The student council and student paper at Western University are discussing a proposal that could eliminate close to half of the paper’s office space.
The University Students’ Council (USC), which owns and publishes the Western Gazette, has proposed the creation of a larger multi-faith prayer space.
This would be done by displacing the Gazette’s editorial office and moving their composing office, according to Gazette editor-in-chief Gloria Dickie. The move would cut the Gazette’s office from 1,900 square feet to 1,165, Dickie said.
“We’re typically pretty tight for space as it is now,” she said. “We have 24 editors in this space, and normally about a dozen volunteers each day.”
“We wouldn’t have room for a photo studio, [or] an editorial board discussion area where we decide our content for each day.”
“We’re worried that volunteers would come in [and] they’d turn around because they couldn’t fit into the space,” she said, “and over time that would diminish the voices heard in the paper.”
In a Gazette editorial published Jan. 16, Dickie outlined numerous instances of tension between USC and the student paper, and suggested the proposal to take away some of the Gazette’s office space was directly linked.
On Jan. 17 USC president Adam Fearnall and vice-president campus issues Myuri Komaragiri held a consultation meeting with different faith-based groups on campus to re-examine the issue.
At the meeting Western’s various faith-based groups agreed that they did not feel they needed to move the prayer space, Dua Dahrouj, president of the Muslim Students’ Association, said.
“We all agreed that replacing the Gazette office wasn’t a good idea . . . nor did it meet any of the multi-faith based group needs,” she said.
USC vice-president of communications Jeremy Santucci stressed that moving the multi-faith space into the Gazette’s office was a proposal, not a final decision.
“I think that on our part—not on their part—there was a miscommunication in that process,” he said.
Sanctucci said that the proposal was part of a larger budget review that the USC was carrying out for all its businesses. This includes an examination of whether the present use of USC rented space is the most effective, he said.
Santucci said that any decision would only be finalized at the budget ratification in March.
Gazette editors and the student council were scheduled to meet Jan. 22, but the meeting was postponed after a USC member was unable to attend at the last minute, Santucci said.
