Hello SUU News readers,
My name is Heather Turner and it has been my privilege to serve as editor-in-chief of SUU News for the past two school years. On Thursday, the Southern Utah University Student Association Senate voted against the reapproval of our $5 student fee.
Of the $319 dollars you pay each semester in student fees, $5 of that goes to our budget. $10.75 goes to SUUSA. $19 goes to the Student Involvement and Leadership office. $100 goes to SUU Athletics. $11 goes to the Southern Utah Museum of Art. Whether you are interested in student events, sports or the arts, these fees create affordable opportunities across campus that are utilized in different ways.
Again, only $5 goes to SUU News.
With the money we get from the student fee budget, we are able to fund student wages and produce SUU News online and the publication of the University Journal. Just like the student association or the athletics department, we use this funding to work behind the scenes to provide free services for SUU students.
We pay our student workers because journalism is a field that takes both talent and time. As editor-in-chief, I work the maximum allotted 20 hours a week writing, editing, leading meetings, preparing workshops and developing new strategies to improve SUU News’ production. This is on top of taking 18-19 credit hours a semester. My responsibilities leave me with very little free time. I am grateful for the opportunity to sacrifice my time, but it is a sacrifice.
If I didn’t get paid for the 20 hours I work a week, as members of the SUUSA Senate have suggested, I would simply not be able to afford the opportunity. Like most students, I need a job to pay my rent, my tuition and my groceries. If my position was offered to me as an unpaid internship, I would have to decline it. Not because of my pride, but out of necessity. I am sure many of my coworkers share the same feelings.
Without our student fee budget, SUU News would be composed of many talented writers who could only work a couple of hours a week. For some positions, that is an adequate amount of time, but as a whole, it is not enough to cultivate career-ready journalists, and it’s not enough to develop high-quality content for our readers. Our wages create an earnest and competitive staff.
Additionally, student fees allow us to be an independent news source. We are funded by the public student body, because we are meant to serve the public student body. If we were forced to seek funding from the university administration, then we would have to adhere to their regulations. We love our university leaders, but that would not support SUU News’ mission of providing independent, objective journalism. We want to be a voice for the students, not the higher administration.
As someone who has dedicated years to this news organization’s growth, I believe that what we produce with that $5 is immensely beneficial to the student body as a whole. We aim to tell stories that highlight and inspire various students, clubs and demographics. These stories aren’t behind a paywall; they are all across campus and at the tip of your fingers. This is one of the baseline benefits of higher education. SUU is an establishment that is committed to developing students. Having strong access to media — through both creation and consumption — develops literacy that is increasingly vital in this political atmosphere.
If you want your student fees to go towards SUU News, the best way to support us is by engaging with the content we produce. Read something, learn something and give us the opportunity to continue to serve you. There will be a future meeting held to renegotiate our student fee budget.
To the SUUSA senate members, I commend your efforts to make education more affordable. We would be happy to work together to streamline our budget, but that should not come at the expense of student workers.
With love,
Heather Turner
Author: Heather Turner
Editor: Michele Fogg
Photos by Gannon Lovisa and Heather Turner
eic@suunews.net