Campus: Wearden acknowledges failure to properly
3
communicate FYS decision, See pg. 4
Online exclusive video
Opinions: Screenwriting professors air grievances,
The Empty Bottle hosts Handmade Market
See pg. 35
SPRING 2015
WEEKS LEFT
No. 1 Non-Daily College Newspaper in the Nation MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015
THE OFFICIAL NEWS SOURCE OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO
VOLUME 50, ISSUE 27
Budget cuts will eliminate 10 staff positions, severely limiting The Chronicle’s ability to deliver a high-quality, award-winning newspaper
C
STAFF EDITORIAL
olumbia’s motto is “Esse Quam Videri,”which translates as “to be, rather than to seem.” It is time to be a college that cares about its students rather than merely seem like a college that cares about its
students. This sentiment has spurred the staff of The Columbia Chronicle to speak out about the massive budget cuts it will face amid the maelstrom of change the college will experience in the next academic year. If the cuts continue as planned, The Columbia Chronicle will lose 10 staff members in the 2015–2016 academic year— amounting to a 25 percent reduction. These cuts are a result of the administration’s decision to withhold necessary funding for one of the college’s top student-run programs. Though Chicago’s minimum wage rises to $10 an hour in July, the college has decided not to expand its student worker budget accordingly even though the previous administration accommodated the last hike. This refusal to provide sufficient funding forces departments and advisors to make unnecessarily tough calls when it comes to paying student employees fairly. Virtually all of The Chronicle’s 40 staff members are paid as student workers. Although the loss of 10 employees may not seem all that critical, each one of our staff members is fundamental to the production of the college’s newspaper. This type of financial hit will drastically alter the newspaper that the college community receives every Monday. Desks, sections, pages and features will shrink by a quarter or disappear entirely. With the elimination of positions, the quality of reporting, editing and design will be weakened,
Kelly, SGA say students misinformed • PAGE 3
Renegades growth spurs financial woes • PAGE 11
harming a newspaper that has fought tirelessly for respect and recognition. The administration has taken pride in the efforts it has made with the new budget and Strategic Plan, but criticism and tempers are now flaring in response to the administration’s perceived lack of regard for students and faculty. Administrators have made attempts to clarify confusion and defuse the warranted anger that has grown within the college community by sending out convoluted emails that offer no answers to any of the questions the plan has raised. The plan and the actions already taken by the administration are indicative of an inability to see beyond the monetary value of Columbia’s students and faculty—both of whom have proven themselves time and again to be more than just a line item. Though President and CEO Kwang Wu-Kim and Senior Vice President and Provost Stan Wearden have tried to placate the growing concerns of the college, it feels more and more that proving one’s worth—whether you are a student, faculty or staff member—is the only way to be acknowledged or heard. If this is the case, then The Chronicle staff will oblige. The administration’s Strategic Plan cites six specific goals. The plan calls for workforce reductions and reallocation of resources, but why would the administration actively punish an on-campus publication run by students—a publication that has won hundreds of respected and renowned awards— when that publication already meets five of the Strategic Plan’s six goals?
xx SEE CHRONICLE, PG. 24
Uptown transitions to entertainment hot spot • PAGE 17
Memorial honors gun violence victims • PAGE 27 T HE COLUMBIA C HRONICLE