Eric Ercanbrack
The Broadside
If students saunter on down to the college library, and slip between the third isle on the left of the main floor, they will find six large blue canvas covered books. Within the context of these books are important parts of the college’s history. These books contain stories of deception, fraud and even death. The books are issues from 1953 to 2004 of The Broadside Newspaper.
The Broadside paper is an essential part of the Central Oregon Commu¬nity College, being the oldest student organization at a community college in Oregon. The Broadside has seen its fair share of problems. Conflict is integrated into the paper’s past.
The Broadside’s budget is currently controlled by ASCOCC. A recent proposal was made for student fees to be set aside for the paper only. The proposal was an amendment to the recently revised constitution.
The amendment asked for an increase from $32,000 to $73,000 in its budget. Coupled with the increase in the budget was a proposal for oversight of student fees in ASCOCC.
There is currently no oversight of student fees at ASCOCC, only the student government decides where the money goes, and they don’t have to confer with anyone other than mem¬bers of the council.
After the proposal ASCOCC sent an e-mail to all club organizations telling them that The Broadside’s increase will take money from all clubs budgets. What The Broadside was attempting to do was to gain financial independence.
The e-mail was used to create a mob. ASCOCC called an emergency meeting which was to take place the following day.
The Broadside walked into the lion’s den. Clubs and organizations might as well have had pitch forks and burning bundles of hay, while they screamed, “witch!”
Instead of having a constructive debate about the allocation of funds, The Broadside and all its hard work were bashed.
The following day Brenda Pierce, ASCOCC advertising coordinator, of¬fered an alternate proposal to The Broadside.
The student fee will be raised by an additional 25 cents for The Broadside and 25 cents for Club Sports, as long as the proposal for oversight of AS¬COCC’s budget is dropped.
The Broadside was given a half hour to decide. I have to question the tactics used in this process, and so should students with a modicum of concern about student government, and student fee money.
Pierce told all clubs that they will receive an additional $1000 to their budget. An increase of $52,000 will be given to ASCOCC, and there will still be no oversight of student fee money.
It’s not much of a surprise that Brenda Pierce received the most votes in the last election; she did promise these clubs more money.
If a student wonders why those blue canvas books stop in the year 2004, The Broadside hasn’t had the funding to continue to bind The Broadside’s issues for the last six years.
You may contact Eric Ercanbrack at [email protected]
