\nWYOMING — The University of Wyoming’s student publications\nboard decided in October not to eliminate Frontiers magazine\nafter announcing that Frontiers and two other publications\nmight be eliminated in order to channel funds into the student\nnewspaper.
The student publications board brought Frontiers and\nseveral other student publications under review in September,\nciting financial reasons as the cause.
But the review came after university president Philip Dubois\nwrote a letter to the publications board in which he cited grammar,\ntypographical errors and other lapses as reasons to possibly do\naway with Frontiers.
According to Frontiers editor RyAnne Scott, the letter\nalso questioned whether some of the magazine’s content was worthy\nof publication and suggested that the magazine’s funding could\nbe used in other ways. This letter brought the question of administrative\ncontrol over publication content into play.
Before the student publications board held a meeting to discuss\nthe fate of Frontiers, Scott and another editor made copies\nof Dubois’s letter to the board and sent them to two major Wyoming\nnewspapers.
Scott said she feels she generated a lot of support by making\nthe magazine’s battle public. In the end, she said, the board\nwas more inclined to continue funding the magazine than face bad\npublicity.
“I think the stories that were published in the state\npapers helped to generate community interest in the issues,”\nScott said. “While this may have helped to influence the\nboards decision, I believe the legal implications of cutting the\nmagazines actually carried more weight”