MARCH 28, 2007 THE CADRE : 2

sarees

EDITORIAT.

Right Here and Now

Rob Walker Editor in Chief

Some of you may not be aware of the attempt by Ryan Gallant and Ryan Palmer to have the Independent Student Media Society take over the Cadre next year.

I found out about this proposed plan a week before the council meeting, on St. Patty’s day (I was actually going to the Wave to buy a ticket for that night).

I was approached by Ryan Palmer and told that it was pretty much a done deal that ISM would be taking over the Cadre.

This was obviously news to me, as the only thing I was aware of was one of our reporters sitting on what I thought was a committee to look into options regarding the autonomy of the Cadre.

In reality, Ryan Gallant had approached Ryan Palmer with the purpose of having ISM take over the Cadre. The commit- tee, rather than doing any real research, simply discussed a proposal by ISM to take over.

The proposal included a move to entitely web-based news reporting and switching the Cadre over to a monthly, arts and entertainment-based magazine.

Also, half the staff would be cut and only one position would run the Cadre itself (a position currently 4 students put anywhere from 12-20 hours a week into).

While I’m a huge supporter of online news and citizen journalism, and would love nothing more than to separate from the student union, I feel it has to be done responsibly.

Luckily the student union felt the same way, and listened to our concerns. We had a frank discussion with them regard- ing the realities of putting out a student newspaper.

They voted, as you'll see in the story, to restructure the committee into includ- ing and editor, a member of the Cadre | staff, a working print journalist from the community, a council exec and a council | member at large.

We feei this is a much more balanced and fair committee, which will be review- ing all options and alternatives when looking at making the Cadre autono- mous.

While it was frustrating to be kept out of the loop, most of the problems were caused by miscommunication and certain people misrepresenting information.

As well, I think it’s kind of funny that

‘after approaching ISM to take over the

Cadre, Ryan Gallant didn’t attend the meeting where the discussion was taking place. I would have liked to hear his side of things.

However, we couldn’t be happier with the current setup and hope to be com- pletely independent from the student union while remaining a vital aspect of UPEI by the end of next year.

Also, I don’t want people to think we’re going to be solely focusing on our print editions, as the online work is something we've been wanting to work more on. The problem is resources...right now we are short two reporters, and there simply

“isn’t enough time for them to work on

stories for us as well as constantly updat- ing the website.

As always, I’ll continue to be as trans- parent and open as possible with all workings of the Cadre. If there are any questions, concerns or suggestions, our door (and e-mail inbox) is always open.

_ Ina similiar vein, we’re printing the entire student union budget, as it was given to us, as well as the letter written

‘by student union.

We felt that while some stories could be written based on the information in the budget, at this time simply giving the students students the information and letting them ask questions themselves would be a better option.

. I can’t think of a single reason not to print it, if students are curious or have questions they can approach the VP of finance. He said no one has talked to him about it this year, so maybe this will make some people come forward and ask questions.

I want to say thank you to all the people who stood up in support of the Cadre, and the councillors, chairs and other people involved with SU for mak- ing a rational, fair decision.

Cadre and may no! permission. Repri directed to the Mai

above address.

Mel Bernard Managing Editor

We have included a copy of student union’s working budget in this issue of the Cadre because we feel students have a right to know what is going on with their money. When Faiz Ahmed ap- proached me with a copy of the budget, I thought of a few reasons why we. shouldn’t print it.

The first thing that came to mind was if it was against SU’s constitution to distribute the budget. Faiz did research |

Just a little something...

on this and assured me that there was no written rule against it. ] asked some SU officials and they confirmed this for me.

My second thought was if this was ethical. I quickly wiped that from my mind, as this is a student newspaper and I am dedicated to bringing them what

they think is important. I know a lot of —

you out there think this paper sucks, but we have been trying all year to print stories that matter to the student body.

- Not all stories will be interesting to

everyone, that would be impossible. But this budget is important to everyone. We all pay into it. The SU runs off of our money.

Another issue I had was with the SU’s reasoning that people could misinterpret

the numbers. I think the student popula-

tion is smarter than SU is giving us credit

for. We did not print this budget to point out discrepancies, we realize working budgets are not perfect. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out, thanks SU.

So having said that, look at this budget in terms of finally knowing where the money's going, not in terms of the pos- sible mistakes.

I tried to think of other reasons why not to print this, but I came up with nothing. So here it is. Enjoy.

Mel Bernard ; Managing Editor