Letter to the Editor—Drew Colcher

Letter+to+the+Editor%E2%80%94Drew+Colcher

I am a graduate student and a teaching and research assistant at Wichita State. I also wrote for The Sunflower for two years while pursuing my bachelors degree. I am distressed, to say the least, that the Student Government Association would have the audacity to suggest such severe cuts to what has become a WSU institution and a respectable journalistic forum for student writers and university-related issues.

In my opinion, no university can consider itself a serious academic institution without taking writing and journalism seriously. While there is constant action and readily available funding for everything from Innovation Campus construction projects, to Starbucks coffee shops and a formula 1 racing team, journalism and the liberal arts continue to be targeted by the administration, and consequently are struggling to remain afloat.

We also inhabit an era of misinformation and questionable news sources. It would seem that not only the university specifically, but our society as a whole, would benefit from a focus on the methods and ethics of journalism and composition.

The Sunflower has recently improved its reputation in this regard, and begun publishing hard-hitting investigative journalism that takes the administration to task. Most of us who are concerned about the student newspaper have a hard time not seeing a connection between the frequent criticism of WSU’s questionable administrative decisions, and the proposed cuts to The Sunflower’s budget. Coupled with the egregiously redacted documents provided to The Sunflower by WSU’s legal team, the secrecy surrounding the meeting where these budget cuts were devised (as well as the secrecy surrounding most of the changes happening on campus) and the simultaneous decision to cut 100 percent of the literary journal Mikrokosmos’ funding (a pittance of $2,000 annually), this whole process seems like punitive action against the liberal arts and journalistic integrity.

These cuts feel political. They feel unethical. They feel like retaliation. Even if they are driven by purely fiscal motives, they are unnecessary and damaging to the university. The Shocker community and Wichita as a whole stands behind The Sunflower and finds these proposals absolutely unacceptable.

—Drew Colcher is a graduate student at Wichita State University. 

To submit a Letter to the Editor, please visit thesunflower.com/letter