The newspaper that for almost 40 years informed the three CU campuses with news, editorials and job announcements on a weekly basis was shut down on May 1 by President Bruce Benson (Geol’64, HonDocSci’04). The paper was part of the CU system administration, and Benson said he cut the paper in the face in the face of $6.2 million in reductions needed to balance the system budget. The paper cost $600,000 annually to produce.

In an e-mail communiqué to the university community on May 6, Benson also says cutting the paper was a result of engaging “chancellors and administrative leadership in discussions about ways system administration could be more efficient in how it delivers essential services to the campuses such as information technology … and communications.”

He added that “CU is the only university among our national peers that financially supports a newspaper operation.” Finally, he noted that Silver & Gold Record’s “recent readership survey showed the top sources of faculty and staff information about their campuses are e-mail newsletters and direct e-mail.”

Many faculty members and staff strongly opposed the closing of the paper, as did its 15-member editorial board, noting in a statement that the paper “is the only independent voice that speaks to all three campuses about legislative, system, and campus issues in an unbiased fashion.”
Editorial board member Mike Harper of business at CU Denver asked in one of the final S&GRs, on May 7, “Did the president’s office consider the negative perceptions that will be caused by this move?…It’s only a short-term fix.”

Eighteen-year former editor Susan Barney Jones (MJour’84)  said to this reporter in an interview that all faculty governance groups had passed unanimous resolutions in support of the paper, and that when a resolution was brought before the regents by Joe Neguse (Econ,PolSci’05, Law’09) asking for for the appointment of a committee to find alternative funding for the paper, Regent Steve Ludwig (ElEngr’73) responded by saying the paper ”was not objective and ‘advocated’ for faculty….” Ludwig voted with the 5-4 majority opposing the proposal. Jones says this “demonstrated that the move to ‘eliminate’ S&GR was about the administration not liking the paper’s independent voice more than it was about budget.”

More recently current S&GR editor Jefferson Dodge (MJour’02) sent an e-mail to the CU community on May 20 noting that Regent Michael Carrigan, who voted for the move to give the paper more time, said, “I’ve never seen such unanimity from our governance groups.” He was quoted as saying that ”the $100,000 that the president plans to used on the new publication could be used for S&GR,” adding …”there is no cost in doing a one-month inquiry.”

After the decision to close the paper, vice president for administration Leonard Dinegar said the university would begin working with campus groups to help develop a new online publication. Within weeks, a new online paper, called Faculty and Staff Newsletter, was up and running, supported by a $100,000 budget. According to the Silver & Gold Record of May 7, Dinegar was adamant in saying that although he would be willing to meet with Faculty Council, the decision to close the paper was final. “Frankly,” he said, “the president’s office concluded that we can no longer afford to be in the newspaper business.”

The Silver and Gold Record’s website, with links to the former newspaper’s editorial board and an archive of past issues, is here.

Here is a Boulder Camera article about the regent vote against giving the paper more time to find funding.