2008 Woodie Awards
BAC Behind Forum's Absence
An Editorial From the Forum Staff
Forum Staff
Issue date: 4/22/05 Section: Commentary
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Conspicuously absent from the Colgate campus in the past two months has been the Forum. The Staff would like to take this opportunity to explain why we have been unable to publish, and offer a few suggestions to prevent similar problems in the future.
The Forum was founded in the fall of 2003 in order to provide a medium for students and faculty to share political and social ideas with the hope of fostering increased political activism on campus. During the 2003-2004 academic year a total of three issues were published, and with each passing issue the Colgate community became increasingly engaged. The staff met in September 2004 to plan an ambitious printing schedule of six issues, three per semester for this academic year. In our first Budget Allocations Committe (BAC) proposal of the year, we clearly outlined this schedule, including firm deadlines and publication dates, and requested funds for all six issues. The BAC did not acknowledge this request and granted us funds for only one issue. Indeed, each time we went before the BAC we requested funds for the remaining issues and each time the BAC failed to acknowledge these long-term requests.
We were content with receiving funding on an issue by issue basis under the assumption that we would continue to receive funding for all six issues. This arrangement became problematic during the second semester when following our fourth issue proposal for funding, the BAC failed to inform us of their decision for over a week and half (and following four emails from the co-Editors-in-Chief). We discovered their decision to deny us funding via the Senate minutes, an unacceptable and unprofessional arrangement to say the least.
Due to their obvious negligence, we have no doubt, the BAC rescinded their decision and decided to allocate us the money for the fourth issue stipulating that we look into cheaper printing houses. The Forum is currently published through the Colgate Printshop at an average cost of $1500 per issue depending on length. Despite being confident that Colgate's in-house printing services were competitive, we investigated outside publishing services and found that the Colgate Print Shop offered the best price.
The Forum was founded in the fall of 2003 in order to provide a medium for students and faculty to share political and social ideas with the hope of fostering increased political activism on campus. During the 2003-2004 academic year a total of three issues were published, and with each passing issue the Colgate community became increasingly engaged. The staff met in September 2004 to plan an ambitious printing schedule of six issues, three per semester for this academic year. In our first Budget Allocations Committe (BAC) proposal of the year, we clearly outlined this schedule, including firm deadlines and publication dates, and requested funds for all six issues. The BAC did not acknowledge this request and granted us funds for only one issue. Indeed, each time we went before the BAC we requested funds for the remaining issues and each time the BAC failed to acknowledge these long-term requests.
We were content with receiving funding on an issue by issue basis under the assumption that we would continue to receive funding for all six issues. This arrangement became problematic during the second semester when following our fourth issue proposal for funding, the BAC failed to inform us of their decision for over a week and half (and following four emails from the co-Editors-in-Chief). We discovered their decision to deny us funding via the Senate minutes, an unacceptable and unprofessional arrangement to say the least.
Due to their obvious negligence, we have no doubt, the BAC rescinded their decision and decided to allocate us the money for the fourth issue stipulating that we look into cheaper printing houses. The Forum is currently published through the Colgate Printshop at an average cost of $1500 per issue depending on length. Despite being confident that Colgate's in-house printing services were competitive, we investigated outside publishing services and found that the Colgate Print Shop offered the best price.