Campus newspapers fear loss of student support

WATERLOO — Victoria Gray fears for the student newspaper she edits at the University of Waterloo.

Last month she watched more than 400 students declare that the Imprint is not worth $4.35 over four months.

Each visited the office within a three-week window to get a refund of their semester newspaper fee.

“It’s a little disheartening,” she said.

“Student newspapers break a lot of the stories about university life.”

What happens if the Doug Ford government makes it even easier for students to opt out of the fee that accounts for most Imprint revenue?

“One would imagine that if there was a way they could go online and pick off a bunch of boxes and pay less, it would be fairly attractive,” said Andres Fuentes, chief executive of the student agency that publishes Imprint.

Worst-case scenario: Instead of 400 students who are motivated enough to visit the newspaper office, half the UW student body simply clicks online to get their $4 back.

“I honestly don’t even know if that can be called the worst-case scenario or best-case scenario,” Fuentes said.

The Imprint loses a big chunk of its finances. Students lose a chance to train as journalists. And a campus watchdog is muzzled.

The Progressive Conservative government intends to let students go online to opt out of nonessential campus fees, to give students more control over fees that can reach $2,000 per academic year. It’s called the Student Choice Initiative.

The government has not defined what it means by non-essential. It says campus-wide safety and athletics programs are safe along with universal transit passes.

Campus newspapers understand that they may have to work harder, to persuade students they are worth paying for.

But it’s hard to see an obvious way forward given their heavy reliance on student fees, and uncertainty about how many students would demand refunds.

The education firm OneClass surveyed 597 Ontario college students to find that 57 per cent intend to opt out of student fees for campus newspapers next fall.

Wilfrid Laurier University students pay up to $11.16 per term for nine campus publications including The Cord newspaper. The fee is mandatory. The newspaper relies heavily on it.

“It will be a challenge but I hope we can find different ways for us to continue to do our work,” Cord editor-in-chief Safina Husein said.

“I would definitely argue that we should be deemed essential.”

The Spoke at Conestoga College appears unaffected as it is funded by the school in its journalism program.

Student newspapers say they provide learning for student volunteers, hold people and institutions to account, and improve campus democracy.

It was a campus newspaper that revealed a spending scandal that’s raging at Ryerson University’s student government. A forensic audit will now examine $700,000 in questionable spending.

Fuentes understands that some students don’t want to pay for things they don’t use.

He argues that student newspapers improve campus life even if they go unread.