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Minnesota State University, Mankato
MSSA mulls axing Newspaper Budget Senator Shakespeare calls proposed cuts to Reporter censorship, fascism.
MEGAN KADLEC
editor in chief
A referendum to cease funding for the Reporter was discussed in the MSSA Student Senate meeting Wednesday afternoon. The referendum was originally introduced in the March 20 Senate meeting by Vice President David Schieler, though because quorum was not met, a decision could not be made. The Senate agenda for Wednesday read, “to add a referendum for the 2013 general election ballot to cease Student Activity Fee funding to The Reporter.” On the elimination of Reporter funding, off-campus Senator Mike Hansen said; “I think to do so at this point would bring about an end to an era” wherein students would have access to information on what is happening on campus. Hansen said that proposing a referendum would interfere with the Constitution Commission’s work to redefine the independent newspaper board. “Considerations are being made through the Constitution Commission, Hansen said. “We are working on restructuring their advisory committee, the Newspaper Board, to help better the Reporter.” A motion was then passed to amend the referendum to clarify the language, and replace “cease” with “determine whether or not students want” to continue funding The Reporter. “On a personal level, I don’t believe senate should fund the Reporter, but on a public level, it’s their first amendment rights,” Senator
Sam Turner said. “If we’re going to cut funding to the Reporter, it should be the students who decide. It should not just be us [senators] here.” The Senate does not fund the Reporter. Student Activity Fees, which are approved by the Student Allocations Committee, an independent entity from the senate, are allocated to various student organizations, including Campus Recreation, the Department of Theatre and Dance, and Student Activities. “As representatives of the student body, at a time when student loan debt is the highest it has ever been, we ask the same questions of everyone else,” Schieler said. “It’s not about the Reporter. It’s about equal representation.” Reporter representatives stated that without the funding they receive from student fees, it would be difficult to keep their doors open. The funds received from the University go directly to paying the salaries of the Reporter’s two full-time state employees. Off-campus senator Joshua Erhardt pointed out that, if put to a ballot, most students wouldn’t be aware of the fact that they were voting on someone’s livelihood, on someone’s job. The issue of censorship was also brought up. “It is not the administration trying to censor the newspaper. It’s the students. It’s the elected democratic representatives of the entire student body attempting to censor their own paper,” Senator Ben Shakespeare said. Shakespeare continued to
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THURSDAY
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FRIDAY
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SATURDAY
Equal Pay Trailblazer Lilly Ledbetter speaks at MSU
• courtesy of the consent campaign Lilly Ledbetter poses with The Consent Campaign whiteboard. The Consent Campaign is an initiative founded in the Women’s Center than photographs students and the reasons consent is important to them in order to change the “current sexual culture that promotes rape and violence against women,” according to the Campaigns Facebook page. SAM WILMES
staff writer
In the 9th annual Carole Perkins Lecture, nationally recognized women’s equality activist Lilly Ledbetter spoke at the CSU Ballroom on Tuesday Night. Ledbetter, who gained notoriety in the 1979 Supreme Court Case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., has become a nationwide speaker on women’s equality. The evening kicked off with Director of the Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Center, Jessica Flatequal announcing the distinguished attendees of the speech, Congressman Tim Walz and Minnesota State University, Mankato President Richard Davenport. After Carole Perkins spoke for a few moments, Ledbetter took the stage while the crowd offered a standing ovation. Ledbetter, who spoke with a heavy southern accent, had two pieces of information that she wanted to impart to
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the crowd: She didn’t want what happened to her family to happen to anybody else, and that one person can lose a battle, but win the war. Ledbetter, whose namesake is used on the first bill passed by the Obama administration, spoke of a frustrating time spent at the Goodyear Tire Company. Ledbetter, who was a manager, said that she was told by the company that women were going to play a
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