Letter from the Editor: SMB needs more funds

In your time at LC, you have undoubtedly noticed one of our student media organizations — perhaps you picked up a copy of The Mossy Log, listened to one of KPH’s radio shows, attended the (Pause.) Once Upon a Weekend festival or perused a copy of one of our several journals. 

Something you may not have noticed is that LC’s student media organizations receive funding not from the Student Fee which is managed by ASB, but from the separate and optional $20 per semester Student Media Fee.

The Student Media Board (SMB) is facing a budgetary crisis that threatens the ability of our organizations to function. We have been forced to make serious cuts to what we offer for free to the campus community: news, radio, music festivals, publication and performance opportunities, journals and more. This semester, we had to cut $20,000 from our minimum operating budgets, with massive slashes to KPH and The Mossy Log in particular. 

The students who pour long hours and endless passion into our media organizations receive either no or minimal honoraria — that is drastically below that of comparable institutions. 

The Student Media Fee has not been raised since it was first implemented in 2011 — not even to address the dramatic rates of inflation in the past thirteen years. We ask you for your support in imploring LC’s administrators and trustees to adequately fund student media by raising the Student Media Fee to $50 per semester. Raising the Student Media Fee will not impact the mandatory Student Fee or funding to any other student organizations.

The optional Student Media Fee was created, as an alternative to ASB funding, to both protect freedom of expression and provide our organizations with stable budgets. Still, our funding fluctuates unpredictably based on annual enrollment and that there is simply not enough money for all of our organizations.

In 2019, The Mossy Log wrote an editorial urging campus leaders to raise the Student Media Fee to address these ongoing issues to no avail. In 2024, the issues persist. We are again asking for support from our fellow students to better this system.

All the co-signed student media organizations have existed for thirty or more years, with the majority having an active presence on campus for well over fifty years. Our organizations are institutions of expression for students at LC, offering a myriad of opportunities throughout the year. 

If you enjoy, participate in, or support any of our student media organizations, please scan the QR code and sign our petition to Dr. Evette Castillo Clark, the Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students, and Andrea Dooley, the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Operations, to raise the Student Media Fee. If you are reading this in The Mossy Log and want the student newspaper to continue being a reliable presence every other Friday, please join us in protecting all student media at LC.

Sincerely, 

LC’s Student Media Organizations 

KPH Radio Station

The Meridian: Journal of International and Cross-Cultural Perspectives

The Mossy Log

Palatine Hill Review, a literary and arts journal

(Pause.) 

Synergia: Journal of Gender, Thought, and Expression