For over 75 years, The Quad has been on the scene at West Chester University as a student run paper, partially funded by student fees. As a registered student organization on campus, we get an allocated budget from SGA to use in addition to our advertising revenues to print our 12 issues a semester. This year, however, The Quad has hit some speed bumps. A lot of it is our own fault. When we asked SGA for a budget increase, we didn’t do it very determinedly. We asked nicely, and accepted the small increase we got. We have slowed down on advertising and slacked on keeping up with those who owed us money. Nevertheless, the financial situation The Quad is in isn’t entirely our fault either. The financial situation in the country is slipping just as ours is. Companies need to cut something, and a lot of them are choosing to cut advertising. Companies need to do something to increase their profits to stay running, even if that means raising their prices.
Companies raising prices also plays a large part in our current situation. Three years ago, it cost $997 to print an issue of The Quad. With the 6,500 copies we were printing, it cost about 15 cents a copy. The cost of paper, ink, gas for deliveries, as well as many other factors have increased. We now print 4,000 copies of The Quad every week, at $1,410 per issue. The price per Quad is now around 35 cents. Our costs for printing have increased 133% over the last three years. Our SGA budget has increased 6% in the same amount of time. Furthermore, our advertising revenue has dropped down to about half.
So what are we at The Quad doing? For starters, we cut two issues. This semester, for the first time in recent history, the student population of WCU will see ten issues, as opposed to our usual twelve. Beyond this, the entire staff has elected to work one issue without pay so that we are able to print that tenth issue. We are working to collect the funds we are owed from past advertising, and actively trying to sell more ads for the rest of our issues.
We at The Quad hope that you get us much of the paper as we put into it, and we hope to be able to continue to be the student voice on campus.