By Nick Ubels (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 17, 2012
“Drunk at Ikea since 1993”
“Thinking you might call since 1993”
“UFV’s student press since 1993”
These and other tongue-in-cheek phrases like them are a front page staple of The Cascade, some obscure reference or joke with a built-in weekly reminder to students that we’ve had their backs for close to 20 years. But that’s not really true.
The truth is this date has little to do with the The Cascade you hold in your hands today.
UFV has had a newspaper since its inception as Fraser Valley College in the ‘70s. It changed names nearly every year and finally settled on The Cascade 19 years ago. It was student-run, it had the same name you’ll see on this week’s cover, but it was a fundamentally different publication.
So when did The Cascade become The Cascade?
Not until 2002.
The Cascade was pretty different 11 years ago. And I don’t just mean the staff, columns, equipment or cover design, though these things have certainly changed as well. Eleven years ago, UFV’s student press operated under the control of the Student Union Society.
In the face of increasingly antagonistic behaviour on the part of the SUS, two 2001-2002 Cascade editors resigned and banded together with a group of ex-Cascaders to form an independent, progressive campus newspaper called the Toque.
Acting editor-in-chief Kris Lind wrote a manifesto of sorts entitled “WHO WE ARE AND WHY WE’RE HERE” that appeared in the debut issue of UCFV’s second campus press. Lind outlined the specific conditions that lead to the rift.
The newspaper’s budget, hiring and operating policies were under the purview of the SUS. After eight years of partnership, they began to exercise greater editorial control of The Cascade both directly, in censorship of particular political views and content critical of the SUS, and through indirect methods like cutting staff pay by 50 per cent, writing arbitrary dismissal clauses into contracts, seizing furniture and office space, and claiming all Cascade advertising revenue as SUS revenue.
It seemed The Cascade was destined to become nothing more than a SUS newsletter.
What happened instead was that for just over a year, two student newspapers fought for the UCFV readership. And the Toque was gaining fast, despite having no student funding.
It was because of the Toque’s efforts and fearless journalism that, in March 2002, students voted with a 71 per cent majority to make The Cascade an autonomous, not-for-profit organization run independently of SUS, collecting its own student fee, in charge of its own finances, staff and content.
Having secured its autonomy, The Cascade entered negotiations to merge with its once-rival paper. In the rehiring process, most of the former Toque staff won out.
Separation of press and government is right up there with separation of church and state as far as freedom of expression goes. It is what allows us to report honestly on matters concerning the SUS and properly hold them to account.
Autonomy from the student union and the university itself is vitally important for that very reason. But it’s something that has to be fought for and protected through bylaws like the one that bars SUS representatives from holding positions with The Cascade.
And we have the Toque to thank for giving UFV’s students a real voice.
Sincerely,
Your autonomous student press since 2002
