PantherNOW Editorial Board
In the fiscal year 2018, FIU Student Media received $328,000, allotted by student government.
In the fiscal year 2025-2026, the number is $160,000.
That is not a rounding error. SGA’s approved $20 million budget for fiscal year 2025–2026 cut the Student Media allocation from $250,000 to $160,000, or a 36% reduction in a single budget cycle, and a 51% reduction from what this newsroom operated on seven years ago.
For context on where that money went: the Registered Student Organization budget grew from $60,000 to $397,201.
A newly created Student Experiences group received $535,500. A new Special Emoluments Council, created this cycle, was given $140,000. That last figure, for an entity that did not exist last year, whose sole purpose is “compensating student leaders”, is nearly what Student Media now receives after over five decades of operation and service to FIU.
FIU Student Media, with its current budget of $160,000, supports a staff of dozens of writers, directors, and disc jockeys, on top of radio tower expenses, as well as thousands of dollars in equipment used for various media purposes.
This is not the first time this has happened. In 2020, SGA cut Student Media’s budget from $265,000 to $260,000, after publicly announcing they were “displeased” at PantherNOW coverage of the 2020 SGA elections.
At the time, SGA publicly condemned the paper’s reporting, calling its headline “yellow journalism” and “fake news.”
PantherNOW published an editorial following said cuts. In hindsight, $5,000 was the tip of the iceberg.
A few years later, following coverage of another election controversy, the budget received the aforementioned further cuts.
We are not making accusations. We are stating what is documented, public record.
What is also documented, however, is that this newsroom has a mission, which is to inform and serve the students and staff of FIU, and has covered virtually every facet of politics on campus, whether it be election results, financial reform bills or housing legislation.
We do this consistently, on the record, with named sources and citations for every article, continuing to maintain this standard of quality even as our budget wanes.
This paper has serviced the careers of thousands of aspiring journalists and tens of thousands of students and staff every year.
A student body of more than 44,000 people attends this university. They pay Activity & Service fees. A portion of those fees fund SGA. SGA decides what Student Media receives. Student Media covers SGA.
Students can decide what to make of that arrangement.
What we can tell them is this: in 2018, this newsroom had $328,000 to do its job. Today it has $160,000. The coverage has not stopped. The reporting has not softened. The budget has not recovered.
Student media will continue to serve its essential role on this campus. We will continue to report on Student Government, the University Administration, and every facet of life at FIU. We will continue to provide a forum where students can voice their views, share their ideas, and challenge this administration or any other. We will continue to defend open and free discourse on this campus because it is the fixed star of our democracy.
Those are the facts, and we will keep reporting them.
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