CUP Looks to be Half Empty
by Jessica Skelton, Editor-in-Chief
On Sat. Jan. 15, CBC and CTV reported an outbreak of noro virus that plagued the Canadian University Press (CUP) national student journalism conference held in Victoria that week. I, however, didn't learn about it on the news. I was one of the 160 or so delegates who caught the gastrointestinal bug, and let's just say the 12 hours I spent losing every ounce of fluid in my body was not my idea of a good time. Nonetheless, in between the upchucking, hot and cold sweats, and pleading to every deity I could think of to help end my suffering, I found the whole situation quite fitting.
CUP—the national, non-profit, co-operative owned and operated by more than 80 Canadian student newspapers, including the Nav—is sick, or is about to be. CampusPlus, the ad agency owned solely by CUP and used by member newspapers to help fund production of their papers, has lost so much business in the recent economic downturn that it is threatening to cut its losses and shut down. That would cost CUP a subsidy in the mid to high five-figure range.
That's not good news, but something—I think—this co-operative could handle. I'm sure members wouldn't hesitate to band together and share ideas for making up the lost CampusPlus ad revenue, both on the levels of individual newspapers and CUP itself. No, it's the other piece of bad news that has me pissed off.
At the above mentioned national conference, CUP announced a proposal to restructure the member newspapers' fees. As it is, members are separated into various tiers by operating budgets, much like how income taxes are split into brackets by income level. There are 12 tiers, each representing a monetary range of $20 thousand (for example, the first two tiers are $0–20 thousand and $20 thousand–40 thousand), with the highest being $220+ thousand. Fees range from $322.48 to $5534.95, and represent approximately 2.5 percent of all budgets. It's not a perfect structure—not everyone pays an equal percentage—but it's better than what could replace it.
You see, some of the big-budget papers (I'm not going to name names simply because I don't know exactly who's thinking and saying and doing what) are complaining that they're paying too much and the low- and mid-budget papers are paying too little.
I'm sorry, but $5 thousand is a pittance when your operating budget is $200 thousand or more. What are we? Corporate America? Tax breaks for the rich?
Nonetheless, CUP has proposed to cut the number of budget tiers down to seven. Generally, things would remain the same—the scale starts at $0 and each bracket would still represent a range of $20 thousand—but the highest tier would be $120+ thousand instead of $220+ thousand. Fees for all budget brackets would rise variously to represent approximately 3.5 percent of all budgets. Sounds fair, but what that means is this: the lowest bracket is only paying about $25 more, but everyone else is paying several hundred dollars more. Well, except for anyone with a high operating budget who would be absorbed into the new highest membership tier of $120+ thousand (that is, everyone who has $140 thousand to $220+ thousand). These papers would suddenly be sitting pretty, safe inside the fee cap of $4,200.
Do a little, quick calculation. Someone with a budget of $200 thousand would not pay 3.5 percent of their actual budget in fees; they would pay 2.1 percent. $220 thousand would pay 1.9 percent. If we really want to complain, the lowest bracket is getting off easy too.
So I take back my above statement; CUP is not like corporate America. They're acting more akin to most Western governments: screwing the middle class to give the little guys and the rich kids a break. Haven't they noticed everyone's pretty pissed off about that status quo? I know this may sound a little naïve, but wouldn't it be better if we treated everyone the same?
CUP needs to rethink what they're proposing. The big-budget papers are threatening to pull out if they continue to pay what they are now—and that has the organization scared, especially in light of the problems with CampusPlus—but if the projected fee restructuring is passed, I'm sure more than one of the mid-budget papers will be pissed and leave. I say a different restructuring is in order: more membership tiers, perhaps within which there are smaller budget ranges, and fees calculated by charging everyone the same, exact budget percentage.
Yes, the organization is sick and this proposed fee restructuring will only make it more so. Perhaps CUP should learn a lesson from this year's national conference: puking sucks, but only after the disgusting battle is over can you feel better and find your balance.
BC Hydro Smart Meters Are Not Going to Kill Your Family
by Brady Tighe, Associate Editor
They're not. They're really not. They're also not going to give you radiation poisoning, rot your brain, enslave your children, or allow BC Hydro to control your lives from a tiny little meter. I have a feeling that when BC Hydro decided to implement this new type of meter, they had no idea of the immense bullshit firestorm what would be kicked up by the people of B.C. The way people are acting, you would assume a BC Hydro employee was planning on coming over to your house to dump 50 gallon barrels of toxic waste onto your front lawn.
Now, I agree that there are certain downsides to the new meters: the invasion of privacy of having BC Hydro monitoring your energy use, and the idea that the company never asked anyone if these meters were something they wanted and instead just shovelled them down the throats of the populace. However, neither of those issues warrants the massive activism mobilization that's coming down on top of this issue. There are petitions being thrown around, people are blogging about it, and every single hydro bill that seems a little high is being blamed on the smart meter.
Isn't this just a little bit far-fetched?
If you are truly terrified of the damage that the smart meter can do health wise, then I suggest that you lock your doors and never leave your house ever again.
In addition, don't fire up the microwave, talk on your cellphone, use wireless Internet, or turn on your TV. You'll probably keel over and die from all the super radiation. Here's a thought: Why would BC Hydro invent a meter that slowly kills its customers? And don't say a far-fetched plan by the Liberal-conservative government to control over-population, because I have a feeling that's what you were going to say next.
We shouldn't just accept that they're being installed. You should be allowed to opt out of such things. At the same time we should come to the realization that the BC Hydro smart meter is really not the massive issue that we should be championing as the next violation of our civil rights. It's a hydro meter. It's going to say, "this is how much hot water you use," not, "women are no longer people and can't vote."
If you want to champion a cause, pound the pavement with a petition, and make a difference to this world, then please do so. But remember that the world is a cruel, violent place with many problems bigger than smart meters. Genocide, starvation, natural disasters, these are things that are truly terrible, and deserving of 10 thousand times the attention that people seem to be giving the BC Hydro smart meter.
Also, please remember that in this age of the Internet, anyone can have an opinion and make it look like a legitimate scientific fact. With a cool masthead and some interesting pictures, the casual surfer seems to be conned into believing everything from the revoking of gay marriage rights in Canada to revoking every single right we have. A little bit of research goes a long way in uncovering the level of bullshit that can be thrown out in a blog post.
Please continue to devote some of the time in your life to trying to make the world a better place, but at the same time try to remember that while you're ranting and raving and preparing to take the fight to The Man, it's usually a good idea to make sure what you're preparing to fight about isn't a big giant waste of uninformed time.