The McGill Daily and Le Délit may soon disappear from Macdonald campus newsstands. Last Thursday's referendum, in which students voted on whether they would like to join the Daily Publications Society, missed quorum by only eight votes. Within the 136 voters, however, only 40 per cent voted for the motion to pass.
DPS Chair Alexandre de Lorimier was disappointed with the results, but said that this does not necessarily mean that the newspapers will be pulled from Macdonald campus.
"The fact that we didn't pass quorum clearly shows that people either weren't informed that there was a referendum, or they did not care," he said. "I'm not sure what will happen; [the DPS board hasn't] really talked about the results yet. If students say they don't want us, then of course one option is to remove the papers entirely, but it's not decided yet."
DPS Student Representative Erika Meere echoed de Lorimier's disappointment.
"I think both campuses [would have benefited] from a better link between both campuses in the form of a newspaper," she said. "There's a disconnect between students from the two campuses; they don't know a whole lot about each other. I think having the two newspapers, an English one and a French one, both of which are well-established at the downtown campus, would [have been] a benefit."
Macdonald Campus Students' Society President Lise Cobitz was surprised at the number of "Yes" votes.
"No one takes the paper; the distributor ends up taking a lot of the newspapers back every week," she said. "I also find that people who do read the Daily are those who commute between downtown and Mac, so they would get the newspaper downtown anyway."
The DPS's two newspapers have been available to Macdonald campus on a free trial basis since last winter semester. Instead of being distributed as they were released, however, the campus received two issues of the Daily and one of Le Délit once a week in order to lower the delivery costs for DPS. If the motion had passed, the $3.75 per semester fee would have paid for delivery three times a week, in addition to increased Macdonald campus-related content in the newspapers. Students from Macdonald campus would also have been able to become DPS staff or board members.
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