Everything Wrong With US Media Coverage

The Scoffayette

Everything Wrong With US Media Coverage

The Scoffayette

Everything Wrong With US Media Coverage

The Scoffayette

StuGov rejects Non Cur constitution

graphic by Aaron Levonson '15
Graphic by Aaron Levonson ’15

Student Government rejected the changes Non Cur, the controversial satirical journal, made to their constitution Tuesday. Until missing requirements and loose language are corrected in the constitution, the journal’s funds will remain frozen.

“As of right now, we’re not going to be approving this constitution,” Student Government President Michael Prisco ‘14 said.

In a previous meeting, Student Government required that Non Cur obtain the signatures of all contributing authors, consenting to the publication of their work, before a particular issue could be published. Student Government also required the publication’s advisor to sign off on all subsequent issues.

The requirements also obligated the magazine staff to hold public forums three to eight days after publication dates. All writers and staff would be present along with the advisor, who would serve as a moderator.

According to members of Student Government, the submitted constitution was missing provisions regarding the public forum, as well as imprecise language concerning the advisor’s approval before magazine publication.

“There is no required moderator at their forums” in the constitution, Treasurer Connor Heinlein ‘15 said. “Student feedback I’d received prior to us taking this action from multiple student groups was that those interested in attending forums felt like there wouldn’t exactly be safe spaces if it was just the members of Non Cur who can…assert themselves [when] getting into arguments discussing the work.”

“Secondly, we also required that the writers, any contributing writer, would be required to attend that mandatory forum as well,” Heinlein continued. “The reason for that was that having the writers at that forum requires them to take ownership of their work. They write something, they then appear before the students who they may or may not have insulted or agitated.”

“If they are willing to write it, they should be willing to take ownership of it,” Heinlein said about why that provision was required. “Or at least that was the idea.”

The new constitution also included inexact language about requiring the advisor to look over and sign off on each issue before it gets published.

“The club’s advisor will always have access to Non Cur to sign off on its contents before it goes to the printer,” the revised constitution said.

“I feel like that could be worded [better, so that it] needs to happen, not just, ‘Oh, it’s always there, so that way she or he can sign off on it,’” Secretary Rachel Trupp ‘14 said. “Basically, [it should say] that it has to happen or it can’t go through the printer.”

The constitution will be returned to the Non Cur staff, pending further changes.

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