Dear Editor,
I am writing to express my outrage at the news of The Whit’s operating budget being slashed 35 percent by the Rowan University Student Government Association (SGA). As a former Editor-in-Chief of The Whit, as well as a four-year member of The Whit Staff from 2012-2016 (one of those years covering the SGA beat), I know what it’s like to not only listen and report on these annual budget discussions but to have to defend The Whit before the SGA assembly and the individual executive board members. It was disheartening then to have to justify the existence of a club that brought so much meaning to my life, as it is disheartening to hear this news now.
Once again, a topic of conversation around this time of year seems to always be about whether or not The Whit is a student club or if it’s a department. Does The Whit send a senator? All of these questions, while important, are never addressed at any point during the academic year, and are always used as ammunition by the SGA to challenge an annual Whit budget that has barely been increased since I arrived in 2012. The Whit has an obligation to cover SGA and therefore should not be voting on SGA matters during meetings.
The Whit has been in operation since 1938, which should mean something to SGA. The importance of being a student organization comes from the basis that any student, whether a journalism major or not, a commuter or not, can participate. Some of the newspaper’s best reporters, editors, and editors-in-chiefs have been non-journalism majors— our New Jersey Collegiate Press Association (NJCPA) awards have been won by non-journalism majors. While The Whit offers an essential learning opportunity for communication majors to learn to write, practice publication layout and design, as well as photography, the paper allows all students to learn responsibility, and deadlines, develop relationships with university officials, and learn about all of the opportunities available to Rowan students.
If you want to debate whether or not the SGA should be funding a print publication in 2024, we can debate that, however; according to the budget article on The Whit website, the literary magazine Avant saw a marginal budget increase, and the yearbook has a substantial budget.
Yet only The Whit had its budget slashed. In the end, it is Rowan’s students who will lose. In this current climate of divided politics and heightened emotions, news matters now more than ever.
Sincerely,
Ethan Stoetzer
Class of 2016
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