The Student Media Board will host a public forum today, Tuesday, Jan. 13, to gain student input on the futures of two alternative student publications, The Rearguard and Portland Spectrum. The forum will take place at 2 p.m. in SMSU 296 and is scheduled to last an hour.
Both publications, which are scheduled to publish in print on a monthly basis, are currently under scrutiny for lack of publication. Since the beginning of the school year, Portland Spectrum has published a single issue, while The Rearguard has published none.
The forum was scheduled to gather student input regarding the fate of these two publications.
“The purpose is to try to figure out how to keep an alternative voice alive—at least one if not both of those publications,” said Reaz Mahmood, student media coordinator. “We want that vibrancy of some alternative voice that supplements the general newspaper.”
Presently, the Student Media board has presented four potential outcomes for the publications: both publications are preserved as they are, the publications are merged and one absorbs the other, the publications merge and a new publication is formed, or the official status of both publications are revoked.
Both The Rearguard and Portland Spectrum’s publishing costs and staffing are funded through student fees, which are charged along with tuition.
