The University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) student magazine, Vertigo, has announced it will have to cut back on print issues after UTS executives cut the magazine out of a funding increase.
According to Central News, Vertigo staff requested a budget increase to $245 000, more than double the $129 000 the UTS Students’ Association (UTSSA) allocated last year.
UTSSA President, Anna Thieben, said the student union had approved the increase at the start of this year under it’s budget.
“Approving the whole of Vertigo’s funding at the beginning of the year was done under the assumption that we would be getting more funding for them… But we approved that before we even got signed off (by UTS) for the year,” Thieben said.
The UTS Executive did approve a 16.2 per cent increase to the UTSSA budget, but under condition it would not go to Vertigo.
The decision comes after an article published by Thieban alleged Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Shirley Alexander, said the publication production quality is too high and wastes Students Service and Amenities Fees (SSAF) during a meeting on SSAF funding.
“I’ve just strongly encouraged them to look at the Honi Soit approach, because I think that’s really, really good,” Alexander told Central News.
“They (Honi Soit) have got a really engaging, very newsworthy publication. And their print publication doesn’t look like a high quality magazine, it looks like a newspaper.
“I’ve also been suggesting to them for some time to take an online format where students post articles and people express different views. I think that would be terrific.”
Alexander also said she wants to see a newspaper that is “relevant” to UTS students and questioned why students should be paying SSAF for photography and poetry content in the magazine.
In a statement to the Tertangala, Vertigo has said:
“Vertigo is extremely upset by the actions of our own Senior Executive at UTS. Never in recent memory have they chosen to dictate a UTSSA budget like this, let alone on account of Vertigo.
“Among their reasons for taking such action, they claim that the magazine is “a high quality publication”, (like this is an issue) and that its content does not meet the needs of a large scope of students (evidence of which has yet to be provided).
“However, while Vertigo is punished for being too expensive, accessibility services at the uni continue to be cut, and free food services threatened despite overwhelmingly positive student feedback. These decisions suggest that it is not Vertigo which is out of touch with the student body.
“UTS desperately needs an Executive that listens. Overriding the autonomy of the UTSSA to cripple the university’s publication is terrible. This is not a case of ‘future-proofing’ the university or prioritising student needs.
“It is a case of a democratically elected student voice being stamped out against the student body’s interests.”
Second year visual communications student, Mitchell King, told the Tertangala Vertigo plays a huge role in cultivating a community at UTS.
“It’s really upsetting that the UTS Senior Executives seem to be too out of touch with their student body to understand that,” he said.
Another visual communications student, Sarah Sharwood, said “it sucks for student life and especially for the arts.”
Student media outlets condemned the move, with the University of Sydney’s Honi Soit, University of New South Wales’s Tharunka and Australia National University’s Woroni newspapers releasing scathing editorials.
Vertigo is expected to release its last print copy of their publication for the year titled ‘VertiGONE’.
The Tertangala has reached out to Alexander, the UTSSA and UTS Vice-Chancellor, Andrew Parfitt, for a comment but have yet to receive a response.
*This article was corrected 10 June. The article incorrectly said the UTSSA had initially allocated Vertigo $116 000 this year. The union had in fact given $129 000 to the magazine in 2021.