Paper Plans To Sue Over Cuts

The student newspaper of the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) threatened last week to sue the school and the entire University of Missouri system if more than $10,000 cut from the paper’s 2007–2008 budget was not restored by a deadline set by the paper’s editors.

That deadline passed at 5:00 p.m. yesterday, and editors say the lawsuit is moving forward.

One week ago yesterday, The Missouri Miner—UMR’s student paper—sent a letter to administrators of both UMR and the University of Missouri system, stating their disagreement with a Student Council decision last November to cut the paper’s budget for the coming year to $26,000. The current year’s budget is $40,000.

Yesterday at about 2:00 p.m., the university told the paper that their budget would not be restored, according to Editor-in-Chief Christopher Stryker.

“The biggest thing is nobody asked us any questions whatsoever...all we got was this response,” Stryker said.

Yesterday evening The Miner was in the process of getting a lawyer.

UMR’s Student Council declined to comment on the budget cut, directing comment requests to the University’s Communications Office.

UMR Director of Communications Andrew Careaga said Friday that The Miner’s complaint has been referred to the university’s legal counsel.

“Both the student newspaper and the Student Council are a very important part of life on campus,” Careaga said.

“The university has never attempted to censor the content of The Missouri Miner,” he added.

Neither University of Missouri President Elson S. Floyd nor the University of Missouri Board of Curators could be reached for comment.

The paper’s staff believes that the budget cuts—approved by the Student Council on Nov. 7 and later supported by the Board of Curators—were prompted by certain articles that the administration and the Student Council opposed, including a regular sex column.

Editors also say that the Student Council was unhappy with errors in the paper.

But Stryker said that it was difficult to quantify the quality of content.

He added that while the paper has had small errors in its writing, “in the real world it happens every day. I’m sorry, it does.”

Stryker said that he appreciates the concern of the administration and student government for the paper.

“I’m glad to know that they want us to improve on some aspects,” he said. But “if they really want to help us...[they should] help us get the resources we need to learn and make a better paper.”

In November, Miner staff members had less than a day’s notice to prepare to defend their annual budget at the Council meeting.

Michele Martin and Wendy Moore, who were editor-in-chief and business manager of the paper at the time, were each allowed to speak in defense of the budget for four minutes each.

“What they suggested was cutting absolutely all salary, and not paying any of our employees,” said Stryker. “People have volunteered to work for free, but that’s a very small number.”

The Miner usually pays writers $15–$20 dollars each week.

Rather than cut salaries across the board, the paper has cut the number of pages in each edition and has eliminated spot color on the front page.