The UC Santa Barbara undergraduate student government passed a
resolution Wednesday that could freeze funding for the campus
newspaper, the Daily Nexus ““ a move that may be illegal.
Associated Students Legislative Council officers passed the
resolution after The Nexus ran an advertisement from Conquest
Student Housing, a non-university housing provider at UC Santa
Barbara that the student government has boycotted for allegedly
evicting low-income families to provide higher-priced units to
local students.
The council voted unanimously to officially boycott the company.
As a result, no student government money can go to the company, and
no student government-sponsored group can benefit from Conquest
Student Housing, said off-campus representative Jeronimo Saldana,
the author of the resolution.
The student government voted 13-5 with two abstentions to
approve the resolution, but the Associated Students executive
director would still need to approve a funding freeze, according to
a Nexus news article.
During the academic year, The Nexus receives about $45,000 in
funding from student fees, accounting for about 7 percent of the
paper’s operating budget, said Editor in Chief Kaitlin
Pike.
Student government only controls student fee money, and a
funding freeze would not seriously impact The Nexus financially,
Pike said.
“It’s really more of an annoyance than anything
else,” she added.
The legality of freezing the paper’s funding is in serious
question by Nexus editors and legal experts.
“(There is) no question in my mind that this action is
illegal,” said Mark Goodman, executive director of the
Student Press Law Center.
“Anyone who’s interested in getting truthful,
accurate information from that paper should be up in arms about
this,” Goodman added. “Student governments can
sometimes be more petty tyrants than university officials would
ever be.”
Pike said the student government’s decision is illegal
based on their own constitution as well as precedent in United
States Supreme Court cases.
“Our fee money is guaranteed in the (student government)
constitution,” she said. “There are also legal
precedents in Supreme Court cases. … (The student government) has
absolutely no legitimacy.”
But Saldana maintained the legitimacy of the freeze, saying
student government officials looked into the legality of the move
before they voted.
“We have no other choice (but to revoke funding). Our
students do not want their money in Conquest,” Saldana said.
“I mainly want to uphold the social justice of it.”
He added that the student government did not dispute the
paper’s right to free speech, but did dispute its right to
use student fees for something students do not support.
“(The Nexus) can put what they want in it, they just
can’t use student money,” he said, referring to
allegations that student government was interfering with the
paper’s right to free speech.
During the same meeting in which student government voted on
freezing The Nexus’ student fee funding, they also discussed
perceived bias on the paper’s opinion page.
“We discussed, “˜Where is the integrity of the
paper?'” Saldana said.
Amy Emmert, a professional journalist and the Daily
Bruin’s adviser, said the student government officials’
actions were unsettling.
“Ethically, I think this is reprehensible,” Emmert
said. “Student press is very important, and for student
government not to appreciate free press is troubling.”
With reports from Jeff Schenck and Julia Erlandson, Bruin
senior staff.