Editorial : All groups involved failed Jerk magazine in funding fiasco

Student Association voted to deny Jerk magazine funding without allowing members of the Jerk staff to speak before passing the motion at Monday’s meeting.

Actions from both parties involved failed Jerk, the only monthly student magazine.

That Jerk may not publish next semester is a grave prospect for the dozens of editors, writers, models, artists, photographers and business managers who depend on it for work experience. That is to say nothing of the community members and students who constitute its readership.

But rules are rules, even if Jerk is award winning. Under Jeff Rickert’s leadership, now at the end of a second year, the Finance Board has reiterated again and again that it plays a fair game — no exceptions.

A Jerk representative arrived and began waiting for the magazine’s SA budget hearing at 1:45 p.m. for a meeting the representatives thought was at 2:10 p.m. That meeting was actually set for 2:01 p.m. and Jerk was not funded. Unfortunately, we are all subject to human error. But, if anything, Jerk and every other student organization should know to pay close attention to detail when it comes to SA funding.

But the more egregious failure in this situation is that not one representative sitting at the SA meeting on Monday night said a word to prompt conversation about Jerk’s loss of funding before passing the motion. It is the job of all assembly members to represent the interests of their constituents. That not one of the seven assembly members from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications or the 10 from the College of Visual and Performing Arts motioned to discuss the issue throws into question their understanding of the job.

Representatives need not believe that Jerk deserved funding, but it was their job to give their constituents, who were sitting in the back of the auditorium, a voice before deciding their fate.