Open letter from EIC about stipends

The topic at hand is that the Finance Committee has given a recommendation to the Student Senate proposing that stipends be abolished from Student Organizations. This affects The Clock, Poets and Writers, WPCR and the Conning Tower yearbook.

The argument that many members of Student Senate are making is that student media groups receiving stipends through the student activities fee is unethical. This is for two reasons: one, stipends come out of student activities fee; two, some groups receiving stipends sets them apart from other organizations.

Let me briefly explain, for The Clock, why we ARE different from other student organizations. The Clock's role at PSU is to cover the news, arts, sports, individual student and faculty achievement, report on the administration and to report and comment on Student Government. The Clock is also obligated to provide a forum for student opinion on campus and to build ties with both the community that supports PSU and to hold ties with alumni. Unlike other student organizations, we deal with issues of legality every week. We train to avoid libel, copyright infringement and privacy violations in all that we write.

The Clock requires a semiprofessional commitment in regards to hours and training, whether it is technical, stylistic or journalistic training. The other student media organizations hold much the same semiprofessional commitment as that of The Clock, which sets these groups apart from other student organizations. Also, all four of these groups provide a service back to the PSU student community that other student organizations do not. Namely, they chronicle our time here, keep us informed and give us a voice to the outside world. I am not claiming these four organizations to be better than others, just different in the type of commitment required and the type of service we give back to the community.

In 2006, the Stipend Taskforce (which included Trustee Eugene Martin, one of the most outspoken against stipends) had unanimously decided that student media organizations deserved stipends. According to the final report, a "stipend is a payment meant to compensate a student for the time they spent in their position that would otherwise be used for supporting themselves financially." This does not mean that people holding these positions are unable to hold other jobs.

I personally spend approximately 40 to 50 hours working for The Clock, whether that be delegating, responding to emails, taking phone calls, writing, dealing with problems both inside and outside the organization, dealing with funds, etc. I work a part time job as well, but if it were not for the time that I spend weekly at The Clock, I have no doubt that I would be able to juggle a full time job along with a full course load. This being said, the typical college student would have a hard time taking a full course load on top of a full time job.

The report from the 2006 Stipend Taskforce continued, "Also, we see the stipend as most essential when the position is crucial to the operation of an organization and the duties could not be delegated." I am not an expert of the other student media groups, but I am sure I can speak the same for them when I say The Clock is a single organism in which each member of The Clock is a functional part of that organism. According to the 2006 Taskforce, stipends were given to those holding positions that are crucial to the operation of the organization. As far as The Clock is concerned, without Kristen Hoffman, there would be no news section. Without Lisa Busch, the paper would not be laid out. If it were not for Craig Brown, the paper wouldn't be edited. No Mike Kashtan and there would be no sports. No Mallory Carter, we wouldn't sell any ads. The list goes on. We are all functional parts of this team, and without each other we could not survive.

Being a part of The Clock is not a full time job. We do not get paid by the hour per say, though the amount that people make is based on a rough model determined by how many hours they work a week. The top stipend position pays $2,000 a year, but the average position on The Clock pays $450 a year. While this is a stipend, if broken down into an hourly wage, the typical editor works for $0.51 an hour. To accuse us of being in this for money is an absurd allegation. In a sense, we take on the role of "professional volunteers." We give our time to create something for the overall community, and while we currently get stipends in return, it isn't enough to be the sole reason we devote our time to PSU. We do this be cause we love it, and the stipend is just a small means to supplement time that we could be devoting to ourselves as opposed to the community we are a part of.

And while on the topic of functionalism, student media groups are a part of the entity that is PSU. All student organizations ad flavor to the university, but the student media groups give back in a unique way. The time that they put into their organization is not just for personal gratification or individual success. The outcome goes back to the students. To cut our stipend is to revoke the recognition of everything that we do for the student body. To revoke our stipends is to take away our legitimacy as media organizations.

While Trustee Martin, along with others, stated that these groups receiving stipends is "unethical," they all should consider the latent consequences behind this decision. The Clock began receiving stipends in 1991. I am not trying to imply we put out our publication because of money, but if you compare The Clock in years that we did receive stipends versus the years that we did not receive stipends, the quality in writing, diversity of content and overall professionalism is more noticeable in the years that The Clock staff received stipends. The quality of the product that they were putting out for the PSU community was better.

Also, since President Sara Jayne Steen came to PSU, a noticeable effort to become more progressive and marketable and an effort to expand has all become an underlying tone in the way things happen on campus. We as a university are building a new athletic center. We are breaking off into different schools. We are on the forefront of the "green" movement among colleges and universities. We are overall finding more and more to offer the college students of this era and making ourselves more competitive with other schools of our caliber in the area.