A Student Association committee formally met with members of The Spectrum for the first time Monday evening for an investigation into the budget and the hierarchical organization of the publication.
No decisions were reached regarding whether SA will continue to allocate $30,000 to The Spectrum for the 2004-05 school year.
While the Senate Allocation Review Committee wanted The Spectrum to account for discrepancies in the budget and explain advertising methods, members of The Spectrum looked for a clearer definition of the purpose of the review committee and stressed the paper's stance as an undergraduate course and an integral part of UB's upcoming journalism track.
The Spectrum Editor in Chief Erin Shultz provided a diagrammed breakdown of the editorial and business ends of The Spectrum, explaining who receives what pay for what duties and how the $253,000 budget is allotted.
"We're struggling every year just to break even," Shultz said in a later interview. "We're a true non-profit - literally, no profits. We're here to serve the students."
The review committee was particularly concerned with a line on the newspaper's 990, a tax form required for all non-profits, from the year 2002 - which contained tax information from the year 1999 - concerning investments. Members of the committee said the investment line on the 990 shrank from about $42,000 in 2000 to $0 in 2001.
"After reviewing your budget, we realized that you guys have a surplus," said committee member Thomas Martin. "Do you have any idea where that $42,000 went?"
Debbie Smith, business manager for The Spectrum, said the money went toward payment of outstanding bills and printing fees.
"At that time we had a stack of bills that needed to be paid," said Smith.
Paul Balzano, SA chief of staff and treasurer of The Spectrum, asked for a definitive explanation of the purpose of the investigation.
"The ultimate goal of the committee and the creation of the committee - I'm a little hazy on it - I've talked to some of the Senators and I feel like I've gotten four different answers because I've talked to four different people," said Balzano.
Review Committee Chair Dan Smith explained that his Senate party this year, the Focus Party, ran on the platform of fiscal responsibility, and they want to uphold that responsibility and avoid over-spending or under-spending.
"That was the point of putting the committee together - to explore those options or look at funding from other student governments because as an undergraduate student, I think it's unfair that we are the only students paying for the paper, regardless of the fact that the majority if not all of the staff is undergraduate students and the majority of the people who pick up the paper is undergraduate students," Smith said.
It was then brought to the attention of the review committee that The Spectrum is solely an undergraduate course - ENG 395 or 396, depending on the semester - and graduate students cannot receive credit or payment for their work at the paper.
Furthermore, in coming semesters, The Spectrum will become a required class for a new journalism certificate that UB is in the process of designing.
"Students who take journalism as part of their major are going to be required to do either one or two semesters of work at The Spectrum or Generation before they can receive the certificate," said Charity Vogel, The Spectrum advisor and reporter for The Buffalo News.
"So if anything, the number of undergraduates that are writing for the Spectrum in future semesters, probably starting next semester, will go up. The health of The Spectrum is very much on the table at this point," Vogel said.
Smith said the investigation is not looking for any type of editorial control that might jeopardize the journalistic integrity of the paper.
Committee member Lorenzo Guzman also questioned The Spectrum's reasoning behind budgeting for only half of the Student Subscription Fee, the $1 per student per semester fee colleted through the Mandatory Student Activity Fee.
Shultz explained how the board of directors was concerned with new SUNY guidelines that place control of the Mandatory Student Activity Fee in the hands of student government, regardless of popular student vote.
"We knew these new SUNY guidelines were going to be passed through," said Shultz, "and we were quite concerned that something would happen that would put us in the position ... where the government would be deciding whether or not we would get the second half of our subscription fee, and as such, we didn't know what was going to happen so we budgeted for half of that to make sure we would stay afloat."
SA President George Pape was called into the meeting to explain the situation.
"Erin wanted time to review the new SUNY guidelines to hopefully figure out a way in which they can still maintain a certain amount of autonomy in light of the new referendum dealing with finances. We felt it prudent that ... we would defer any financial judgments to an elected Senate. We wanted to make sure to follow through on past contracts and make sure that The Spectrum had the $15,000 this semester."
Shultz, however, later said she, Pape and Burgio had never discussed putting the second half of the subscription fee through the Senate. Shultz said the three decided simply to write two contracts for two semesters.
Other topics at the meeting included stipend sizes, the reasoning for The Spectrum's $10,000 stipend cut, current newspaper revenue and the newspaper's failing computer equipment.
-Additional reporting by George Zornick
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
