Despite having grown exponentially since our inception last May to become the largest and most popular publication on campus, we are still merely one student publication up against the entire BC and AAS. The article was misleading because it suggested that The Hamster was hiding something from the AAS. The photo caption states, "The Hamster ... recently switched publishers for reasons it refused to discuss." At the Feb. 3 AAS meeting, we explicitly stated that we switched publishers in order to produce a greater volume for less money. The article implied that we had to leave our current publisher, Collective Copies, yet The Hamster has sought cheaper publishing options since May of last year.
In light of any ambiguities that may have arisen at the meeting regarding the issue, we were never asked for any clarification. While we realize the article focused on the events that took place at the AAS meeting, we feel the interpretation of those events was inappropriate nonetheless. The current monetary discrepancy stems from a tremendous lack of communication on the part of the BC. The Hamster routinely received vague instructions as to the exact financial breakdown of our budget. We repeatedly described the lack of communication to the AAS president and vice president, and noted that we never intended to exceed our allocated budget. We did not run into any significant monetary obstacles until the publishing of our holiday issue. This issue depicted a graphic that resonated too deeply with the BC chairperson, which we believe led the BC chairperson to launch a personal vendetta to revoke money that had already been granted to The Hamster. This irresponsible, emotionally-charged response, marked by the "mysterious misplacement" of a discretionary funding request placed by The Hamster, caused the current "monetary discrepancy." Had this funding request been acted upon by the BC, as the BC chairperson guaranteed on several occasions through emails we hold as evidence, the current monetary discrepancy would be marginal. The denial of the existence of our funding request, along with the usurpation of previously granted funding, is the sole cause of the problem at hand.
In spite of attempts to resolve this issue in December and early January, The Hamster received no response from the BC. We are deeply upset that a small, local business is currently paying the price for this vendetta. We have had a positive working relationship with the company and they have helped us produce a fine product since our inception last spring. Now, as we seek to expand into and beyond the Amherst community, we need a company that can meet our publishing needs.
Because the BC chairperson cannot produce the discretionary funding request, the granting of which would have prevented this entire dispute, The Hamster requests that the AAS fully fund any monetary discrepancy between The Hamster's final first semester bill at Collective Copies and the actual budget allocated to The Hamster. We cannot be held accountable for the BC's failure to act on a budgetary request.
Regardless of unprofessional behavior, it would be an act of good faith on the part of the AAS to support The Hamster, a student group that has grown to 60 staff members from over 10 colleges around the country. We admit that The Hamster is placed in an awkward situation because, as Amherst's Journal of Satirical and Social Thought, it is sometimes our duty to the campus to bite the hand that feeds us. In the general interest of the campus and our rapidly growing publication, it is imperative for the AAS to realize that The Hamster has become the pimiento in the green olive of Amherst's livelihood.
Jonah Ansell '03, Co-Editor-in-Chief
John Schneider '03, Co-Editor-in-Chief
Andy Kerns '04, Managing Editor