What will Ford’s cuts mean for student journalism?
Students across Ontario are seeking answers about the future of their education. The Ford government’s announcement on January 17 outlined a framework that would reduce the fees of tuition at Ontario colleges and universities by ten percent. The set of changes, however, presents more financial barriers to post-secondary education than it would eliminate, and will have a severe impact on the student organizations of our institutions.
Their policy includes the elimination of free tuition for students from low-income families and the six-month interest free grace period for loan repayment. Along with this shift to a less accessible post-secondary fees structure, previously mandatory non-tuition fees, deemed “non-essential,” will become optional through an online opt-out process. Student groups, such as unions, clubs, and newspapers, all receive their funding through ancillary fees. The proposed changes pose a major threat to campus media in Ontario.
Student press undeniably holds a vital role in holding our institutions and communities accountable, as well as providing a platform for student voices to be heard. Jack O. Denton, Editor-in-Chief of The Varsity, affirms “[…] the wider Canadian media landscape relies on campus media to give a platform to stories from universities and colleges that would otherwise go uncovered. In this way, student journalists across Ontario essentially make up a giant team of beat reporters; the shuttering of campus media outlets would mean many important stories from campuses across the province never receive the attention they deserve.” The Varsityhas proved to be fundamental in breaking campus stories this academic year with their coverage of the Muslim Students’ Association receiving unannounced visits from the RCMP and CSIS, sexual assault within our campus theatre community, and most recently, with their in-depth coverage of the Ford government’s changes to funding and tuition.
For the past five years, McMaster University’s student union has discussed the possibility of merging their campus newspaper, The Silhouette, with the campus radio station. Silhouette Editor-in-Chief Emily O’Rourke expects that McMaster will use the Ford government’s cuts as an opportunity to drastically reduce their funding. McMaster runs its own news outlet, Daily News, which O’Rourke describes as a “spin machine” for the University, constructing a narrative that only presents the institution and administration positively. She says, “We’ve criticized [Daily News] several times, so if they have the opportunity to silence us, I’m absolutely certain that they would.”
A loss in funding would have devastating results to the operation of The Silhouette. “We would have to completely abolish our print product, reduce at least half of our staff and likely only function as an online blog, if we’d function at all. We’d also likely have to reduce our Editor-in-Chief role to a part-time position, if not a volunteer position,” O’Rourke speculates. For campus-wide newspapers such as The Silhouette and The Varsity, the position of Editor-in-Chief is a full-time job with the senior staff of section editors holding part-time paid positions. If campus newspapers were forced to reduce their staff to volunteer roles, the positions would no longer be financially sustainable and would limit which students could hold them.
The Strand, a Victoria College levy, receives our funding from the ancillary fees paid by Victoria College students and distributed by the Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council (VUSAC). We are a relatively small newspaper with a hardworking volunteer staff. Should Ford’s policies be put in place, our main adjustments will be made to our print schedule, and like The Silhouette, we will need to focus on primarily publishing content to our website. At this point, however, it’s difficult to plan ahead because the details of Ford’s policy remain unclear. We cannot know for certain what will need to be rearranged until we know how severely our funding will be reduced.
For Erik Preston, President of the Canadian University Press (CUP) and former Editor-in-Chief of The Strand, the lack of clarity is a primary concern. CUP is a non-profit cooperative for student newspapers in Canada of which The Strand, The Varsity, and The Silhouette are all members. Their goal during this time “is to see that the student media be included as an essential service within this policy, whether that be through engaging the Ford government, or through working with member papers to engage their individual schools to see that they be included in this group of services provided to students,” explains Preston. “Without a functioning student press, it will be hard for the voices of students, particularly those in marginalized communities, to be heard and properly represented in the Canadian media.”
The lack of clarity that Preston speaks to seems to be a common theme at our university. VUSAC Vice President External Devon Wilton informs The Strand that at a meeting of the Dean’s Advisory Council, Dean of Students Kelley Castle announced that Vic’s senior administration is still waiting for clarification. “At this point in time, we [VUSAC] don’t know exactly how this policy change will affect funding,” says Wilton. As they are also funded by the ancillary fees, Ford’s changes will undoubtedly impact the services provided by VUSAC that are integral to student life at Vic.
When expressing concern about the damage of Ford’s policy on The Strand to colleagues and friends, we’ve been met with a recurring response: the policy will not be implemented until September 2019, so we have nothing to worry about—it’s not our problem. This initially sounds like a fair assessment; our terms as Editors-in-Chief will be finished at the beginning of May and we are both graduating in June. But we refuse to leave behind a newspaper that is so close to our hearts without concrete answers and a plan. We may not be breaking news, but The Strand has been providing a platform for the voices of students to be heard since 1953 and we are not going to let that change.
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