Oracle Online

One of the main charges of the Student Media Board is to decide how to spend your hard-earned cash on campus media. The SMB creates the budget for the Oracle, the Fulcrum, and the Liner. Currently there are no at-large Representatives on the SMB, which means if no one shows any interest in joining the board, the budget of all the media orgs under the SMB’s umbrella will be determined by the orgs themselves.

If students feel that the media fee they pay each year is being used improperly or could be used more wisely, it is the job of at-large representatives to make that concern known. In theory, without these representatives as a check, the three media organizations could raise the media fee drastically and without reason.

Trust us, we wouldn’t do that to you. Usually SMB fees only rise slightly each year to adjust for inflation, but we still believe that students not directly involved with the production of on-campus media should have a voice in it.

To that end, we want to highlight what we believe to be the most important function of the SMB. Along with the media organization leaders, these at-large representatives provide feedback regarding content and insight into what students’ believe on-campus media should be. The SMB acts as a watchdog committee for the three media orgs, while control of content remains with the orgs themselves.

This Thursday, SMB applications for student at-large representative positions will be available in the Oracle office (DSC 106) and Dean Sickbert’s office (Old Main 112).

All six spots, two for each of the campus media organizations --the Fulcrum, the Liner and the Oracle-- are open this year.

These positions cannot be filled by students who hold editorial positions in any of the three media organizations or are members of HUSC’s executive board.

Campus-wide elections for these at-large representatives will then be held on Nov. 8 and 9.

Ultimately, the SMB exists to uphold the artistic and journalistic integrity of the media groups on campus. This is accomplished by having the separate fee for students. In this way, we ensure that other organizations or powers on campus have no control over the funding of the Oracle, the Fulcrum or the Liner. The power lies in the students hands.

The student publications are a reflection of the values and wishes of the Hamline community. To those who have a heart for journalism, art, free speech, and history, we encourage you to make your voice heard by running for at-large representative for the campus media board.