SPC will decide editor
of Cougar
Cougar News Services
The Daily Cougar will end more than week
of uncertainty when the Student Publications Committee elects the next
editor in chief of the student
newspaper during a specially called meeting
at 3 p.m. today in the Mediterranean Room of the University Center Underground.
During its regularly scheduled meeting
April 12, the SPC voted 6-2 to break its bylaws and re-open applications.
According to SPC bylaws, editor
in chief applications are due by the first
Friday in April.
As of April 5, only Managing Editor Keenan
Singleton had submitted an application. Singleton has been on staff since
Spring 1999.
But during the SPC meeting, a question
arose about one of the qualifications for editor in chief. When it was
learned that applicants could
request waivers for certain criteria,
Student Government Association President Dawona Miller, an ex-officio member
of the committee, made the
initial motion to re-open the candidacy
because not everyone interested in the job may have known about waiver
requests.
The vote capped off one of the most eventful
and most attended SPC meetings of the year. During the open forum portion,
members from
Sankofa and SGA were critical of the Cougar
and a perceived bias they said it had against certain groups.
Sankofa's complaints stemmed from an editorial
cartoon and staff editorial published after the organization held a rally
to make the African
American Studies Program a department.
The SPC is made up of 10 voting members:
three students appointed by SGA, a student representative from the Cougar,
a student
representative from the Houstonian yearbook,
three faculty members and two members from the professional world. In addition,
eight members
sit in ex-officio capacity: the dean of
students, director of Student Publications, the production and advertising
managers of Student Publications,
the Cougar and Houstonian editors in chief,
the SGA president and a faculty member from the School of Communication.
Whoever is chosen as editor in chief for
Summer and Fall 2002 will have less than one week to begin building a staff
before the end of the
spring semester.
