This is Part II in a five-part series on The Spectrum and how it came to be the newspaper it is today. Check back Wednesday for Part III.
Looking through the archives of The Spectrum is a lot like looking into a time capsule - each year tells a different story. The Spectrum has certainly captured a number of stories in its 52 years of publication. Over the years, one story recurs - The Spectrum's struggle to remain both financially solvent and journalistically independent.
The closest call The Spectrum faced came in the early 1980s. The paper was in deep financial trouble and nearly folded because of crushing debts to creditors and the printing company. In July 1981, the Undergraduate Student Association received a petition drafted by the paper's editorial board with more than 2,000 signatures demanding a referendum to decide The Spectrum's fate. In the end, the student body approved a $50,000 transfer to the newspaper as a subscription fee that was used to pay some of the paper's debt.
SA, in exchange, wanted to have its logo on the front page. The Spectrum argued that it was enough to show on the paper's masthead that funding came from SA and that its ability to function as an independent newspaper would be compromised by giving in to such a demand. After The Spectrum's editor in chief refused to give in to SA demands and the deal nearly fell through, SA relented and agreed to only be mentioned in the paper's masthead.
In 1986, The Spectrum once again found itself in financial crisis. A series of bookkeeping errors on the part of student business managers, as well as mounting debt, brought the paper back in need of assistance.
A special committee that included representatives of The Spectrum's editorial board, the major student governments, the administration and Sub-Board I came together to discuss the problem. According to William Hooley, current executive director of Sub-Board I and then SBI representative in those meetings, the issue at hand was simple: "Was The Spectrum worth saving?"
The resounding answer was "yes," for, as then-Graduate Student Association president Rick Moody said, a university the size of UB without a student newspaper would look "foolish."
The governments, Dennis Black - then assistant dean of Student Affairs - and The Spectrum editorial board agreed that a student subscription fee of $1 per semester would go a long way toward solving the newspaper's current problems, as well as preventing future ones.
The matter was put to the undergraduate students for a final vote as a referendum in March of 1986. The proposal clearly stated that the money students were agreeing to pay would go to The Spectrum as a subscription fee, and not to the general SA budget. The proposal passed by a margin of 2,967 to 723.
Along with the fees, The Spectrum would hand over its financial reigns to a professional, full-time business manager, in addition to creating a board of directors composed of representatives from student governments that gave subscription money to the paper and of members of The Spectrum editorial board.
The members of the board of directors, however, would have no say over the editorial content of The Spectrum, an important caveat in the agreement, ensuring that no student government or administration official would be able to exercise control over the content of the paper.
The financial crisis was averted - but not for long, as the incoming subscription fee money to The Spectrum ceased in 1995. Conflicting accounts exist about why SA did not hand over the $24,000 of the subscription money earmarked for the paper that year.
At the time, The Spectrum was doing well financially, and as a result of SA criticism, the paper may have declined to accept the funding that rightfully belonged to the paper.
Former editor in chief Stephen Watson said he believes officials in SA were displeased with the content of The Spectrum's student government coverage and that caused the break in funding.
One contention that surfaced was that the referendum creating the $1 per semester subscription fee in 1986 was outdated, despite the contracts that had been signed annually by Spectrum business managers and SA treasurers from 1986 to 1994.
Eventually, The Spectrum retained legal council and drafted a letter to the SA Senate in April of 1996 seeking the fee money that SA had not transferred, alleging misuse of those funds and alluding to potential legal action should the Senate not grant to the newspaper's request.
In November of 1996, at the behest of the editorial board, the student body finally voted on a second referendum reaffirming the $1 per semester commitment to The Spectrum. The wording of the referendum proposal again made clear that this money was not a normal part of SA's budget, but instead maintained the student newspaper.
Threats to editorial control - including an October 1995 instance where the SA president called for UB's administration to take over the paper - coupled with the loss of a year's funding, three referendums in 15 years and severe financial difficulties have not compromised the journalistic integrity of The Spectrum.
Students over the years have made it clear that they want their student newspaper funded by a subscription fee separate from the SA budget. The contract established in 1986 that allows for the transfer of funds from SA to The Spectrum continues today in good faith.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
