PAPERS?‘

. iness manager Steve cr. "They won't'be in e_srtuatim where unyure ng‘ nmeYr the student 'cn is running a icit, and they say, ’ve IS the mmey'."

TREND " _ ACCELERATING

For these reasons,

- and more student

-- are moving to

o' omy. A few years

r. only the Qatarion at J University of Guelph

d the Peak\at Simon

aser University were onomous; now they have - joined by the Arthur Trent University, the liorist at the University Lethbridge, and the

er Press at Douglas llege in B.C. Next ~year, e Gauntlet at the 'versity of Calgary and - Sheaf at the University Saskatcheuan'will also u. - autcnmous, and ral other papers are anning refer‘enda soon to ' them. '

(Imsidering there are

least 80 English 'versity and college udent newspapers in : ada, this may not seem a : ge number. But, if = ada's student nefls perative, Canadian iversity Press, has its : , 'the trend will be I lerating.

Forfthe last five years, 'I' has been pushing toncmy, and, as

ancial conditions in i cation get tighter, it «- mre and more :o- to take it up.

AccOrding to CIJP

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.President John Wilson, "The tread will increase for two reasons - firstly, because student organizations are accepting the concept of freedom of the press, and, secondly, because of

increased fiscal instability .

With decreasing enrolment and therefore decreasing funding for student unions, the possibility exists that, with lack of foresight, the student paper will be seen

as expendable, and therefore

deleted, or have budgets

wildly fluctuating from year to year depending on funding and ad revenue." l

STEPS TO

AU TONOMY ' If your campus paper decides to go autoncitous, there are certain basic - steps it must follow. it must ensure it~is democratically run by

v students who work on it; in

order to ensure it will be responsible to students once it becomes autonomous. Then, it sets up clearly laid—out, written editorial land financial structures so ,tl'lat it can operate responsibly as a paper an as a business. '

Then, it negotiates for financial autonomy. For some papers, this takes the form of a campus-wide referendum asking students for a per-student levy. For

, others, it's an annual

contract with the student union, specifying a grant, with arbitration procedures if negotiations fail.

Finally, in the case of larger papers, it incorpor- ates itself. complete legal separation from the student council, so

First,

This guarantees

I..,_ - 7..

The UPEI SUN,Thursday,March 29,1979,paee 7

that the council will not be 'views outside of just

responsibleif the paper is seed, as well as increasing the paper's responsibility by forcing it to have a

working board of directors . to monitor and’deal with

its problems . \

PAPER RESPONSIBILITY?

But how will autonomous papers remain responsible? What if they get taken over by a small clique who don't write about student interests?

That's probably the’most common concern of students

- and student councils when

a paper goes autonomous. And that's why autonomous papers have safeguards to ensure that won't happen.

The most basic, and most useful, is the principle of a democratic, open staff.

This principle, enshrined in all autonomous papers' concstitutions, means that any student can contribute to and join a paper, and, after making a specified number of contributions, can vote on policy.

Policy decisions and editorial staff elections will be made by the entire voting staff. Combined with ,the normal high staff turnover, this has ensured that papers have remained responsive to students in all but one instance.

Ironically enough, that particular paper wasn't autonomous.

Incorporated papers have another safeguard - their board of directors.

Because mast boards include students and members of the university community,

they ensure papers consider

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those of the staff.

For extradordinary cases where neither of the above work, nost papers provide for referenda or general meetings to remove the paper's staff or editors, if they are behaving irresponsibly.

THE BENEFITS

So what's gained by autcnauy?

According to the executive secretary of the National Union of STudents, Pat Gibson, it lets papers fulfil their role by being responsible to whom it should be responsible - the students.

"Both the student paper and the student council are there to work for the student population as a whole. The student body funds both, and both should be directly responsible to the student body. Neither the council nor the press should be responsible directly to each other."

Students need information for a democratic student government to exist, she pointed out, and that must be provided freely by the student press.

"The press has its role, in that area, whid'1 should not be hampered by the student council. But, at the same time, the press should not be responsible only to itself."

Students do not lose by autonomy} they gain, because their student papers no longer have to fear loss of editorial or financial freedom. With- out this worry, student papers and student councils can work together where necessary to serve the students. And students can expect better service from both.

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