On Monday night, the Students’ Association Senate voted to do away with The Buzz as an SA publication.
The Buzz has been discontinued since the beginning of this fall for several reasons. First, the Meliora Copy Center, where The Buzz was printed, has changed its printing policy, which raises the cost of printing and distributing the leaflet from virtually zero dollars to approximately $800 per semester. Second, the Campus Times, which produced The Buzz, has had difficulties. Further, maintaining a Buzz editor was becoming increasingly difficult because of the demanding time commitment required. Recently, readership of The Buzz has also declined, as many copies were left in their distribution bins.
The Buzz was founded as an SA Senate and Student Activities Office project, which the CT adopted several years ago to improve its formatting. The one page leaflet was a resource in which student groups could advertise their events and meetings for free, much like a university activities calendar.
“The Buzz ended up costing the CT too much time, effort and ad revenue,” junior Campus Times Editor-In-Chief Chadwick Schnee said. “With new services such as the Campus Club Connection, The Buzz has become obselete.”
While many senators believe that The Buzz is a valuable publication, they do not believe that it should require spending $800 per semester to produce it if there are be less expensive ways to incorporate it into the CT. By including The Buzz in the CT, readership would likely increase as the CT distributes 5,000 copies, whereas The Buzz had 700 copies printed twice a week.
Next week, the SA Senate will determine whether or not to officially bring The Buzz back in another form, such as a half page ad in the CT. CT editors and SA Senate leaders are currently discussing how best to proceed.
Kaplan-Shain named Presidential chief of staff
Next Monday, junior Ilana Kaplan-Shain hopes to be confirmed as Students’ Association President and senior Chris Calo’s Chief of Staff.
“Ilana is really well organized and motivated,” Calo said. “She has great ideas on how to run Senate committees more efficiently and keep communication between committees and steering working well.”
Throughout her one-and-a-half year term on the SA Senate, Kaplan-Shain has worked with the projects, policy and services committees. Additionally, Kaplan-Shain was the co-chair of the bylaw committee last year. Kaplan-Shain will need to resign as a Senator to serve as the chief of staff.
Kaplan-Shain is a political science and economics double major and legal studies minor who has been active in student government since her freshman year.
“I want to be the chief of staff because of the ability to have a more involved role in the student government,” Kaplan-Shain said. “I don’t think that I’m really leaving the Senate – I’m going to be at all of the steering committee and senate meetings, so I will be even more involved.”
Kaplan-Shain was so motivated to be the chief of staff that she e-mailed Calo last year after he won the presidential election. Calo had 11 people apply for that position, but ultimately chose Kaplain-Shain.
“I look forward to an exciting year full of new changes and opportunities to effectively shape the student government for many years to come,” Kaplain-Shain said.
Reporting by Chadwick Schnee and Jeff Keesing.
