FLORIDA — The student-produced magazine at the University of North Florida is in jeopardy.
Budget cuts in the 2015-16 fiscal year are just part of a series of setbacks that has hit Spinnaker Magazine, the print product of Spinnaker Media, which also operates a radio station, a television station and a website.
When the university’s student government announced earlier this year it would have to cut Spinnaker’s budget, the print operation was hit the hardest.
Last fall, the student government released its budget, which will go into effect on July 1. Spinnaker Media will receive $236,132.37 — a 6.8 percent decline from the previous year.
Last month, we reported on the theft of thousands of newspapers at the University of North Florida. At the time, editors and police hadn't yet determined who was responsible for the theft, some of which was captured on surveillance video.Now, the paper has learned that a state trooper with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has admitted responsibility for at least some the thefts. According to reports in The Spinnaker, UNF police recognized one of the two men in the video as a highway patrol officer, and contacted Florida Highway Patrol.
Thousands of copies of The Spinnaker's first summer paper were reported missing last month, two days after papers were published.
Police continue to investigate last week's theft of approximately 4,000 copies of the University of North Florida's student newspaper.
One article said that student government officers had lied about their reasons for pulling funding for a footrace in honor of a student that was training for a marathon when she was raped and killed. Another article criticized over-spending oo the fall campus concert, making a spring campus concert impossible.