From a Financial Viewpoint

Each member paid $43 towards VUWSA giving a total income of over a quarter of a million dollars. Of this nearly $100,000 is administered directly by VUWSA. Students have a right to be kept informed on how this organisation to which they have contributed so much money, is functioning. Therefore Salient has a responsibility to be always critically evaluating the performance of the various VUWSA representativs who adminster this money.

By giving the editor the effective status of an SRC officer is to ignore this vital function. It makes the editor into a political appointee and thus not in the same position to criticise others in the Association than as at present. It could be then argued that the editor, as an SRC Officer, has no right to publically attack his/her colleagues. Certainly making the editor answerable to SRC will make an editor more wary about making some comments, comments which in some cases are justified and should be made.

This point in fact raises an ambiguity in the motion as it presently stands. It is clear that the editor is elected by SRC, but not who s/he is responsible to. If this is not to be changed (ie it is to remain the business of the Publications Board) the editor is placed in the ludicrous position of being answerable to one part of VUWSA but being selected by another. If of course it is intended that the editor is to be responsibely to the SRC, the editor will be completely tied to whatever the SRC policy may be at the time, the consequences of this will be more fully examined in the next section. But, in connection with the reporting aspect of Salient, by making the Editor a part of the Association, would be to make it far more difficult for him/her to criticise the Association.