The New U was saved! The New U was saved!
Yes, those UC Irvine students buried financially in tuition, boarding, book and PBR costs that'll have them paying back government loans until they reach the Social Security age to be pulled out from under them, have approved a $3 fee to save the student newspaper, New University.
]
The student-editors who run the advertising-supported, weekly print edition had earlier cut their meager stipends and the number of pages per edition in hopes of keeping themselves financially solvent. The daily online version was never threatened, but the cost-cutting only resulted in guaranteeing the print side would survive through the end of the school year.
Ideas like turning to the student government for help or going online-only were explored before the idea was born to ask classmates directly if they would pony up $3 more a year for the next five years. Seventy-three percent voted in student elections this week that they are bully on dropping what they probably squirrel away for those damn pay clothes dryers. Seriously, how many quarters must you feed the beast to get your skinny jeans completely dry?
We do have a working theory on why Anteaters are so ready to essentially tax themselves: they want to follow the latest twist and turns that will come out of Michelle Woo's story this morning:
UC Irvine Asian-American Fraternity Members Produce Blackface Music Video
Or, perhaps students are just being frugal, realizing that four $3 a year they'll not only have a ripping weekly read but a steady supply of rolling/wiping/quicker-picker-upper paper. (Trust us, kids, we've heard 'em all about alternative uses for our alt. rag.)
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.