Silver & Gold Record

Eric Kallgren    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 3:24pm on Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Commenting on the closure of the Silver & Gold Record, Susan Barney Jones, the former editor of the newspaper, wrote "The fate of an independent voice" in the May 31, 2009 issue of the Sunday Camera:

"In particular, it is important that members of the university community saw the remarks made by Regent Steve Ludwig, a Democrat elected to an at-large seat on the board last fall. Ludwig called the Record "a faculty advocacy newsletter," that "turns a critical eye to the administration and the regents, but never looks at calling into question the faculty and staff. They get a pass from the newspaper. I don't consider that impartial or objective." Regent Ludwig was explaining his vote to deny faculty and staff governance groups, who unanimously passed motions decrying the decision to kill the paper, an opportunity to simple explore alternative funding before shuttering the newspaper for good. With that, he lost my support.

But also with his comments, Ludwig demonstrated that for regents and administrators the elimination of Silver & Gold Record was not a regretful budgetary decision in hard times - but rather it was a political decision. (How could it be otherwise, when the regents supported the announced minimum budget of $100,000 to fund a "new online newsletter for faculty and staff?") The administration just did not like the independent editorial stance of Silver & Gold Record."

The full article:
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/may/31/the-fate-of-an-independent-voice/

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 8:05pm on Monday, May 25th, 2009

An attempt to save the Silver & Gold Record failed on May 19, 2009. As a result the newspaper published its final issue on May 14, 2009. The Daily Camera reported:

"The University of Colorado regents, on a narrow vote, turned down a measure that could have kept the Silver & Gold Record faculty and staff newspaper alive.

Sponsored by Joe Neguse, D-Boulder, the measure would have set up a panel to explore alternative funding options for the newspaper. It gave the panel a six-week deadline and did not seek to restore university funding.

The measure failed on a 5-4 vote.

Closing the weekly newspaper, which has been funded by the president’s office, will save the university almost $600,000 a year, campus officials have said. CU President Bruce Benson has said his office should take proportional cuts, and needs to trim $6.2 million from the budget to relieve some of the burden from campus budget cuts.

Instead, officials are proposing the president spend $90,000 on 1½ positions to run the online news source.

The Silver & Gold published its last news issue last week, and will publish a commemorative issue in June."

The full story:
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/may/19/university-colorado-boulder-silver-gold-newspaper/

Eric Kallgren    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 3:57pm on Monday, May 25th, 2009

May 7, 2009: The Silver & Gold Record reported that University of Colorado President Bruce D. Benson plans to shut the newspaper down:

"The staff and Editorial Board of Silver & Gold Record were notified by the president's office on May 1 that CU's 39-year-old newspaper for faculty and staff is being eliminated, and all nine of its staff members are being laid off.

The board met Friday and passed motions opposing the decision to close the newspaper and asking that the decision be revisited. "While the Editorial Board of the Silver & Gold Record recognizes the financial challenges facing the University of Colorado, we profoundly oppose the decision to eliminate the paper because it is the only independent voice that speaks to all three universities about legislative, system, and campus issues in an unbiased fashion," the board said in a formal statement. The board also encouraged the entire University community to contact members of the Board of Regents about the decision.

Leonard Dinegar, vice president for administration, met with the staff of the paper that morning and said they will be paid through June 30. He directed the newspaper staff to publish only two more issues, on May 7 and May 14. Staff members said they believe S&GR should publish through June, especially to print coverage of the Board of Regents May 18-19 meetings. (S&GR was already scheduled to take a publication break from May 14 to June 4.) Dinegar said he would take that issue back to President Bruce Benson, but told S&GR on Tuesday that the request had been turned down.

Dinegar said the University will immediately begin working with campus groups to help develop a new online publication to fill the void left by the closure of S&GR."

The full story:
https://www.cu.edu/sg/messages/6828.html