If passed, the Hoya would have tentatively severed its ties with the University (and, according to the Post, a University-funded $180,000 annual budget), so long as it could get two things by the end of the semester — Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson‘s support and a credit line from the Georgetown University Student Alumni Federal Credit Union.
According to a student close to the process, it was unclear if either condition was met as of Tuesday’s staff-wide vote, which failed to receive a super-majority’s worth of support despite approval from the paper’s board of directors. When asked why the vote failed, the student suggested “serious holes in the financial proposals.”
In 2009, when the Hoya was within days of independence, the University agreed to let the paper use its trademarked name, lease space on University-owned office space, and purchase a majority of its equipment for $1. However, it’s unclear if Hoya Editor in Chief Eamon O’Connor (COL ’12) sought a similar deal with this proposal.
Both Olson and GUASFCU CEO Katie Cohen (COL ’12) declined to comment about the Hoya‘s latest push for independence. O’Connor told the Post, “Our foremost institutional goal is to become an independent newspaper,” but also declined a request to elaborate on future plans.
The College Media Network, a private web-developing subsidiary of mtvU, created the site at no cost to The Hoya, according to Editor-in-Chief Eamon O’Connor (COL ’12). The Hoya had not been involved in this network prior to the new web design.
The new site shares many similarities with The GW Hatchet’s website because they also are a part of the CMN.
As many of those who regularly comment on Vox may have noticed, The Hoya’s website had recently been having problems with allowing comments. The comment section is back, so—when you are done commenting on the Voice and Vox—you can head on over to their site and leave a few comments, too.
Vox was kicked off the Voice squad after failing to shave his sideburns.
Just a day after the Voice vanquished the Hoya in a nail-biter of a softball game, Georgetown’s rival newspapers met once again to do battle over the annual Bunn Student Journalism Awards. And The Voice managed to secure another victory, winning 10 awards to the Hoya‘s 8—including 5 of the 6 first place awards—and sweeping the features category.
The winning articles and photos are all really quality work, so if you’re looking to procrastinate a bit on your studying (and really, who isn’t?) take some time to check them out after the jump!
Surprising no one, Vox has learned that the Hoya will submit a budget proposal to the Media Board for the 2010-2011 academic year. The decision, which was largely expected after the Hoya‘s Board of Directors chose to defer independence, was preceded early last week by a letter addressed to the Media Board, which was penned by the newly-elected Chair of the Board of Directors Kevin Barber.
In the letter, Barber blames “financial reasons related to the state of the national economy,” in addition to “the large additional expenses that independence would bring,” as the main factors that encouraged the Hoya to delay its dreams of independence.
“It wasn’t my individual decision to not go independent this summer,” Barber said Monday night. “It was a decision made by the outgoing Board of Directors, who decided that unless the financial environment changed, it wouldn’t be prudent to go independent … but I agree with them. I participated in the discussions about [independence.]”
While Barber says that he “does not anticipate any difficulties with the Media Board,” there could be a bumpy road ahead for the Hoya. In early March, the Voice‘s Galen Weber reported that the Media Board requested only $36,000 in funding—less money than the year before—because the Board “more or less operated on the assumption that the Hoya would become independent from the University within the next year.”
But, Barber seems optimistic about the Hoya‘s chances of getting its budget approved.
“We gave the Media Board no concrete indication about independence this year,” Barber claimed, adding that, “While I don’t know what [the Media Board's] status is now, I’ve heard that they requested as much money as in years past.”
Concerning the prospects of an independent Hoya down the road, Barber said, “We’ll do everything that we can to make independence in the summer of 2011 a possibility.”
Editor-in-Chief Marissa Amendolia supported Barber’s statement, saying, “Independence still remains a priority.”
After the jump is Barber’s complete letter to the Media Board.
About one year ago, Georgetown University’s Media Board issued five sanctions against The Hoya for its 2009 April Fools’ Issue. One of the sanctions directed The Hoya to pay for a third-party review of the newspaper by someone with a background in professional journalism, whom the Media Board would select. (Another sanction notably halted The Hoya‘s independence process by another school year, and for financial reasons, The Hoya will continue to remain a part of the University for the next school year, Voice news has reported.)
Media Board selected Dr. Byron P. White, the associate vice president community engagement of Xavier University, who was at one time the senior manager of community relations for the Chicago Tribune, editor of the Tribune‘s Urban Affairs Team, and a member of its editorial board, to review The Hoya‘s situation after the April Fools’ Issue.
This January, he submitted his conclusions, along with 18 suggestions for the improvement of the paper, to the administration, including suggestions to “broaden the pool of candidates for senior editor consideration beyond The Hoya staff”; “create an editor exchange program with publications that have more diverse staffs”; “assign editorial staff to routinely explore the ‘campus vibe’”; and “create an editorial advisory board” made up of faculty and student leaders who would meet with key editors twice a semester to discuss The Hoya‘s coverage of campus issues.
His recommendations, Hoya Editor-in-Chief Marissa Amedolia (COL ’11) said, also include many things that The Hoya was already trying to do to increase its staff’s diversity and improve its coverage of campus issues. (Read more in this week’s Voice News).
“We never dismissed any of his recommendations,” she said.
Chair of the Board Kevin Barber (COL ’11) added, “Nothing’s off the table.”
However, The Hoya seems unlikely to implement some of White’s more surprising recommendations, like his recommendation that the Editor in Chief be selected from outside The Hoya, or by a board independent of The Hoya.
“With the perspective of being on staff, knowing the history of the paper, and what works best for us,” she said, they probably will not implement those changes. She and Barber stressed again, however, that nothing was off the table, and that some of these more surprising recommendations had sparked some of the best discussions their staff had about White’s recommendations.
