Editorial: Patriot Talon Should Cover Essential Student Issues Or Lose Funding

 

("Money - Savings" by 401(K) - 2012 via Flickr)

 
The UT-Tyler student body saw many events this year that pertained to students' collective interest. One instance was the athletics fee referendum, which proposed a $90 increase to students’ athletics fee. Prior to this, the administration also lobbied student government to win placement of the fee proposal on  the spring ballot. However, the student fee-funded student newspaper, Patriot Talon, provided students with no news coverage of these events. The athletics fee referendum aside, student government also held an election for student body president this spring, a significant position to the student body's political representation at the university. Again, Patriot Talon provided students with no coverage.

Of the important issues to UT-Tyler students this year, whether fee increases or student body president elections or even parking woes, Talon Student Media was M.I.A..

Therefore, The Student Fee Advisory Committee should require Talon Student Media to either report news on essential student events or lose its student services funding. For without the responsibility to cover essential issues that pertain to the body politic, the committee cannot justify its annual $90,000 appropriation to Talon Student Media. 

When evaluating standards for student fee appropriations, it is importance to remember that The Student Services Fee exists to benefit the student body as a whole, not to benefit an individual student, nor a special interest group. In other words, The Student Services Fee is not a fund to redistribute students’ wealth, or an open purse to grant to special interest groups. Instead, the fee’s design its to uplift the student community as an whole and to return value back to the community which pays the fee. This is the effect The Student Service Fee aims to have on the student body: collective benefit. Therefore, Student Service Fee appropriations should return value to the fee-paying constituency, in keeping with The Student Service Fee’s purpose.

In this vein, when measuring justification for fee appropriations, it is important to think in concrete terms, rather than abstract terms. In other words, if one’s goal is to justify receipt of a Student Service Fee appropriation by arguing that somehow, somewhere an individual student might benefit from the appropriation, then this misses the point of the fee. 

Instead, the best way to think about uses of the Student Service Fee is to keep one’s understanding of the fee-paying community in the real world in which it lives. While not an absolute standard, the closer one can stay to the concrete and avoid the abstract in his evaluation of fee appropriation requests, then the closer he can stay to the real community that pays the fee and so fulfill the purpose of The Student Services Fee.

So while not always applicable, one should try to measure justifications for fee appropriations by how well the proposed services provide concrete, measurable benefits for the community who pays the fee.

So, with this in mind, if Patriot Talon wishes to dedicate itself to perfecting the journalistic disciplines, such as feature writing or sports writing, but without the responsibility to deliver reports of student news, then it does not meet the purpose of The Student Service Fee and should not receive its appropriation. 

Rather, if it desires to fulfill this purpose, then it should revert to the same status that many other profession-specific organizations at UT-Tyler hold, like The Society for Mechanical Engineers or The National Student Nurses Association, namely, to that of a registered student organization.

As a registered student organization, Patriot Talon would have access to The Student Government Appropriations Committee (SGAC). From there, it could receive up to $500 per semester. Moreover, if it partners with its other student media platforms, such as its magazine or podcast,  each as its own student organization, then it could receive up to $1,300 per semester, according to SGAC's Guidelines.

So, as a registered student organization, Patriot Talon would have plenty of funding to publish its online journalism that it does now, only without responsibility to students to report on student news. In other words, it could ''do its own thing''. It does not have to accept responsibility to cover the news to continue what it is doing now. 

However, if Patriot Talon will not accept responsibility to report on important student news, then it should lose its Student Services Fee funding. 

If Patriot Talon is to receive its appropriation, then it must produce results. Talon Student Media’s first purpose as a student newspaper must be to bring visibility to important student issues for students who pay the fee. Otherwise, the fee committee cannot reasonably justify its $90,000 appropriation to Talon Media given the group’s commitments, and the fee committee should withdraw its funding. 

The Student Services Fee exists to serve the student community. Patriot Talon failed to be there for students this year. Therefore, The Student Fee Advisory Committee should hold Talon Student Media accountable and tie its funding to student news coverage. Otherwise, the Talon group should risk losing its funding for not covering essential student issues this year.

X:@jhescock12

Feature Image: "Money - Savings" by 401(K) - 2012 via Flickr