President comments on newspaper, lighting

Published in the CSULB Daily 49er newspaper Sept. 27.

Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander announced to the Associated Students, Inc. Senate Wednesday that the print version of the Daily Forty-Niner would not be terminated and restricted to an online audience and version only.

This came after Bradley Zint, Daily Forty-Niner editor-in-chief, addressed the Senate to update and inform the group on the current situation at the newspaper.

"The Daily Forty-Niner is in trouble," Zint said. "I wouldn't be speaking to you all in a tie for just any old reason."

Zint reiterated the current issues, which have been making headlines nationwide, like the proposition of a feasibility study to see if the Daily Forty-Niner would be suitable as an online-only publication and the recent dismissal of journalism department chairman William Babcock.

"The chairman, who publicly disagreed with the College of Liberal Arts and Dean Gerry Riposa on the idea of having an online-only Daily Forty-Niner, was just fired as department chairman Friday afternoon," Zint said. "An interesting sequence of events, to say the least."

Zint explained the reason why there is talk about eliminating the print version, saying budget issues and a lack of income are to blame.

"[The newspaper] has overspent despite not having the ability to pay two-thirds of its 20-some person editing staff or all of its team of writers, many of whom work full-time for the paper, nearly 40 hours, five days a week, for free," Zint said. "It has overspent despite being thrifty to nearly every degree possible...we sometimes steal pens and most of our equipment is either donated or hand-me-downs."

Zint ended his speech by urging the senators to talk to their constituents about the situation, and to attend the planned campus wide town hall-style meetings regarding the future of the Daily Forty-Niner.

Alexander said he has made it clear to the editors that the print version will not be eliminated.

"I like a paper. I carry it around with me and I read it when I can," Alexander said. "What we're going to do is make the paper functional in paper form. That's my commitment to you."

Alexander also said, "One thing I won't do, however, and I've been asked to since April of last year on numerous occasions, to unilaterally impose a $4 fee on students. I am not going to impose a fee on the students after they overwhelmingly voted not to provide the fee for the funding of the newspaper."

Alexander said, however, he is willing to work with the newspaper and others to stress the value and importance of a daily printed publication.

"We're looking at lots of different options on how we can generate more revenue for the newspaper, and that's what we hope to do," Alexander said.

ASI faculty representative Chris Burnett, who is also a journalism professor, said, "As a faculty member, I think it's important for both students and faculty to know more about the issues. I think students are confused. We need more information."

Burnett also said it was good to hear the president back the newspaper.

Along with issues surrounding the print version, Burnett also addressed the journalism department accreditation situation.

"I strongly favor working to get [the journalism department's] accreditation back and keeping that a priority in our department," Burnett said. "I think it's something that will help us draw the best students."

Richard Haller, executive director of ASI, said after the meeting, "As a former student and as a long-term employee of the campus, I can't imagine there not being a daily newspaper in the stands. It's just unfathomable to me."

Haller also said he doesn't read things online even if he sees something interesting.

"I have to print it out," Haller said. "The lack of advertising revenue that you would generate by going online is going to make the situation even worse. It doesn't seem very well thought out; there's got to be other options to this then going strictly online."

In other Senate news, Alexander announced that the lack of sufficient lighting on the edges of campus is still in the works.

"We're not giving up on this. In fact, we're going back to the city council," Alexander said. "We have a number of wonderful supporters there on lighting Bellflower, Palo Verde and around our campus."

Alexander also announced that President George W. Bush might sign an important provision in the next couple of weeks that will give everyone going into teacher education in high demand fields a grant called Teach Grant.

"It's a $4,000 a year grant that will go directly to those students as long as they are pursuing teacher education," Alexander said. "All they have to commit to is teaching four years in high-demand areas. It's pretty broad what they defined as being high-demand fields."