When Associated Student Government held their meeting to talk about the proposed cuts to line items, such as the Performing Arts Board, Quivira and The Bulletin, we offered to live stream the event, as a service.

When ASG voted to cut the funding to The Bulletin by nearly $10,000, we cut our live stream.

After we cut the funding, Christina Brunton, legislative director, commented that The Bulletin’s decision to cut the steam was “slanted.” Other senators remarked that they felt that the decision was “unfair” as ASG was using the live stream in an “overflow” room, where they put students who wanted to attend the meeting, when there was no more room in the Senate Chamber.

Despite there being a serious problem with the size of the senate room, as senators never saw or heard all of the students who were there to oppose the cut, the decision to cut the feed was a symbolic one. 

I found it interesting that The Bulletin was criticized for their choice so I want to make this clear; this was not an off the cuff decision. This was not retaliatory.

This is the reality The Bulletin is facing because of ASG’s cuts to our funding. 

In defending The Bulletin against funding cuts, Rayna Karst, our Editor-in-Chief, made it clear that with these cuts The Bulletin would have to scale back in a large way that would affect students.

We would have to scale back on staffers, meaning we couldn’t support as many student jobs on campus.

We would have to scale back on our reporting, as the money for payroll (which is The Bulletin’s main cost by thousands of dollars) would not be there, meaning we probably couldn’t support a wage that reflects the amount of time and effort that goes into our work.

The Bulletin would also have to cut back on investigative stories, such as the “Jane story.”

One of the senators asked something to the effect of “Well couldn’t you still do the Jane story, but with less money? Just redistribute the funds?”

The simple answer to that is no.

And here’s why. It took three of our top reporters in top positions nearly two months to uncover the Jane story. And during that time, we couldn’t cover much else, because Jane’s story was a full scale investigation. We couldn’t risk making a mistake or telling Jane’s story any way but accurately.

During this time, it was up to the rest of the staff to pick up the slack and continue putting the news out in a way that everyone has come to expect. The news didn’t stop. 

Live streaming isn’t free. It takes time, talent and a reporter to operate the camera. Every time we live stream an event, that adds another staff member to the payroll on top of a writer and a photographer. 

We were happy and proud to provide a service to the students and to ASG, however there is a limit to generosity when we are faced with cuts that will mean less staffers, less opportunities for reporting and less investigative pieces. 

So we cut the live stream as a symbolic gesture to show what these cuts will mean for the campus next year:

Less clarity. More darkness.