GEORGIA — Administration at the University of West Georgia inCarrollton have asked that the Student Activity Fee Budget Allocation Committeereconvene this summer to allow the West Georgian to represent its requestfor more funds after an initial proposal to cut the paper’s budget.
The paper currently faces $11,500 in budget cuts after a year of clasheswith the Student Government Association.
Editor-in-Chief Ellis Smith said he is optimistic about the hearing.
“We didn’t just get angry and file a lawsuit immediately, andwe tried to work within the system,” Smith said. “I think this is asuccess for working with the system and we’ll see how it playsout.”
However, Smith is concerned the meeting might simply be an attempt to givethe illusion the school is taking his complaint about budget cutsseriously.
“If this turns into just a show, and it’s just a transparentattempt to go through the motions of doing the right thing without actuallydoing the right thing,” Smith said, “then we may still want to talkto a judge about what some other options are.”
Smith said some cuts might be recognized as potentially”content-motivated.”
“(SAFBA Committee members) were told not to make their personalfeelings go into the discussion, but that may have happened,” he said.
WGU Dean of Students and Vice President Melanie McClellan said a primaryfactor behind SAFBA Committee’s funding recommendation was the fact theWest Georgian did not show up for its budget hearing in the spring.
“The people on the board were unable to ask questions of (the staff)and get an understanding of their budget needs, so I’ve asked them torehear it this summer,” McClellan said.
McClellan said she could not comment further. However, in an e-mail toSmith, she said it appeared decisions were content-motivated for some members ofthe committee.
“In the hearing … this summer, (administration) will instruct themnot to consider their personal opinions about content in making theirrecommendations,” McClellan said in the e-mail.
Smith said he is planning on asking for more money at the meeting becausethe paper lost advertising funds this year.
“We could turn something bad into something good from this.” hesaid.
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