7Mondays loses support

Students vote against publication in spring MASU elections.

In the wake of this past MASU spring election, the publication known as 7Mondays received a majority vote against maintaing its student levy when put up for referendum. For students who are not aware (if you’ve never checked your mailbox, for example), 7Mondays is a student publication that includes poetry, literature, and photography submitted by students. For many students, 7Mondays is a way to express their literary talents and get their work out into the public. Now, after being voted against for referendum, students involved with the publication are forced to re-evaluate 7Mondays.   Many are lamenting the loss of 7Mondays, claiming it was an outlet for development of interesting writing and photography. Many other faculties have access to various extracurricular programs to expand their interests, and 7Mondays was one that catered to a variety of student writers and photographers. Many aspiring writers and artists found an outlet to express themselves in the positive space that was 7Mondays. The small fee that is asked of students is made even smaller when considering the volume of students published through 7Mondays. “We usually publish just over thirty poets,” said Sean McDonell, an editor for 7Mondays. “That translates to less than ten cents per person.” His disappointment in Allisonians’ unwillingness to give ten cents to aspiring artists is evident, and many students have similar reactions. Not only do aspiring writers lose an outlet to channel and hone their creativity, but Mt. A loses a time-honoured tradition that would have marked its twentieth issue next year.    Why would students vote no to 7Mondays? The levy asked of the students for a three dollar fee to support the continuation of 7Mondays. That does not seem to be that large of a deterrent, or is it? When asked about the cost, some students declared that “it all adds up,” and that even though the cost seemed small to them, the total cost that is demanded of the entire student body seemed unreasonable. Thirty students benefit from  7Mondays, but that is a small minority of the thousands of students who are paying to make it happen. Another opinion is that 7Mondays could still exist, but as an online publication that would be more cost-effective and open to students submitting work. Some even remarked that 7Mondays is not effectively marketed to students; while every student receives a copy in their mailbox it can often be mistaken for countless other pieces of seemingly useless advertising that get stuffed in student mailboxes and tossed aside.    Perhaps the real explanation for 7Mondays’s loss of support is its under-appreciation, not its financial requirement or importance to the campus. Students who have been blessed by the service that 7Mondays offers know the real impact it had on their lives, and maybe if the rest of the campus fully understood that, 7Mondays could be resurrected. The 2012-2013 7Mondays editorial board had this to say: “7Mondays is not dead. We plan on launching a revival campaign, starting over the summer, and we will be putting the question for continued support back to referendum during next year’s MASU fall elections.” For all the students who were saddened by the loss of 7Mondays, know that there is still hope and that the publication is not lost yet.

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