The Associated Students UCLA Communications Board met Monday and discussed adding an additional print magazine to Student Media’s roster of publications.
The board is the publisher of all publications in the Student Media department – which includes the Daily Bruin, Bruinlife Yearbook, bruinwalk.com and several community-oriented newsmagazines, including Al-Talib, La Gente De Aztlan and Nommo.
Student Media has been in a near budgetary crisis for several years, which is primarily the result of decreased Daily Bruin advertisement revenue from major sources like ASUCLA, student government and the university, said Arvli Ward, the Student Media director.
As a result of the budget crunch and office space constraints, the Communications Board has not even entertained the idea of adding an additional print publication in recent years and has instead offered students wanting to create publications the option of an online-only medium, Ward said.
The proposal for the new magazine, brought forward by the Communications Board Chairman Jamal Madni, offers a new approach to financing a publication that breaks the traditional funding mold for Student Media magazines, making it a more viable option for the board to support.
The content of the magazine would be written by engineering students about the research they are conducting, and the articles would be geared toward the general student body, Madni said.
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science would provide office space to the magazine while Student Media would sell the advertising, distribute the magazine and, based on the advertising revenue, provide financial support for staff stipends and other expenses, he said.
Ward and Madni disagreed about a key piece of the proposal, which is whether or not the Communications Board or the engineering school would choose the editor of the magazine.
Some members of the board, primarily the undergraduate student representatives, were concerned that other members of the UCLA community do not have the same opportunity to bring a proposal like Madni’s directly to the board.
“I didn’t realize we were in the position to talk about new publications,” said Katya Balan, a student representative and the board’s vice chairwoman. Balan added that students could perceive this proposal as unfair because they do not have the same opportunity to bring proposals to the board that Madni does as chairman.
Ward said he thought it was fine the chairman brought the proposal and that it was beneficial to students who wanted to create publications because Madni’s proposal opened up a previously unheard-of avenue for funding, potentially allowing publications in the future a different financing model.
Other board members quibbled over other details of the magazine, such as the title – BRAT, for Bruin Research and Technology Magazine – and whether or not students would actually read it.
The board asked Madni to come back at the next meeting with a more detailed proposal for further consideration.