Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

Did you close comments on the previous thread? I wanted to say "Oh please. Today, of all days, you are surprised that Stephen Jones could be wrong?"

You're talking about the attorney who represented Timothy McVeigh -- the attorney who left an unattended filing cabinet on the street with defense documents and privileged statements between McVeigh and Jones. You remember the ones that were lifted for the Playboy story?
 

And that aside, this column says it all. What a pity the Presid...(oops, I mean CEO) doesn't have the integrity to give his unqualified support to the policy.
 

Hence, my addendum: "Or, maybe I'm not."

Yes, comments are closed there, to keep the discussion straight. :-)
 

LOL.
 

"The Daily O’Collegian ...corporation’s constitution gives the newspaper’s editor in chief “final authority and responsibility for the editorial content of The Daily O’Collegian.”

Responsibility?
Sounds like a dangerous job to hold in such a litigious society.

But when any such Public College paper is sued who will be named in the suit, the student editor only? Not bloody well likely.

Are the papers at Private Colleges regulated by their administrations?
You betcha they are.

Sounds like Chicken of the Sea to me.

I therefore graciously acknowledge the validity of your passion. Go for it Dudes ad Dudesses.
 

I ordered a copy of the O'Collegian Publishing Co.'s Articles of Incorporation from the Secretary of State's Office. I'll pick it up tomorrow afternoon.

Can't wait.
 

And yer rioght, Drlobojo, being editor of the O'Collegian IS serious business, and he-she and-or reporters ARE open to being sued. My first and biggest lesson in libel came when a deacon of a Baptist church seriopusly considered suing me because I wrote in a story that he was a place "drinking beer", libelous on its face. I was quoting a cop, an officer, who didn't know what the hell he was talking about. (Long story). The deacon has a good case and could've ended my career before it got started. Of course, he would haver named everybody from little old me on up to the then-president -- and you can bet that THEN, the administration would be distancing itself from the paper.
 

Tony Snow steps up!
 

??

(I had to look up who Tony Snow wuz ... just glanced at it. Is he a newsman or a talk show host?)
 

Remember that this is the CEO who hired Bobby Knight...and then left town. This is the CEO who cleaned an already clean house, left in good shape by J. Halligan, an esteemed president. This is the CEO who thinks the book "From Good to Great" has every secret on how to run a university in it. He probably also has Dr. Phil on retainer. Students always, always get screwed when it comes to most students vs. administration issues. The last bastion of student freedom AT ALL is the newspaper. I will be fascinated when this all blows up into a Stillwater Tiananmen Square and a lone student journalist stands in front of a Big Orange Bus in protest. Put the CEO in that bus...think he's think twice about running the kid over? Nope.
 

Ah.

The only Foxy I know by name is-was ... Juliet Huddy.

Huh-huh, huh-huh.

(Said in best B&B voice).
 

Ooooh. Close second.
 

OK, so I looked up the "tuition and fees at the Busar's Office at OSU. First comment , what the shit, they charge the student for everything, although I coundn't find a sidewalk fee, source tell me it is buried in there.
Note the next to the last fee is the Daily O'Collegian Fee at
$0.30 per credit hour. Given the mythical average of 15 hours per semester, that would come out as $9.00 per academic year per student, or about $180,000 per year of subsidized "subscriptions".

Note the the

Detail (Fall 2005/Spring 2006)
These figures are subject to change without notice, as provided by University Board of Regents

Tuition:
Courses Oklahoma Residents Non-Residents of Oklahoma

Undergraduate Tuition


$103.30 (per credit hour)
$370.75 (per credit hour)

Graduate Tuition
$138.50 (per credit hour)
$485.00 (per credit hour)

Veterinary Medicine
$9,749.52 (per year)
$27,024.82 (per year)

General Fees:
Fee Amount

Student Activity Fee
$2.50 per credit hour

Student Activity Fee - Athletic
$3.00 per credit hour

Student Facility Fee
$4.30 per credit hour

Student Facility Fee Campus Rec.
$3.00 per credit hour

Library Technology Fee
$3.00 per credit hour (excludes Vet Med)

Library Automation/Materials Fee
$5.75 per credit hour

Assessment Fee
$1.00 per credit hour

Career Services Fee
$2.00 per credit hour
(excludes Vet Med & MBA students)

