Does the Board for Student Media see The Marquette Tribune as a publication or just a line in the budget? After recent events, it’s hard to be sure.

Reducing the number of pages will certainly make printing cheaper. But when the board suggested this, no one could say exactly how much the change will save, how much student media needs to save, or how much alternatives to page cuts would save.

Working quickly to address student media’s financial concerns is admirable. Halving the Tribune’s flagship after a single afternoon’s conversation is absurd. The implication is that the print version of the Tribune can be altered at the board’s convenience, readers and staff be damned.

Maybe this is an isolated incident. There are positive signs — the board is wisely avoiding cuts to staff, and its latest statement said it is open to compromise. But if this shortsignedness persists, the Tribune’s biggest problem won’t be declining ad revenue or budget cuts, but the indifference of the Board for Student Media.

Alec Brooks
Junior, College of Communication