THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605190046
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 121 lines
Call it a draw in the budget battle between Old Dominion University's student government and student newspaper.
In crafting the budget for student groups, the Student Senate last month cut the newspaper's allocation by more than 95 percent - from $2,500 in 1995-96 to $100 for the next school year.
Leaders of the newspaper, the Mace and Crown, smelled retaliation for articles they had published about the student president, Chris Pearson, and his successor, Jeff Rowley. But Rowley said the funding reduction wasn't related to the articles about the Student Senate, and that Mace editors had initially told student leaders they wouldn't mind the reduction.
A month later, it seems that almost everybody is happy.
The university's administration, adhering to long-standing policy, decided not to change the budget, which included smaller reductions for other big campus organizations in order to spread the wealth around.
``I'm not here to second-guess them,'' Dana D. Burnett, the university's vice president for student services, said of the Student Senate. ``I have to rely on the judgment of the student government because they are the properly elected representatives of the student body.
``One could argue about the decisions that were made, but there was a process that was equitable, and they followed the rules.''
The Mace editors had feared the cut might make it tougher to put out their first issue next fall. But it turns out they're not going to lose any money after all. The Virginian-Pilot has decided to make up the difference, with a $2,400 donation.
``It appeared that the reason they got cut was because they had written articles which some members of the student government didn't like, and we think that's wrong,'' said Bruce Bradley, president and publisher of the Pilot. ``So in the interest of helping the Mace and Crown report the news, we're making up the $2,400 on a one-time basis.''
For Rowley, who recently took over as student president, Burnett's decision reaffirms the independence of the Student Senate and the value of the budget. ``I really feel the process was done fairly,'' he said. ``This is a really good budget; it benefits a lot of people.''
Valerie Carino, the new editor of the newspaper, is encouraged by the Pilot's donation. And she said the cut from the Student Senate might have some benefits. ``Maybe it's better this way,'' she said. ``We need to serve as a watchdog of the Student Senate; we're supposed to be separate.''
Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, questioned the university's decision not to alter the budget. But he, too, was satisfied with the outcome, which he said proves that ``you can try to silence the news coverage of the student newspaper, but ultimately the paper will find a way to continue publishing.''
Rowley, however, strongly denies that the cut was motivated by retribution. ``This was a really complex process,'' he said. ``It's not just a bunch of kids sitting around, saying: `I don't like this person; let's give them 100 bucks.' ''
Relations between the Mace and the student government grew tense early in the spring semester.
The newspaper reported that when Pearson was elected last spring, he had a 2.06 average - or slightly above a C. But in the same election, students also approved an amendment raising the minimum required average for student officers from 2.0 to 2.5.
The Mace, in an editorial, said Pearson ``should not hold office,'' but Pearson said he was told by backers of the amendment that it wouldn't apply to him.
And last month, the newspaper reported that Debra Freeman - who was then executive vice president of the Student Senate and who ran against Rowley for president - accused him of election violations. But Rowley said the student Election Committee never received a complaint, and he denied any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, the Student Senate was drafting a budget for student organizations for the 1996-97 year. Pearson and Rowley, who was serving as administrative vice president, wanted to do things a little bit differently this time.
Instead of the ``arbitrary rubber stamp'' of previous years, Rowley said, the student government wanted to closely examine the finances of student groups. Paying for speakers was OK, paying for pizza wasn't. And, Rowley said, student leaders wanted to support more organizations so the budget would ``benefit as many students as possible.''
Rowley said that during a meeting, then-editor Amanda Edgar told the student government, ``We don't need your money; all we need is $100. . . .'' So that's how much the paper was allotted.
``Then they seemed shocked that happened, but the person spoke for the organization,'' Rowley said. ``That's what they told us to do.''
Carino has a different recollection. She said that Edgar, while discussing the hard work of the Mace staffers and the paper's value to the university, also said, almost as an aside, ``We could survive if you cut us to $100.''
``She posed it as a hypothetical,'' Carino said. ``She didn't expect them to take it literally.''
Other big organizations also took hits. The WODU radio station, for instance, got cut from $13,200 to $11,500. And Rowley said that he, too, took a cut: The senate reduced the annual scholarships of student leaders, including the student president and the Mace editor, from $5,600 to $4,600. All the scholarships come out of the Student Senate's own budget.
As a result, he said, more than two-thirds of the roughly 110 student organizations received funding increases.
And more than two dozen groups, previously unfunded, received money, including the Monarch Dance Team ($3,500), the Army ROTC ($100), the Karate Club ($200) and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML ($100).
But Carino said, ``It was clearly a retaliation against the Mace & Crown. He might state it as, `We're trying to allocate this money to people who need it.' But what is NORML going to do with $100?''
A couple of organizations - such as the Black Student Alliance, whose budget will go from $4,025 to $3,600 - issued appeals to Burnett. But they were denied.
Carino said the Mace did not appeal because it was unsure what effect the cut would have. The newspaper raises more than $70,000 a year in advertising revenue, but editors say they have relied on the ODU funding to put out their first issue.
Bradley, the publisher of the Pilot, stressed that the newspaper was making a one-time donation. Carino said it's too early to say what the Mace will do next spring, when the 1997-98 budget is crafted.
Neither she nor Rowley wants to start thinking about that yet. ILLUSTRATION: Chart
How some ODU student groups fared - winners and losers
For complete information see microfilm
by CNB