Squelch was boned by the ASUC Finance Committee last night.

First, some background info: Squelch spends approximately $20000 a year. That money is all printing costs: 6 issues at 11,000 copies an issue, approximately $3500 a print run. The Senate funds $15000 of that, the remaining $5000 being funded by ad sales, etc. So we're already spending far above purely ASUC money. The Squelch costs so much more then other publications because it's the only one that aspires to total, free distribution among students. That means dropping off issues at Co-ops, Sororities and Fraternities, all the Res Halls, and distributing like mad.

Regardless, the Finance Committee voted to cut us from $15000 next year to $10000, or where we were at three years ago. The logic seems to be that we get a lot compared to all other publications, and were only getting $10000 as early as two years ago. The vote was 1 person for, 1 person against, and 3 absentions, with Fi Comm Chair Ro breaking the tie in favor of cutting our funds. The only person originally voting in favor of the cut was Senator Ho, who had not consulted with us or even looked at our finance reports. We would've even of cheerfully accepted a cut of 1-2 thousand dollars.

$10000 represents half of what we spend in a year. Ad sales would be cut as well, since paper quality or magazine distribution would inevitably be cut drastically and the magazine would be less attractive to advertisers. So, if implemented, we're looking at only 3 Squelches a year.

Since I'm sure this year's Senate doesn't want to be known as 'the Senate that killed the Squelch,' I'm positive the Senate floor will refund us to some extent on Wednesday. We're only asking for $13000, which still gives $2000 back to the ASUC and places the Squelch as one of the top student groups to receive cuts.

Other nifty facts Mr. Duman came up with:

-Publications funding in general makes up only 3% of the entire ASUC Budget. The scope of influence of publications in general, and the Squelch in particular, is vastly more than 3% of the campus population

-The Squelch prints 66,000 issues which our distributed to the entire campus community, this represents a cost to the ASUC of less than $0.20 per issue (and each issue reaches more than one student).

It's nice that despite all the preaching about campus unity and 'events that reach all students,' when confronted with a publication that takes a reasonable stab at both, it scares the hell out of certain people. Email This Post!