"# Nov. 5 - On this date, Goldstein alleges an unidentified member of the SAFB sent an e-mail to another student official stating a “game plan” was needed in regards to the Missouri Miner’s funding. The e-mail also discusses the money paid to the newspaper’s writers for stories, which often contain spelling errors, do not contain original content and are accompanied by poor photographs.

# Nov. 7 - The SAFB presents a comparison of reporter compensation involving the Missouri Miner and other schools. Goldstein alleges the schools used in the comparison made the comparison “fatally flawed.” Also at the SAFB’s November meeting, a member of the organization, whom Goldstein’s opinion assumes is SAFB Director Jerel Bernasek, makes a note on a copy of the newspaper’s submitted budget reading, “People have made requests to cut salary b/c poor quality.” The SAFB votes to cut the Missouri Miner’s budget by one-third."

Not entirely sure how factual that is, but that's what the article I linked to reported. So while the stated reason may have been one thing, the actual reason may have been another, if those bullets are true. In all honesty, I think that the Miner and SAFB are about equally shitty organizations at the moment, and SAFB didn't exactly do themselves a favor by "consipring" behind closed doors (allegedly, but I imagine it probably happened based on my personal experiences with the SAFB), but I think the Miner needs to suck it up and use this opportunity to try to show that they are capable of putting together a quality paper with a low budget. The Mineshaft does it with basically no budget, right?

First, in defense of the SAFB board allow me to address "conspiring" behind closed doors. Board members do have meetings where their decisions are discussed. That, to me, would not be conspiring but simply trying to get all their ducks in a row. *NOTE: This comment is not necessarily made with respect to the funding decision approved by the Student Body with respect to any specific organization or any specific period of time*

Now, with respect to The Mineshaft. The Mineshaft was able to produce 17 issues last year without paying any of our distributors, proofreaders, writers, or either editor-in-chief. However, to continue printing in such a manner a small amount of funds would be required. These funds would only really need to cover printers, paper, toner, etc. The organization does plan to seek funds to purchase said equipment but still stands by the assertion that paying writers to write stories and editor-in-chiefs is not only unnecessary but also a poor use of student related fees. I personally believe that the experience alone should be satisfactory reason to be an EIC or to write stories in general. This however, is simply my opinion, although I would guess that many members of our student body would, at least on some level, agree with me on this.

By the way, in case people are curious as to my level of claimed knowledge with this post, my actual name is Alex Dempsey (Nathaniel d'Artagnan was my pseudonym) and I was a founder and EIC for The Mineshaft throughout its existence.