In May 2014, the Oberlin College Student Finance Committee cut $6,812.25 from stipends listed in The Oberlin Review’s budget for the 2015 fiscal year. The Committee also eliminated Wilder Voice’s stipends entirely. These cuts make it extremely difficult for both publications to ensure inter-organizational accessibility — maintaining socioeconomically diverse staffs in order to provide accurate and balanced coverage to the community they represent. The SFC failed to provide adequate justification for its policies and decisions throughout the allocation process.

We, the undersigned friends of The Oberlin Review and Wilder Voice, call upon the Student Finance Committee to fund both publications’ stipends in full for the 2015 fiscal year. We also demand that the Committee make unbiased, fact-based budgeting decisions, communicate effectively with student organizations throughout the allocation process and, in partnership with the Office of the Student Treasurer, maintain publicly available and up-to-date online records of allocations and meeting minutes.

*Please include your affiliation to Oberlin College (student, Oberlin Resident, alumnus, professor, parent, etc.) in the Comments section.

http://oberlinreview.org/6305/opinions/sfc-cuts-hurt-quality-accessibility-of-publications/