CUNY Graduate Center
Doctoral Students’ Council Media Board
Agenda

September 19, 2008

DRAFT

Present: Efrain Cardenas (EC), Rob Faunce (RF), Allyson Foster (AF), Denise Torres (DT)
Absent: Gregory Donovan
Guest: James Hoff (JH)

Meeting called to order at 6:15pm.

I. Approval of Agenda
AF motions to approve; DT seconds. Approved by unanimous consent.
II. Confirmation of Chairperson and Designation of Meeting Secretary
AF motions to confirm RF as Chair of the Media Board, and as secretary for the 9/19/09 meeting; DT seconds. Approved by unanimous consent.

III. Approval of Old Minutes
None to approve, since the Board has turned over.

IV. Advocate Report (J. Hoff)
Text of James Hoff’s presentation:

Bigger and Better Advocate

The GC Advocate has increased the size of the paper by an additional 20% and is now a full 24 pages each issue! That means this month’s GC Advocate is twice as large as it was three years ago. In addition to this increase, there will be a number of special issues this academic year that will be between 28-32 pages each (a special “Election Issue” for late October, a “Winter Books Issue” in December and a “Summer Books Issue” in April).

As part of the expansion of the paper we have also increased the size of our arts and features sections. Towards this end the GC Advocate has hired two additional Arts reviewers—Naomi Perley (New and Classical Music) and Natasha Kurchanova (Art) to increase the scope and critical diversity of the expanded Arts pages. Naomi will be alternating with Music Reviewer Mark Schiebe who usually writes about Jazz.

New Layout

The Advocate has changed its layout and format from a daily news style format, with a stereotypical front page, to a monthly feature layout with a full cover. Because it is so difficult to present breaking news on a monthly basis, we have decided to focus our energies on more in-depth reporting of events related to CUNY and the GC, while still providing a roundup of important news in our new “CUNY News In Brief” column. The new layout reflects this increasing emphasis on feature articles, political analysis, and the arts.

New Feature Column

In addition to the new “Art Review” column and the “CUNY News in Brief” column, the GC Advocate is running a regular feature column called “What’s Happening to America?” Based on the 1967 Partisan Review series of the same title, this feature column asks prominent intellectuals, academics, and artists what’s happening to the nation in these turbulent times and what we can do about it. Last issue we published Frances Fox Piven, Peter Hitchcock, and Henry Giroux. Future columns will include work from E.L. Doctorow, Ashley Dawson, William Ayers, and many others.

Budget

The GC Advocate is currently$289 under expected budget (see handout). This is in large part because I am doing most of the web work myself. Ideally, the money that would have been spent on Web Editing will be able to be made available for writers and printing.

Website

The Advocate website continues to bring in upwards of 130 unique visitors a day or close to 4,000 unique visitors per month (see handout). Currently we are on pace to beat last year’s total visits by approximately 4,500 unique visitors. Although traffic is always slow in the summer, if last academic year was any indication we are expecting a steady increase in web traffic as the academic year progresses. Towards the end of increasing traffic we are continuing to offer web only content and to post breaking CUNY related news stories directly to the website. We are open to any suggestions the board may have for increasing traffic to the site.

Film Series

The GC Advocate is once again holding a regular film series (see attached). This semester’s series “Thank You for Voting,” will offer a wide variety of films related to elections and the electoral process. Films in this semester’s series include Bulworth, Bob Roberts, The Manchurian Candidate, and many more. All films are free of charge and pizza and beer are provided.

JH mentions that the Advocate is growing into a real paper” with a minimum of 24 pp per issue. Special issues are planned, and the “identity crisis” of daily vs. monthly has been resolved by using a monthly-style layout befitting its status as a monthly paper. JH inquires about repurposing funds for web editing (since he is doing his own web editing) and DT suggests a budget modification. JH expressed disappointment in the web numbers, but expects growth throughout the year. JH is working our ideas to increase web traffic. EC asks about whether there is a link to the Advocate on the GC webpage (JH responds that there is not, only from the DSC website). RF cautions that announcements from the Advocate and related to student activities should be posted through the DSC’s listserv on Google Groups. EC asks about ad rates (JH: $400 per full page). DT asks whether website advertising has been pursued. JH responds that it is being used as an incentive for advertising in the tactile paper.

V. New Business
None.

VI. Adjournment
EC motions to adjourn; AF seconds. Approved by unanimous consent.
Meeting adjourned at 6:34pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Rob Faunce