ontarion that they employ three people.
The Ontarion hires 13 employees across editorial, production, sales, distribution, and management. We also pitch to a volunteer base of approximately 70 to 80 students over the course of a school year, many of whom have no news writing experience and come to us because Guelph doesn’t have a journalism program.
In this fraught media climate, digitalization has left media moguls and student newspapers scrambling to figure out how to survive, while cuts or dwindling finances push newsrooms closer to the edge. The Ontarion included.
Will Ford’s “for the people” government be the governing body that finally pushed student newspapers into financial freefall?
Will Ford be the premier that left campuses and university towns dark and opaque? It certainly seems like Doug Ford is trying to kill student newspapers and silence those who might hold him accountable.
Photo by Alora Griffiths/ The Ontarion