U Windsor’s The Lance faces tough times
Natasha Marar, editor-in-chief of The Lance, speaks to board members of the University of Windsor’s Student Alliance at an emergency board meeting called April 8 at the CAW Student Centre in Windsor. Managing editor Stephen Hargreaves, centre, and associate managing editor Jon Liedtke were also in attendance along with members of the press and student body. (Photo by Sean Previl)
The University of Windsor’s The Lance is going to be able to print one last issue before the future of the newspaper is once more put in the hands of the University of Windsor’s Student Alliance.
The UWSA held an emergency meeting of the board of directors April 8 following a decision to stop the print publication of The Lance, the university’s weekly student newspaper.
Features and opinions editor and associate managing editor Jon Liedtke said shutting down The Lance means students will not know what is happening at their school.
“Shutting down this paper will just hinder The Lance’s ability to inform students as to affairs that are going on at the university,” said Liedtke.
Liedtke said support for The Lance has come from not just the local community but also nationwide.
“Community leaders, business leaders (and) politicians at the municipal, provincial and federal level (have reached out to us),” said Liedtke. “We’ve had students-at-large come forward and say this was a hasty decision that was done.”
Members of the UWSA board said it wasn’t a hasty decision and was due to a deficit The Lance was facing.
“We were presented at our last budget meeting that The Lance was losing a significant amount of money,” said Jamal Mohamud, a member of the board. “It is our responsibility to cover that deficit.”
Natasha Marar, editor-in-chief of The Lance, said the deficit of $24,000 would decrease to around $7,000 when ad revenue yet to be counted is included.
University president Alan Wildeman said he wants to see The Lance continue because of the newspaper’s readership.
“I have no doubt that there’s a lot of passion for The Lance and the students are going to want to see it continue,” said Wildeman.
Around three hours into the meeting a motion was put forward by board member Sami Habib to allow for continued printing of the April 17 issue and continue through the summer, but the motion was turned down.
In a revised version of Habib’s motion by the UWSA, the April 17 issue stipulation was kept but The Lance will be required to present an operations strategy to the new board of directors and general manager by April 30 before they can continue with print.
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