DRAGON CHRONICLE

To the Editor:

I share in the disappointment expressed by the editors of The Dragon Chronicle that SGA has decided that DC editors should no longer be paid the stipend that editors have received for decades. The decision was apparently based on a state Department of Labor recommendation that the method by which editors had been paid was defective. They could still be paid, in the manner of SGA officers, but the method of pay would need to be changed.

Yet, according to the DC of April 28, SGA leaders concluded that it would be “unfair” to continue the practice of paying stipends to DC editors, because it is “unfair to other campus clubs.” For my two cents, this decision is a mistake. Far from being “unfair,” stipends are perfectly justifiable.

Leaving aside the fact that stipends for DC editors have been paid for decades (when I was an undergraduate student at SUNY Fredonia, I was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, and we also received stipends), let me note that the Dragon Chronicle, and its editors, are not like any other student organization, and for two important reasons. First, they generate significant, stable annual revenue from advertising -- $13,088 for this past academic year. This is not special fund-raising, but a normal by-product of producing the paper. While some other campus organizations generate revenues, the DC is different from every other student organization in another respect: they produce a product, every week, that provides an essential service to the entire campus community. That service is unique – and uniquely important. Over the last few decades, federal courts have ruled that campus newspapers have First Amendment free press protections, which is an indication of the unique and vital role they serve on campuses here and across the country. What other student club can claim specific Bill of Rights protection? None I can think of.

I would hope that the new SGA leaders will give this issue a second look this fall, and implement the same payment procedures as those that allow SGA employees to be paid.

Robert Spitzer, Distinguished Service Professor

Political Science