Next Wednesday, DSG will consider a proposal to allow a reduction of the Chanticleer's budget by up to 25 percent. If passed, it would have disastrous effects on the publication.
This reduction would place a greater fund-raising burden on the Chanticleer than on any other single student organization. Unlike many other groups with large budgets to fill, the Chanticleer would not have access to discretionary funds, like the Cultural Fund and the Programming Fund, to provide an easy solution.
Allowing advertising in the yearbook introduces several problems and could only make up for a fraction of the shortfall. Ads would decrease the number of pages available in the yearbook, limiting its ability to present student life. More importantly, the solicitation and production of the advertising would lay an overwhelming new workload on the already-overworked handful of photographers and editors who produce the book.
Another option is to charge students for their copy of the yearbook. While this sounds simple enough, it would have profound effects on the way the yearbook is produced. The individual unit cost for a yearbook is about $72. The Chanticleer is able to drastically reduce that cost, to around $24, by signing multi-year, high-volume contracts with its publisher. As a benefit of this contract, the publisher provides the Chanticleer with all of the equipment it needs to produce the yearbook, including cameras, computers, and software. If the Chanticleer could not guarantee its distribution, it would be forced to sign smaller contracts, leading to lower quality, reduced benefits, higher equipment costs and higher unit prices. A substantial decrease in the budget leads a substantial increase in cost, both of which would have to be passed on to the students.
It is understandable that DSG wants to make more money available to other student groups. Taking this money from the Chanticleer accomplishes that, but it will pass the cost along to the students. So, this legislation could effectively raise the student fee by the cost of a yearbook, for those of us who care enough about our memories to want them preserved on paper.
The desire to free up more money is understandable. Let you legislators know that gutting the Chanticleer is not the place to start.
Russell Williams
Pratt '04
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.