A mishap regarding a printing contract could be responsible for Art+Performance magazine’s possible funding demotion by Associated Student Government, to be decided by senators at Wednesday’s meeting.
As an A-status group, the magazine received about $7,000 during the spring funding cycle from the Student Activities Finance Board, with the understanding that the publishing group would produce one magazine per quarter. However, A+P has not put out an issue so far this academic year.
SAFB presented senators last week with its recommendations for the derecognition or demotion of certain student groups. For a group like A+P, a demotion from A status to B status would mean a loss of ASG funding for the following year.
Senators will make a final decision Wednesday after hearing appeals from group members.
ASG Financial Vice President Le’Jamiel Goodall, who oversees SAFB, was not available for comment Monday night.
An entertainment-oriented guide to movies, television and theater, A+P has been regularly distributed in previous years. This year’s editors said a series of snafus led to their inability to publish.
“We kind of had a rough go of it in the fall and thus far in the winter,” said Michael DePilla, editor of A+P and a Medill junior.
DePilla said an issue was never produced because a printing contract wasn’t negotiated.
“We decided to put together an issue, and we had technical problems,” DePilla said. “Turns out we didn’t have a contract to have an issue published.”
DePilla also blamed the slow start on the group’s rough transfer of leadership.
“(My co-editor and I) were just handed the job in the spring,” DePilla said. “We didn’t know what the status was on a lot of things and one of those was the printer.”
The group has not accessed its financial account or used any of the money granted them by SAFB, he said.
DePilla said he expects an issue of the magazine to be released by the end of this quarter or the beginning of Spring Quarter.
The staff of The Protest, another NU publication, knows the financial struggle that comes with producing a magazine without sponsorship.
Desiree Evans, a Medill senior and editor of The Protest, said the cost of producing 800 copies of one issue of a magazine is between $400 and $500, if the publication is printed on plain white paper. In past years, A+P has used glossy paper, which significantly increases the costs.
The Protest now is funded through the Peace Project. But Aaron With, a onetime-editor of The Protest, said he remembers operating without steady funding.
“A long time ago, when we started, we weren’t part of Peace Project,” he said. “If I remember correctly, some people used to put in their own money. If we didn’t have the money, well, there’s no way we could do what we do now.”
The staff of A+P has no set course of action if they are demoted and lose funding, said DePilla.
“We’re not really sure how we’re going to handle that,” he said.
