Lori Thorlakson

NGSTON (CUP) — Queen's Uni-
sity students have delivered a
date to end funding for Surface,
e often-controversial student pa-

In an Arts and Science Under-
duate Society (ASUS) referendum
t week, 55.6 per cent voted against
e paper keeping its funding from
e society.

“We're disappointed,” said Sur-
ce editor Junipero Lagtapon, “But
e tried hard, we did the best that
David Anderson, Surface pro-
uction manager, said’the paper ar-
ed that it was an alternative voice
o the main student paper, the
een’s Journal.

“We tried to get our message
cross, that our mandate is to pro-
ide a forum for marginalized forms
f expression on the campus.”

Andrew Dick, leader of the No
ampaign, called the referendum a
eat victory. “Students have had the
hance to speak in the most demo-
atic way possible. They have said
at they don’t want to continue
andatory funding of Surface.”
urface has been a lightning rod for
ontroversy at Queen's for over two
years. In October of 1991, its edi-
tors received death threats after
rinting a poem that criticized white
heterosexual males.

Two months later, the paper
again stirred up controversy when
it published an all-women’s issue
with a graphic that stated “You can’t

”

ovember 16, 1993

The anti-Surface campaign em-
phasized incidents such as these, as
evidence of the paper’s exclusion of
straight white males.

ASUS president Jenn Steeves de-
fended Surface, saying, “I really be-
lieve in the paper, I feel it is much
different this year than in the past.”
Steeves said she did not think the
vote reflected changes in this year’s
issues of the paper. “But the deci-
sion has been made,” she said.
Steeves will support the student's
decision. “I’m in a very difficult po-
sition. I ran on a platform of sup-
porting the paper, I also ran on a
platform of being accountable to stu-
dents,” she said.

Anti-Surface leader Dick said he
believes Surface will now become in-
dependent, and losing funding will
only speed up the process.

However, both Lagtapon and

Anderson believe the sudden loss of
funds will preclude Surface’s chances
of making the transition to an inde-
pendent paper.
Lagtapon added that as a fullAtime
student, he did not have the time to
devote to creating an independent
paper.

Steeves also said it would be dif-
ficult for Surface to successfully be-
come independent.

“Tt is expensive to run a paper,
and difficult without resources and
without time,” she said. Steeves ex-
plained the paper's staff had believed
students would support the mandate
of the paper and sustain funding.
When the referendum came, they

 

 

 

 

had not made any alternative fund-
ing plans.

Michael Carnegie, who helped
run the anti-Surface campaign, said
if Surface was unable to make the
transition, it was because of an over-
sight by the editors.

“They should have been ex-

The Other Press

Queen's students sink student paper

pecting their funding to be scaled
back,” he said. “If they cannot con-
tinue, the people on the No side
should not be blamed.”

Carnegie said he believed that
a paper that was completely editori-
ally autonomous would be danger-
ous, because it would leave ASUS le-

15

gally liable without giving ASUS any
power. A preferable situation, he said
would be one in which ASUS “not
only recommended to the editor but
in fact [had] a bit of power over the
editor.”

 

 

Ubyssey

VANCOUVER (CUP) — It’s been
slammed, praised, hated and loved
but always read. Miraculously, it sur-
vived last summer on death row. And
now it’s 75 years old.

“It” is The Ubyssey, the Uni-
versity of British Columbia biweekly
student newspaper, which first pub-
lished on October 17, 1918.
Ubyssey staffers — who call them-
selves the Ubyssmals —celebrated
Oct. 13 with a special 7 Sth anniver-
sary issue.

The paper has been a stepping-
stone to fame for many Canadians.
Some have become poets, like edi-
tor Earle Birney and news writerTom
Wayman. Some have entered politics,
such as sports editor John “Chick”
Turner and B.C. Tory Senator Pat
Carney. Famous past Ubyssey writ-
ers include Pierre Berton, CBC jour-
nalist Joe Schlesinger, columnists
Allan Fotheringham, Michael /alpy
and Peer Worthington and
humourist Eric Nicol.

Although the paper looks dif-
ferent today than in the past, many

things about The Ubyssey are the
same as in 1918, Ubyssey News Co-
ordinator Graham Cook said.

“The Ubyssey continues to be-
lieve in and practice good writing
and investigative journalism,” Cook
said. “That hasn’t changed, and it
won't.”

The Ubyssey also has a reputa-
tion for sticking up for the interests
of students. In the 1920s, it attacked
fraternity hazing, led a letter-writ-
ing campaign to lobby for a perma-
nent campus for UBC and also at-
tacked a student council plan to ban
women from seats on council.

During the Second World War,
it was one of the only newspapers
in B.C. to urge that Japanese Canadi-
ans had as much right to live in
coastal areas as anyone else did.

Last week’s anniversary issue
included writeups and comments
from Ubyssey alumni and features
on the history of the paper.

As with any other student pa-
per, The Ubyssey’s critics have his-
torically been louder than its fans.

Paper Tums 75

In 1955, the Rev. E.C. Pappert called
The Ubyssey “the vilest rag you can
imagine and the best argument for
censorship that could be produced.”

The paper has also been at-
tacked by the UBC administration
and student council. The paper has
been shut down five times, in 1931,
1951, 1959, 1961 and this past
summer.

After last summer's shutdown,
the staff was allowed to bring the
paper back to life, but under the aus-
pices of a council-appointed Publi-
cations Board, which has the power
to fire staffers, change editorial poli-
cies and shut down The Ubyssey.

Ubyssey staffers are carrying
on, nevertheless.

“Well, we've been allowing
students to express themselves for 75
years,” Cook said. “We're still here
and still being read, so we must be
doing something right.”

Source: The Ubyssey, University of
BC.

 

 

 

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