Student Senate/Speaker Fee
$0.25 per credit hour

Cultural & Recreational Service Fee
$0.81 per credit hour

Living Group Fee
$0.08 per credit hour (excludes Vet Med)

Campus Life Fee
$0.35 per credit hour

Student Development Initiative Fee
$0.40 per credit hour

Consumable Material Fee
$1.50 per credit hour (Undergraduates only)

Academic Facility Fee
$10.50 per credit hour
(Freshmen , Sophomores & Juniors only)

Academic Excellence Fee
$5.00 per credit hour
(New Freshmen & Transfers only)

University Technology Fee
$5.00 per credit hour

Parking Fee
$2.50 per credit hour (Tulsa courses only) (

Transportation Services
$2.00 per credit hour
(Stillwater courses only)

Health Services Fee
$4.35 per credit hour
(Stillwater courses only)

Records Maintenance Fee
$0.62 per credit hour

Daily O'Collegian Fee
$0.30 per credit hour

Student Academic Service Fee
$2.00 per credit hour (Undergraduate and Special Graduate students)
 

Oh course, this also means that S. Jones was right after all.
Whatja doin for 420?
 

Then O'Collegian Publishing Co. should reject that pittance, which is probably the "1 percent" of "other" listed in the paper's sources of revenue. Not really the point, though. Jones was not right. It's still a subscription. Looks to me like OSU, as a third party, requires students to subscribe. What's the difference in that and requiring students to buy textbooks? Not much, if any.

And what's 420?
 

The difference in forcing students to buy the newspaper and forcing students to buy textbooks is that that's not the way a free press is supposed to work. "Real" newspapers don't rely on government-mandated subscriptions to keep their boat afloat.

Again, I'm not defending what the flack in this case did, only pointing out that there is no way to accurately argue that the O'Collegian is a "real" newspaper in the same way The Denver Post is. It is beholden, in some small measure, to the university for its survival -- and that's more a model of how the media is run in totalitarian countries than in the United States.

The is-it-censorship-or-not debate aside, why isn't there more outrage here about the lack of separation of press and state in this instance?
 

I deleted and reposted an edited version of one of Nick's comments in paranoid defense of my anonymity.
 

Saying that "1 percent" of the O'Collegian's revenue that comes from student fees -- which one could argue is a pass-along, not a direct subsidy by the university -- renders the newspaper "unfree" is like saying the paid legal ads that local government are REQUIRED to have run in local papers does the same thing. But it does not.
 

Dude, if the university fee represents only 1% of the Newspaper's revenue then the budget for this college paper would be $18,000,000 per year!
 

Besides that to be able to charge a fee, The president?CEO has to take it to the schools governing board for approval and they have to take it to the states coordinating board for approval. And sometimes it is taken to the legislature for approval. That's hardly "just a pass through". That's a whole buch of government.
It's more like a whole big bowel movement.:)
 

Hrm, then it must be counted among the subscription revenue. WARNING: Journalist Doing Math.
 

The universal subscription fee is charged because university newspapers are made available on free stands throughout the university. Trying to distribute a newspaper to "subscribers only" would be unweildy and expensive -- ergo, impossible. Most likely there is some agreement in a filing cabinet between the newspaper and the university permitting the university to cover distribution costs on the students' behalf through this fee. That would be somewhat equivalent of charging the various library fees listed. (And what's the difference between a library technology fee and a library automation fee?)

I'm a lot more interested in some of those other fees, like "living group fee" and "campus life fee". Something tells me some of that money goes to things not all students participate in, and which some would object to being forced to pay.
 

If the the newpaper "fee" were voluntary what percent of the student would take it? But it is not voluntary, it is a manditory fee.
And what is the newspaper's press run? Is it one for each and every student? Or do they only run as many as students seem to pick up?
I know one school that cut their Friday night press run down to 25% of the other week day press runs because nobody was on campus on Saturday. But the students still paid full "fee" for the paper.
 

Looked over today's paper and found that the pressrun was 11,500.
The revenue stream cited today was 74% from advertising, 24% from student subscriptions and circulation, and 2% other.

Assuming 20,000 students (there is actually more) that 24% equals $180,000, thus the 100% equals roughly $800,000 per year.
 

Well, the O'Colly should secede from OSU, the A&M Board and the state and go underground.

When I get time, I'll input the Articles of Confederation -- shoot, I mean the Articles of Incorporation.

It ain't pretty. Thank goodness for judicial interpretation.