The KU Student Senate passed a bill that cuts funding for KU’s student publication, The University Daily Kansan, to $1.50 per student tuition from $3.64 per student tuition on March 13.

The KU Student Senate is a group of elected KU enrolled students with the responsibility of allocating the money collected from student fees to different areas and organizations on campus with the interests of the study body in mind.

When the Student Senate released its first fee allocation proposal on Feb. 10, only 75 cents were allocated for the UDK; this version of the proposal was rejected by the Student Senate’s financial council at the following meeting.

Editor-in-Chief of the UDK, Courtney Lane, said she was shocked at the 59% cut since the UDK had requested to keep the rate the same as last year when they were just given a significant budget expansion the previous year.

Lane said she and the publication were upset and planned to do everything possible to get their budget back up since the money was necessary to pay 16 members of her staff.

News editor Emily Harter said when the publication was able to pay some of their staff, it led to a lot of improvement for their publication’s content as a whole and for their editors personally.

“A lot of us were able to take less hours at our outside jobs, and spend more time on the newspaper,” Harter said.

Since she said she felt like the funding was such a positive change, Harter said her biggest concern will be a dip in frequency and quality of content with a switch to being dependent on volunteer work.

“Obviously we love our volunteers, and our volunteers work really hard, but it’s hard when people are balancing both school and the newspaper, especially on a volunteer basis. So a lot of us are able, and especially too with balancing like outside jobs to pay our bills,” Harter said.

Members of the Student Senate were contacted and none chose to respond.

Lane said, despite suggestions to do so, the UDK cannot lean on the journalism school for any more financial support to avoid “biting the hand that feeds you.” Similarly, KU School of Journalism lecturer Eric Thomas said publications should not have to be dependent on a higher authority.

Harter said she is concerned students will feel underrepresented with UDK being unable to cover as much since it’s the only Lawrence publication to cover campus life.

“We’re the only newspaper that reports by students for students; we’re able to produce news in a way that is palpable for students,” Harter said.

Although the publication’s output will be reduced, UDK advisor Nick Yungman said this will not lead the UDK to dissipate like he’s heard some students are concerned about.

“If the Student Senate doesn’t fund us, the Kansan isn’t going to go bankrupt or disappear, that won’t happen. The Kansan is an institution of KU, and it’s not going anywhere,” Yungman said. “The Kansan is just going to be a shadow of itself going forward.”

Business Manager Gracie Wheeler said the UDK gains the money for printing from advertising, so its ability to release papers will most likely not be affected.

“So this funding that we were given pays our staff, and it pays our website bills and our sales programs, so it doesn’t directly impact advertising. We’d still be able to keep advertising and papers,” Wheeler said.

At this point, the bill moves on to Student Body President DaNae Estabine who decides if it passes and moves on to University administration, then subsequently Kansas Board of Regents to be officialized.