California State University, Dominguez Hills is set to become the only CSU that won't have a student-run newspaper as of Dec.7. Recent funding setbacks at the campus have forced the newspaper, the Bulletin, to publish its final edition before the end of Fall semester.
Although the newspaper is only published bi-weekly, seven times a semester, the $75,000 annual expenses have seriously undermined efforts to maintain the newspaper. Most of the newspaper's funds are generated through print advertising and sponsors.
Recent statewide education cuts mean the subsidies necessary to support the CSUDH Bulletin have "just become too much for the College of Liberal Arts to pay for," said Gary Hart, Ph.d., interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts at CSUDH.
Although CSUDH currently lacks a journalism program, many are not ready to accept the university's perceived abandonment of its newspaper.
"It's hard to take the communication program seriously at a school that doesn't even have a newspaper," CSUDH Bulletin staff writer Jack Wilson said.
Unlike The Daily Aztec of San Diego State, positions at the CSUDH Bulletin are offered to students as a three-unit course within the communication department and a member of the department staff member is the newspaper's director.
Not being a necessary course for graduation might have left the newspaper prone to elimination as part of budgeting cutbacks, given the school is facing a $1 million deficit compared to last year.
"I think that the closing of the newspaper is symptomatic of where our school is right now," Wilson said. "It's not surprising."
With the money saved by the Bulletin's demise, CSUDH intends to open six more sections of hard-to-get classes for students.
"Having these classes so that students could get through the graduation process faster is more important than having a student newspaper," Hart said.
Not everyone feels the same way. Cathy Risling, CSUDH Bulletin advisor is concerned about the school's reputation being adversely affected by such a closure.
"The university is already struggling with its image," Risling said. "(Closing the Bulletin) would be one more blow to it."
Student reactions to the newspaper's impending closure have been mixed. Some students have initiated petitions in support of the newspaper, yet such efforts have proven futile thus far.
Risling said unless President Lyons "can come forward and say, 'we have the money and this is how we're going to do it,'" the Bulletin will cease to exist after Dec. 7.
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