Writing, “The April Fool’s issue did tremendous damage to The Hoya’s credibility and exposed several underlying organizational weaknesses,” White concluded that “deliberate and sweeping steps must be taken to overcome these shortcomings. [M]any already have been initiated by The Hoya staff, Georgetown’s administration, and the university’s student body.”
After the jump is an abridged version of each of White’s recommendations, along with a full copy of the report he submitted to the University about the effects of the April Fools’ Issue.
The old Saxaspeak collapsed shortly after it became a mere repository of Georgetown Google Alerts. Will this Saxaspeak suffer the same fate? Editor-in-Chief Marissa Amendolia and Online Editor Meghan Bartels say no, in a blog post:
Saxaspeak will provide more regular and, occasionally, more casual coverage of the events and trends that affect Georgetown students….it will augment our customary high-quality and in-depth coverage with shorter, more frequent pieces to keep up with the pace of life at Georgetown. The blog is also designed to simplify the search for information by collecting relevant news links in one place.
Bartels told Vox that TheHoya chose the Saxaspeak name because they thought it was suitable, and because of name recognition among older students.
Although Bartels is currently the only blogger on the Hoya‘s Saxaspeak staff, she said she expects to create her own blogging staff separate from the paper soon.
Heckler Editor-in-Chief Jack Stuef (COL ’10) answered questions and tried to explain his point of view on a recent controversial Heckler issue at a forum Tuesday night, while students debated the articles and expressed why they were offended by the satirical articles.
Copies of the Heckler’s article about Hoya staff members holding a Ku Klux Klan-like crossburning were passed out before the forum, and much of the conversation centered on that article.
“The KKK isn’t funny,” Stuef said. “The article is to take the situation to the extreme, to show what is maybe buried in this campus.”
Stuef said that he was sorry for offending anyone, but added that with satire, offending people “comes with the terrain.”
LaMarr Q. Billups, Georgetown’s Assistant Vice President for Business Policy Planning, argued that the Heckler should not have used the picture of a KKK crossburning for the article because its hurtful power.
“This is an image that is deeply rooted in our souls,” Billups said. “In my own lifetime, thousands of people were lynched. Cross were burned in people’s actual yards.”
Tonight, recent issues of the student satire magazine Georgetown Heckler will be the subject of a student forum planned by students who have found some of its content offensive. Jack Stuef (COL ’10), the Heckler‘s editor, told the Voice last night that he planned to attend, too.
“I haven’t really planned this out yet, but obviously I’ll try to explain who we are and where we’re coming from because I think there’s a lot of confusion as to who the Heckler is and what our point is,” he said.
“I stand behind everything I’ve ever printed and everything I’ve ever written at the Heckler and I’ll continue to do that at the meeting. And I’ll try to explain where I’m coming from and hopefully there will be some understanding.”
The forum will take place in White Gravenor 201A at 8:30 p.m.
Chair of the Working Group on Admissions Ryan Wilson, who is the incoming Chair of the Student Commission for Unity, said the latest Heckler warranted discussion because it had gone too far.
“I think the Heckler missed the mark,” Wilson said. “While the paper strives to give insightful and intelligent commentary on different campus articles, the articles they’ve written over the last couple of months haven’t really done that.”
As one its many philanthropy initiatives, the Corp annually doles out Reimagine Georgetown grants to programs that “seek to improve our undergraduate experience at Georgetown in creative ways.” In recent years, grants—which are co-sponsored by GUASFCU and The Hoya—have gone to now-well-known initiatives like Run for Rigby and 25 Days of Service.
According to Chairman of the Reimagine Georgetown Board J. Ryan Zambon (MSB ’10), the program received more than 20 grant applications this year. Yesterday, the Board announced that it had narrowed the proposals down to four winners:
Georgetown Alternative Music Series: $5,000 will go towards Daniel Alexander’s (MSB ’11) idea of creating a series of on-campus concerts featuring student and local bands.
D.C. Students Speak: Michael Trummel (COL ’10) will be getting $3,000 to establish an annual conference between student leaders at all of the major D.C.-area universities to coordinate student response to issues like 61-D citations.
Saxa Service Feast: $2,000 will go to Joel Ziebell (COL ’10) to host a wing-eating contest for students and faculty. The event will raise money that will be donated to the winning team’s charity of choice.
Diversability: Tiffany Yu (MSB ’10) is starting a club to promote “disability pride.” The group is in the process of getting SAC approval, and will be receiving $500 to get off the ground.
You can check out the full descriptions for the winning programs after the jump!
The Hoya‘s Basketball Preview is a nice piece of work–glossy, nice pictures–but, according to an Athletic Department spokesperson, it’s incomplete: it doesn’t mention the women’s basketball team.
Barbara Jonas, an Associate Director of Sports Information in the Athletic Department, complained on the Athletic Department’s Hoya Insider blogthat calling The Hoya‘s basketball issue “Basketball Preview” neglects the women’s team:
It’s no secret that the men’s basketball squad is the crowning jewel of our athletic department. No coach or student-athlete would begrudge any publicity, success or accolades that it receives. What is frustrating is that the student press and much of campus continues to ignore that there are two basketball teams on the Hilltop.
Publishing a glossy magazine touted as the Basketball Preview is entirely untrue and a slap in the face to the 15 women that practice just as many hours as the men’s team and who wear the same Blue & Gray.
Vox Populi is the staff blog of the Georgetown Voice, Georgetown University's weekly newsmagazine. Opinions expressed in posts are those of their author alone unless otherwise stated.
Kudos to the Washington Post Magazine for directing some attention toward the Hoya and its push for independence — but, even the pros can miss news.
Stuef speaks at last night’s forum
From the Heckler‘s 
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