Doug Ford and his provincial government are making a mistake.
Student newsrooms have long served as springboards for many aspiring journalists to jump into a career in reporting and journalism. Some schools don’t even offer a journalism program, which makes their campus paper all the more vital for students who look to them to gain journalism experience.
I was saddened to read 57.4 per cent of students will choose to opt-out of their student newspaper fee next fall in a recent survey from OneClass. Not only will this likely mean a slew of staff cuts in the newsroom, but also a decrease in overall operations. This is an affront on an establishment that has long served students since the early 1950s.
While most of us continue with our studies, the reporters from The Ontarion have been keeping our school and its faculty accountable and working to bring transparency to important issues that happen on campus. Two stories reported on by our student paper come to mind: the half a million dollar financial scandal our school was involved in and the inappropriate behaviour of a sessional instructor that revealed how ill-equipped our school is at handling faculty complaints.
We have our student paper to thank for keeping our school honest by revealing ugly truths about it.
Ford is trying to kill our student paper, but we have the power to keep it alive.
—Jake Cho, 4th Year U of G student
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